Postby Alan Cantwell 1131 » November 20th, 2015, 12:42 pm
John, we use at work, a sulpheric acid mix, but i would not suggest an industrial application for the hobbyist, but here, lifted off another forum, is a pickling solution, that should work,
For a perfectly safe pickling solution, go to either a chemist or a home brew shop and purchase some citric acid. It comes as crystal and is perfectly safe to handle.
Get yourself a small plastic container with a lid, big enough to put the parts in and fully immerse them.
2/3rds fill the container with warm to hot water, and spoon in the granules whilst continually stirring, don't put too much in at a time. Keep slowly adding the crystals until no more will dissolve in the solution. Thats it, you have a saturated citric acid pickling mix.
A small box from the chemists will cost around £1 or a bagfull from the home brew shop maybe a couple of squid. The small box will make about 4 pints of pickle. Some supermarkets stock it in their cooking departments. The chemist might ask you what you are going to use it for, as it is sometimes used for processing certain illegal drugs, so just tell them the truth.
Put your bits in and wait for an hour, and you should find that things have really cleaned up. If not fully cleaned, just put the bits in a little longer, they can stay in there almost indefinitely withou coming to harm.
Don't throw the mix away, it can be used over and over, until it starts to lose it's cleaning power.
You can add a teaspoon of domestic bleach, that will keep the fungus growth down over long periods of storage.
I use mine until it is almost black, and as long as what is growing in there hasn't got tentacles, I class it as safe to use.
You can use stronger pickling salts or even diluted nasty acid mixes, but this one is cheap and SAFE.
Bogs
