Lye in Electro?

[fatfutures]

I've read, in a few places, that you can use lye in your electro set-up. Anyone have any experince with this? Thoughts? OMG! NO MICHELLE! DON'T DO IT's????  ;D

[maloney108]

Michelle,

You could use lye in the electro process, but the lye solutions we use are much more concentrated than a typical electro bath.  The Sodium Carbonate (pH +) recommended for electro has a pH of 9-11 depending on the concentration while the lye bath is around pH 14 (the max).  You only need a little bit of a basic solution to allow the water to conduct the current.  I'm not certain, but I think you might draw too much current on your charger and damage it if your solution is too strong.  'pH+' buffers the solution, so it's easy to keep the pH where you want it, whereas lye goes straight to the top and is very difficult to control at moderate pH levels without a pH meter.  Using Lye for electro is a lot like using an 18 wheeler to bring your groceries home.  

My advice - bite the bullet and keep two solutions, one for lye cleaning and one for electro.  According to the "electro heads"  you only need the electro solution and you can skip the lye.

[fatfutures]

Lye for electro is a lot like using an 18 wheeler to bring your groceries home.  

Thanks Jim... I had a feeling I was going Tim The Toolman Taylor route with this idea. You've confirmed it for me  ;D

[C. Perry Rapier]

Michelle,
My advice - bite the bullet and keep two solutions, one for lye cleaning and one for electro.  According to the "electro heads"  you only need the electro solution and you can skip the lye.

Jim, you give good advice. You can put me in the "electro heads" category. "Electro heads", I like that. The electro does what the lye does and more. However, the lye bath is good too, very good.

The lye bath is good because it does not need any attention. It is relatively cheap and the lye solution lasts a long time, and when it does get weak, just add some more lye to the water, if its nasty don't worry about it. Also, the lye setup compliments the whole cast iron cleaning process. I put everything in lye first. If I don't get to it for some time that is no problem because lye won't hurt it at all, even if you leave it in there for months on end. And then when you do take a piece out, it may not need the electro process at all. And if it does, the electro process only has to remove the rust because the crud is already gone by the lye process.

And while a piece is in the lye, that will keep it from getting worse, say if its rusty. So the lye tank is a "holding process" that does double duty, it keeps a piece from rusting and cleans the crud as well, so that your electro time is cut way down. It takes money to run the electro but virtually nothing to run the lye process. Thats my advice on the whole nine yards. I have stated all of this before but do bring it up every now and then.

So even though I am an electro head. I would not give up the lye process. Together, the two can't be beat.  ;)

Oh yeah, so Michelle, keep lyin. ;D