Sandblasting and/or Muratic Acid to Clean Traps

Will it hurt the springs or any other part of the trap if I sandblast my traps before I boil them?


T-R

Sandblasting will not hurt your traps or springs. The material (Black Beauty) that sandblast shot is made out of is not as hard as steel, therefore it can't hurt it as long as you stop as soon as the rust is gone. If the rust has weakened your springs they will be weak whether you sandblast them or not. I am soaking some rusty traps in vinegar right now, it looks like it is going to do a great job. If it does it will be A LOT easier than sandblasting, wire brushing or any other manual method of rust removal that I know of, cheaper too. I'm all for easier and cheaper
Dan

I just soaked about 30 traps in white vinager over night then went to the car wash hit them with a power washer thay came out great and ready for dye. the vinager was 1.89 a gallon at walmart I got 5 gallon and used it to clean 15 traps then just reused it on the other 15 other then turning black it worked just as good the second time as it did the first. hope this helps

Will the viegar work on trap that have the cold dip and wax on them?


T-R

No. You can remove the wax by boiling in water. Remove the dip by soaking in some kind of solvent or mineral spirits, then wire brush or scrub the dip off in a well ventilated area, like outside. (be careful as this is flammable stuff). How rusty are these dipped traps? If they have only a little rust you should wire brush them, boil the wax off and re-dip, removing all of the dip from a trap would be more work than I would want to go through. IMO waxing traps that are dipped is 1 step too many.
Dan

fastest method for removing rust from anything not just traps is muratic acid.it is sold at building supply centers .buy mine here in ny for around $2.00 a gal.mix acid 50/50 with water in a plastic container to start.place a couple of traps in container and check every 5 mins or so,it doesnt take long. slightly rusted traps should be done in 5 mins.remove from bucket and rinse well.traps come out almost rust free as new
.COUPLE WORDS OF CAUTION !! process puts off toxic fumes make sure to do outside.be careful not to get mix on yourself,eats holes in clothes not great for your skin either.

DONT use Muratic acid
----------- unless------------- you know what you are do'n with it. I have seen too many traps ruined,by use'n acid on'm.

I have a sandblaster, but the vinegar trick w/a power washer is the fastest and easiest for me. I've bought some collector traps that were dipped a number of times dirt and all. I used some spray on paint remover to strip the dip then vinegered, dipped and they look real nice...A really powerful sandblaster can remove metal.

would be curious as to what these people did to hurt a trap with muratic acid.once forgot and left one trap in for a week. short of being the cleanest trap in the lot didnt seem to hurt it.still use it to date and would say this was 5 to 6 years ago.maybe on cheap steel you might have adverse effects. but on good quality traps it should be far less harmful than sandblasting.

Muratic acid can be considerably more harmful than sandblasting. Sand cannot penetrate the pours or open spaces in the metal. Muratic acid can and does.

The primary culprit here is not the acid itself but the hygroscopic salts it leaves behind as it becomes neutralized. These salts continue to attract moisture and will continue to rust a trap.

After treating traps with muratic acid, they should be boiled clean, preferably in a mild basic solution (baking soda). This neutralizes any remaining acid and the boiling water removes any of the salts that may be left behind.

(I address this issue from experience. )

-- Hal

An important safety concern has not been addressed in this thread, and that is how you mix the acid and the water.

ALWAYS add the acid slowly to the water.

If you add water to acid, it can "blow up" all over you and anything else laying around close.

I think I'm sort of in the middle here, I rarely use acid any more, and don't sandblast. I use play sand, made for sandblasting, and tumble any really rusty traps in my concrete mixer.

Adios,
45/70,
RKBA !!!

Dated for search.