All you need is distilled vinegar $2.50 from the Grocery store. Soak over night, then take a wire brush and/or tooth brush and brush off the tool or part as you’re rinsing it with water. (You’ll see 99% of the rust come off) Then after you’re done rinse it in water and baking powder. To Neutralize the reaction of the vinegar. Then dry and spray wd40 or some kind of oil to keep the tool or part from flash rusting. If you want a more polished look, then take it to a bench grinder with a wire wheel (brass wheels work best, steel wire wheel for more aggressive work) and/or buffer to to complete and yes you can also use steel wool or an Dremel to help in the process. It’s just much faster to use a bench grinder with a wire wheel and/or buffer for this type of restoration. If you like doing things by hand or you love to punish your self follow what this video does.... FYI.. Like others mentioned below. I wouldn’t Dremel the inside of a socket. If there is heavy rust on the inside of a socket most likely the sockets tolerance will be off after the rust removal anyway. If the socket has lite rust. Using vinegar with a toothbrush will do the job. Just make sure you have some kind of lubrication on it to keep it from rusting in the future.

Easiest way to clean tools that are big enough to hold in the hand: wire wheel on a bench grinder. Turn grinder on, spray wire wheel while it's moving with some oil, work the tool in. If it's a tool you really want to keep the original state of (like a vintage tool), use a wheel with brass wire instead of steel. It'll remove any rust/grime and polish it to a nice finish, very quickly.

Good stuff thanks for all the steel wool, vinegar, and dremel tips.! That is perfect info.

Good start with the vinegar and steel wool, however that is where I would stop. Using a dremmel with a wire brush on the inside of a socket will erode the walls inside the socket if overdone, basically filing the inside of the socket down far enough where it won't grip. As far as course grit sand paper such as 120, will cause erosion and deep scratches that could make "weak spots." Putting too much torque on said tool can cause it to easily crack across one of these deep scratches. The tool is only as strong as its weakest link, or spot.

Before you mentioned the Dremal, I was thinking of that as well, got a nice Dremal kit, had it for almost 2 years and only used it a couple of times. Thank you. 👍👍

+Tony Fernandez I don't use CLR or vinegar to remove rust I use the old school evapo rust rust soak formula that is the color of spiced apple cider

Sir incase you didn't know when removing rust you can also use a little bit of backing soda in water as a rust preventer for the tool when removing rust that is what I do when I clean up my tools from rust using a sanding wheel on my Rotary tool

I was going to ask now that you have them clean how do you protect them? You said to prime and paint. Since they are hand tools I would be worried the paint would flake, chip, or rub off after only or 4 uses. Is there a specific paint you recommend? Lastly is there something besides paint I could use like a rub on protector

Was your viniger diluted? The vinigor by itzelf eats through the rust when i do it.

im curious who primes and paints these types of tools?

I'm surprised you didn't mention steel bluing for creating a permanent protective layer of rust resistant oil that "absorbs" on the surface. Big fan of hopps gun oil, I prefer their weather/moisture resistant gun oil.

Can you do this with bypass loppers?

Does that stuff destroy odors ?

Would it not be more economical to simply use a plastic beaker to put the vinegar in ? when I saw the bucket I thought you were going to clean loads of old tools.

Great job

Steel wool and sandpaper are a lot more "harsh" than any chemicals you might have used.

put tools in a drill \ impact wrench and rap steel wool ot even better billow pad (ruff) and a shiny metallic look in under 20 secs of the drill rotating very good result (better result than in vid ) other wise very good vid man

NO HARSH CHEMICALS! Proceeds to use acid. Vinegar is a pretty harsh acid. It's what I've used for all my acid needs... Anyone know of a less harsh rust removal method? I have some old Starrett combination square rules from my great grandfather that if you remove tust with vinegar it also makes the indicators almost impossible to read. Looking for a way to remove rust without scratching or acid.

The steel wool or sandpaper will remove that rust even without the vinegar.

Picture socket and put them on the end of a drill 400 sandpaper wet or dry sandpaper and I want to make them look brand new I've been doing it for years my sockets look brand

Why would u put water back on something you took rust off of ? So it can rust again

You never came back and said which Dremel attachment works the best

Naval Jelly soak? How about a wire wheel?!

Video: no harsh chemicals Also video: uses chemical acid

CLR is much faster

100 or 120 grit sandpaper is way to coarse to start with. 320 or 220 would be better to start with.

Soaking in a highly corrosive liquid is unnecessary (and potentially damaging to chemically intact substrates). Especially if you're planning to use aggressive mechanical and abrasives afterward. Ironically the rust is the one material in this situation that is most impervious to the vinegar. Rust is a by product of metal has generally already reacted to a corrosive environment. The "cleaning action" you are attributing to the vinegar could be achieved with really any liquid, including warm water. The bits of material laying at the bottom the next day were more than likely liberated by the physical effects of simply being wet. With very few exceptions, acetic liquids, such as concentrated vinegar, are not used for cleaning metals, especially FERROUS alloys as in this video. In rare exceptions such as grain etching for metallography, acids are used, but there is always a neutralizing process to follow which arrests the damage to base metal being cause by the acid. When you soak metal in acid, you are not "cleaning it". You are setting up corrosive stresses to the surface that accelerates further corrosion. Use vinegar on a tool with internal cavities that cannot be neutralized, such as ratchets and adjustable wrenches, and you run the risk of causing corrosion in these captive areas.

I know he said no harsh chemical but anyone think alumibrite would work? Aluminum cleaner restore

Does that faucet go back to the 1930's? They built it to last huh?

or just dip'em in MMO. 👍🏽

Or you can just buy some evapo rust and not struggle

Treat tools like guns...

Oven cleaner overnight and water rinse. Done.