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[Vector]

How do I do this?

[Karlito]

Soaking in vinegar and then scrubbing is a good way to remove rust from most objects.

[Vector]

Excellent, thank you.

Do you recommend steel wool?  For the scrubbing, I mean.

[Karlito]

If you let it soak long enough the rust should basically just dissolve. It's not a good idea for more delicate objects, but for pliers you can probably just soak them in the white vinegar for an hour and then use a paper towel and water to rinse the rest off.

[Vector]

Oh, cool.  Thanks, this'll help a lot.

I'll keep the thread open temporarily, but with luck I'll be able to lock it soon

[nenjin]

I think good ol' fashioned Coca Cola will do the trick too.

[Karlito]

Yeah, any kind of acid should do the trick. Just use whatever you lying around.

[ChairmanPoo]

I think good ol' fashioned Coca Cola will do the trick too.

THat's what I did when I had to de-rust a stack of old coins I had forgotten in an inconvenient place.

It worked quite nicely. Was a good thing because some of the coins were rather curious. For instance, I had two contemporary 25c coins from the SCW, one coined by the Republican goverment, and the other by the military junta.

[Zrk2]

May I ask why this is necessary?

[Vector]

Mom gave me a toolbox with a can of old (and apparently rusted-through) Wd40 in it.  All of that leaked out all over the place, so she told me to pour off the worst and leave the box in the sun a while.  Well, I did, but we had a spate of rain almost immediately, I'd forgotten about the box, and everything ended up in standing water a little bit longer than it should have been.

Most of the tools are fine, but there's a few rusty sets of pliers and one of the wrenches has yellow gooey crap all over it, so I dunno about that.  But they're out finishing drying, and in two days I'm going to de-rust/wipe everything down.

[Max White]

They got soaked in wd40 and continued to rust? 
Also, coke? Not as good as it used to be in the past. Yes it is still acidic, but I am under the impression that it used to be more than carbonic acid doing the work, and these days it would be just as good as soda water.
So yea, something acidic, hello vinegar!

[Vector]

Yeah, they're pretty old and crappy tools, and it was a lot of rainwater.  I'll probably try your suggestions tomorrow morning, if I can get up the gumption.

[Virex]

They got soaked in wd40 and continued to rust? 
Also, coke? Not as good as it used to be in the past. Yes it is still acidic, but I am under the impression that it used to be more than carbonic acid doing the work, and these days it would be just as good as soda water.
So yea, something acidic, hello vinegar!

Coke contains a lot of phosphoric acid, at least the brand we tested in the lab. pH is about 2.5 or something, so it's acidic enough to affect the rust. Anything acidic enough will work though, so mixing some hydrochloric acid from a hardware store with water may be cheaper. Try 1 ml per liter for a start, that should give you a pH of roughly 2.

[MonkeyHead]

I use ketchup when cleaning corroded electrical contacts. The vinegar in it does the cleaning, and its viscosity makes it easy to apply in tricky places, aswell as letting stick while doing its cleaning. As an added bonus all my high voltage electrical gear tastes great and smells good.

[nenjin]

I'd not heard that one before.

As an added bonus all my high voltage electrical gear tastes great and smells good.

Bonus indeed. I wonder if that's just as good for corroded battery contacts for your car....

Wait. Do you normally lick your high voltage gear?