Will the real Evapo-rust please stand up?

Seems there are two Evapo-rust products out there made by two different vendors. Both are labeled "EVAPO-RUST"

Evapo Rust :: Harris International Labs
and
Evapo-Rust Rust Remover Home

The MSDS sheets are slightly different.

Anyone know what the difference is - if any?

Thanks

Walt

Walt,

I can't answer your question, but thought you may find this thread useful:

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/monarch-lathes/cleaning-rust-196753/index2.html#post1280683

I had a shootoff between Salt-and-Vinegar and Evaporust, and the cheap stuff won.

73,

S

wb2vsj said:

Seems there are two Evapo-rust products out there made by two different vendors. Both are labeled "EVAPO-RUST"

Evapo Rust :: Harris International Labs
and
Evapo-Rust Rust Remover Home

The MSDS sheets are slightly different.

Anyone know what the difference is - if any?

Thanks

Walt

Click to expand...

This is the REAL one:

Evapo Rust :: Harris International Labs

I've used this product and can am VERY impressed with how remarkable it is. Highly recommend this product.

One tip... Use aprropriately-sized containers for derusting. This will allow you to use less of the product, thus saving you money.

You CAN reuse Evaporust a couple times, but it does become unusable after a few uses, so conserve it because it does cost...

Hope this helps. For more examples of how good ER works, see these blogs (which SOLD me on the product):

Plane restoration #3: Stanley/Bailey No 6 second plane part #1 - by Alonso @ LumberJocks.com ~ woodworking community

Plane restoration #1: Vintage Stanley/Bailey No 3 SW--first plane ever restored - by Alonso @ LumberJocks.com ~ woodworking community

Salt & Vinegar - You're making me hungry for Fish and Chips.

I'm currently trying to salvage a large 6 piece pipe threading kit I got at the flea market for $6. Looks like it was left in a storage shed - and the humidity got to the dies The parts cleaner & Evapo-rust that I did buy seem to be doing a bang up job so far.

I have tried putting in some very lightly rusted tool bits (ancient MT1 drill bits) and steel ruler scales in the Evapo-rust and it seemed to do a good job so far.

I'll try the Salt & Vinegar trick on the Pipe threading carry-case since it's so large and would take $$ of Evapo-rust.

Thanks!

Walt

PS so far, the clean-up has cost me $3 more than I paid for the pipe threader.

bradjacob said:

This is the REAL one:

Evapo Rust :: Harris International Labs

...

Click to expand...

I guess I "Chose Wisely". That's what Auto-Zone had and I picked up a 32 OZ bottle.

Thanks Brad

Walt

I called Harris International and they said they make it (in concentrate) for Orison Marketing and Delbert Cromwell. Supposedly the same stuff.

USMCPOP said:

I called Harris International and they said they make it (in concentrate) for Orison Marketing and Delbert Cromwell. Supposedly the same stuff.

Click to expand...

USMCPOP - Good to know. Thanks for digging into this.

Walt

The odd part was, whoever I talked to at Harris didn't know anything about Daubert Cromwell owning the trademark registration on Evapo-Rust. I get the feeling Harris Labs is just a small developer/producer and not much of a marketer. (Marketing = add more water and mark it up. )

EDIT: Another headscratcher is UltraPurple degreaser. It's available under the names Zep, RedMax Pro and Rubbermaid.

USMCPOP said:

The odd part was, whoever I talked to at Harris didn't know anything about Daubert Cromwell owning the trademark registration on Evapo-Rust. I get the feeling Harris Labs is just a small developer/producer and not much of a marketer. (Marketing = add more water and mark it up. )

EDIT: Another headscratcher is PurplePower/Purple Power degreaser. It's available under the names Zep, RedMax Pro and Rubbermaid.

Click to expand...

Yeah! I scoured the Rubbermaid website(s) and they had no trace of that UltraPurple product. Weird - oh, well. The stuff works!

Walt

Same deal with the UltraPurple, marketing under different brand names. I think Lowe's has the RedMax, maybe the auto parts places too.

best way to buy evapo rust is a harbor freight @ 20.00 gal and use the 20% off coupon.

Thanks for the HF tip, although the website says it is 29.99/gal. Still, that (and the 20% coupon) beats the $9/qt I'm paying now.
EDIT - I see that Northern Tool has 5 Gallon Pails for $80 and they'll ship it to your local Northern store for free. Hmmmm......

In case anyone is interested here are before and after photos of one of the pipe threading dies I an working on.

Walt

Evapo-Rust

Just came across this thread. Harris International is the manufacturer of Evapo-Rust and owner of the patent. Yes Harris supplies concentrate to others including myself. Originally Harris supplied Evapo-Rust Canada and some years ago I took over that business and now manufacture/blend/package that product in Canada along with at least one other company. We all mix it according to Harris specs. David Harris himself does a great job of marketing doing trade shows on a regular basis. He has distributors world wide. All those selling Evapo-Rust including Orrison and Delbert and others all get it from Harris. The Evapo-Rust trade name belongs to Harris International and no one else. All companies such as us generally create our own labels hence the different labels. Some companies may even have given it a different name. Our company name is Nick's Equipment Sales, <www.evapo-rust.ca> or<www.nicks.ca>. Feel free to ask questions about this product. This is my retirement income so that I can play in my new shop with my South Bend and other toys.
Just thought I had better get my two cents worth in.

