When a thorough rinsing isn't enough (or pesky rust...)

[Mo2vation]

I'm a nut about rinsing my gear. Actually, I more than a nut. I take care of my stuff. Really good care of it. Its the rare dive when my stuff doesn't get rinsed that night. And by rinsing, I'm not talking bath tub drizzling or hosing it off. I have a rinse tank outside for this purpose (change the water often), a drying rack (in the shade) - the whole 9.

BUT - I still have rust around the glands of my HID's. Its not like Titanic creeping, advancing Rusticles or anything... just a little off color, well, rust. Same with some other pieces of gear.

I don't think rinsing is enough. Is there a spray, or should I be scrubbing / scraping this small rust off, then applying a protectant of some sort? I'm pretty clueless here. I always thought a thorough freshwater rinse would be enough. Its not.

My inflator is sticky (steel button has some gook around it, and it doesn't pop all the way back...so it trickle fills a bit) glands have some rusting, my knife gets a bit on it, there's a little around my tank necks where they meet the valve...

What's a guy to do?

Thanks!

---
Ken

 

[Charlie99]

Throw the knife in a glass of Coca Cola for a couple of days.

Coke did an awesome job of cleaning up the rust on my EMT shears caused by the non-stainless rivet used as the pivot point for the blades.

 

[simbrooks]

Throw the knife in a glass of Coca Cola for a couple of days.

Coke did an awesome job of cleaning up the rust on my EMT shears caused by the non-stainless rivet used as the pivot point for the blades.

Or in your case Ken, sacrifice some diet pepsi if you can stomach the thought of sharing it

 

[DrDuktayp]

Throw the knife in a glass of Coca Cola for a couple of days.

Coke did an awesome job of cleaning up the rust on my EMT shears caused by the non-stainless rivet used as the pivot point for the blades.

Coke? Wow! I only have one item with a spot of rust on it. Right at the hole on the tang of my Akona knife. I think I will try this technique out on it.

DrDuktayp

 

[Mo2vation]

Or in your case Ken, sacrifice some diet pepsi if you can stomach the thought of sharing it

I forgot about the shears - rust on those too.

On land, I protect my tools and stuff (we don't live farfrom the beach) with WD40 and some other whammy rust preventative. I'm not comfortable getting this stuff near my dive gear.

What about silicone spray? Maybe ZipLube? Mask Defogger? Sink-the-stink?

Help.

---
Ken

 

[Mark Vlahos]

I forgot about the shears - rust on those too.

On land, I protect my tools and stuff (we don't live farfrom the beach) with WD40 and some other whammy rust preventative. I'm not comfortable getting this stuff near my dive gear.

What about silicone spray? Maybe ZipLube? Mask Defogger? Sink-the-stink?

Help.

---
Ken

Ken,

Clearly you have a major problem, but fortunately the solution is extremely simple.

You need to dive more! If you were to rinse your gear overnight but get back into the water the very next morning 7 days a week your gear would never have a chance to rust simply due to the increased friction of being carried from the ocean to the rinse tank and back to the ocean. This level of constant use would keep both you and your gear happy. If you were to keep up this constant diving schedule after no time at all you would be divorced, unemployed, and broke at which time you would need to sell your dive gear on e-bay to have money for food. Only after selling your gear would it have a chance to rust, but heck, by that time it would be some other suckers problem.

Enjoy.

Mark Vlahos

 

[lamont]

also interested in rust care...

for shears awhile back, i threw them in with some anti-rust crud i got from the hardware store and then hit them with steel wool.

for the stainless steel inflator, i threw that in an ultrasonic cleaner with some dishsoap in it (best cleanser i had lying around last night) and then took some of the more stubborn rust off with steel wool.

love to know what i could do better or what i'm doing wrong -- mostly i'm muddling through and guessing to see what works at this point...

 

[Charlie99]

for the stainless steel inflator, i threw that in an ultrasonic cleaner with some dishsoap in it (best cleanser i had lying around last night) and then took some of the more stubborn rust off with steel wool.

Anytime I use steel wool I end up leaving little bits embedded in the surface, which then rust away and tend to form pits. I've had better luck with emery paper and crocus cloth, at least on non-dive related items around my beachfront home.

Naval Jelly is a good commercial product for rust removal. Just like Coca Cola, it has phosphoric acid, but a lot more of it.

 

[Hoosier]

It also works great on a golf club.....

Throw the knife in a glass of Coca Cola for a couple of days.

Coke did an awesome job of cleaning up the rust on my EMT shears caused by the non-stainless rivet used as the pivot point for the blades.

 

[SeanQ]

Attach a small peice of pure zinc to your gear for use as a sacrificial anode. The zinc will corrode first and the other metals should be fine. Just make sure the zinc is touching the other metals.

If you're really determined you could also hook up a small battery to pump electrons through the metal. That might also prevent it from corroding. If I can recall my high school chemistry correctly, the excess electrons will replace the electrons lost from the metal preventing it from oxidizing. (Just don't ask me how many coulombs you will need!)

Better yet, replace everything with stainless steel.

I used some cheap nylock nuts on my backplate and they rusted while the gear was soaking in the rinse tank. My backplate still has a small rust stain on it. The plate itself isn't rusting though.