De-Rusting

I just watched an old episode of Trucks that was on my PVR, and saw a spot on removing rust.
You need

1. A plastic tank with enough space to hold your part.
2. A battery charger capable of at least 2 amps of constant current.
3. Sodium carbonate, also known as washing soda.
4. Water
5. Steel rod to act as an anode.

• Mix the washing soda in the tank at a solution of 1 teaspoon of washing soda for every pint of water.
• Place your part in the solution and hook up the negative lead of the charger to the part itself.
• Hook the positive lead to the steel rod and set that into the solution. Make sure that the steel rod is not touching the part to be de-rusted.
• Set your battery charger to a constant 2 amps, and walk away from your part for a couple of days.

Make sure that you are doing this in a well-ventilated area because hydrogen gas is produced during the de-rusting process. This is extremely explosive.

When the process is finished, the part will look black. All of the rust will be gone, and none of the original metal will have been removed.