Evapo-Rust

Hi again
I would like to add a few comments to last evening's post. First someone mentioned a salt and vinegar. One needs to realize that these are both corrosive, just look at what that does to an automobile in the regions where we get snow. You can never neutralize these enough to be safe. However that mixture will make a great weed killer. I believe 1 cup salt to a quart of vinegar.
Further it was mentioned that yo should use Evapo-Rust sparingly, small container to fit the part. This too is wrong. A small container will saturate very quickly and the product will quit working much too soon. I use a 5 gal. pail all the time and I probably clean a thousand parts in it over a period of a year. I am restoring a 56 Studebaker, and every small part that will fit into the pail gets cleaned. If the piece is too long it gets one end done then turned over. Large parts such as a door off the car goes flat into a tray made from 2x6 and plywood with a heavy plastic sheet in it. Door bottoms alone can be done on the car using a trough such as a piece of gutter strung up around the door bottom. Flat surfaces vertical or horizontal can be cleaned if it is only surface rust by soaking an orange chamois, soaking it with product and then laying it on the rusted area covered with a sheet of plastic to slow down the evaporation time. Rinsing it off with water will immediately neutralize it and remove it, leaving undamaged virgin metal behind. No further neutralizing required. Machinery such as lathe parts and beds can be de-rusted in this same manner. This product is entirely biodegradable and requires no special handling unless contaminants have been introduced so disposable is very simple.
Then there was the question about watering down the concentrate. This concentrate must be mixed 1 - 5 with water or it will not work. Less won't work nor will more. The reason for shipping concentrate instead of mix is that we don't want to pay $200 or $399 to ship a drum full of water. Just a few drums worth of concentrate at six drums a piece in mixed form would soon fill a transport trailer. See the logic in that?
We ourselves have numerous customers who use our product in their manufacturing process. For instance West Cast Industries makes manifolds for several car companies. When these come out of their molds they flash rust very quickly and sit for some time before machining to normalize the castings. These are them dipped in Evapo-Rust for 1/2 hour and them machined when drip dried. We have a customer in tn the east coast that reconditions rail cars and all the brake lines have to be cleaned or replaced. Cleaning would require a product that when flushed of/out would not leave a residue that could damage the rebuilt cylinders and valves. This was the only product that worked. We have a customer called Auto-Tube who manufactures all those steel tubes you see under the hood of your car. Being new steel it quickly gets a film of rust when the humid summer weather comes. Again these tubes must be clean before being shipped to the car companies. Chrysler uses this on warranty work on door bottoms using the method described earlier. This has saved them from sandblasting and repainting the entire door. This product cleans the rust away without harming the paint on the outside of the door thus saving them millions on repairs. Our product does the job. We could go on and on but I think that is sufficient information for now. Let me say this product is probably the safest product you can use and requires no special handling and disposal.
Thanks for listening to my rant, Nick

I don't have much to add here except that I recently purchased a gallon of Evaporust through Amazon from Harris and I can't say enough about it. I am restoring my SB9 Toolroom and the stuff is incredible. Cleaned up my collets, drawbar and 3 jaw chuck nicely. The best part is I can set stuff to soak and clean it up when I get home. I don't have a lot of free time so it makes quick work of rust removal for me.

I haven't heard of the vinegar and salt trick, but I may just have to try it! The whole shop will smell like I'm making Easter eggs!

When neutralized with water, will the flash rust come back and cause problem? Hot air dry or alcohol? What is the best practice when doing autobody repair on a rust spot? What is the advantage of this product over phosphoric acid products or it is phosphoric acid? The MSDS sheet does not show what it is like most MSDS would do!

Hank
First Evapo-Rust is a chelation agent not an acid or chemical but a synthetic iron molecule suspended in water with a PH of 7, neutral. If you rinse with hot water and the humidity is not too high you will probably have to do nothing. However drying it quickly is the key to prevent flash rust as when clean, your metal surface will be as virgin metal with no oil film to prevent rust, so priming it quickly is important.
Unlike phosphoric acid this product leaves no film or residue and is safe on skin and the environment. No special precautions required.
Check here for FAQ and how it works, <http://www.evapo-rust.ca/evap-2.html>

We are a distributor of the retail product such as HF sells. When we took on the line, the national sales manager said when the product is rinsed off, it leaves a dry coating that protects from flash rust. In my use of it I found this to be true.

As for the black coating on high-carbon steel, I kinda like it.

One more tip that hasn't been mentioned - If you have a part to clean that cannot be immersed, you can rig up one of those cheap fountain pumps and direct the hose so the ER flows over the rusted part. You will want a tarp or pan to channel the liquid back to your reservoir. Two hours usually takes car of most rust.

Evapo-Rust

Further to our discussion on Evapo-Rust. When you use Evapo-Rust on steel and when you rinse it off with water it will not leave a coating but clean virgin steel which will instantly flash rust if not dried quickly when the humidity is high. However if you re-submerge the piece in Evapo-Rust and then let it air dry you will get a film on the metal that will not flash rust unless water hits it. However you will have to rinse it with water before you can paint it or coat it with anything else.
As to the black film left on high carbon steel. This film is actually the carbon that was in the rust left behind as this will not remove carbon deposits. However it can usually be scrubbed off with steel wool or similar abrasives or buffing wheel if desired.
Once Evapo-Rust gets quite saturated it will turn black. Although you can keep using it until it quits working, at this time it will also leave a black film which usually will not flash rust as easily but may take some effort to clean up afterwards. This film if properly prepped for painting will not hurt the finnish.
Evapo-Rust will also remove the black mill scale on hot rolled steel as well as bluing on fire arms.
As the previous writer indicated there are many innovative ways to use Evapo-Rust.
Nick

Nicky,

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office indicates that Daubert Cromwell, LLC registered the trademark Evapo-Rust in July 2009.

Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS)