Time for experiment #2. I want to find a cheap alternative to evaporust. My last experiment was Apple cider vinegar, and I was pleased with the results. This time around I’m trying molasses. Supposedly it has the same active ingredient as evaporust, or so the internet gurus say (so it has to be true, right?).

I bought a gallon of molasses at Tractor Supply for $8. My first test item is a leg leveler, just because I happen to have one from a current project. I mixed about a half cup of molasses with a few cups of hot water (no, I did not measure). Here are a few pics of the start of the experiment. Note that I did wash the part first with plain water to remove as much crud as possible (first two leg leveler pics are pre-washed).

I’ll post more after letting it soak overnight.

I have a few rusty legs that I want to try this on too, but need to get permission from the owner first (I’m restoring it for someone else). Hopefully I can start that experiment this weekend.
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So here are the first results. I little less than 24 hours in the bath, and the rust is gone. Unlike vinegar, the molasses seemed have truly dissolved the rust. I rinsed the item and nothing more. With vinegar, I had to do some very light scrubbing to remove the rust. Could be the concentration level I used with the molasses, not sure.

I got permission from the owner to try the legs next. I’ll try and get them started sometime later this week.
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Some more updates. Here’s the leg leverer after 4 days in the molasses bath.

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I started the legs today in a bath of about 33% molasses to 67% water mixture. Here are the legs after they came off the machine. I gave them a very light wash down to knock off the dirt, but nothing more then that.

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And here’s my leg tube. It’s only big enough for 2 legs at a time. Somewhere down the road I’ll make a bigger one, maybe.

I’ll report back after a few days on the progress of this experiment.

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I pulled the legs out today for a look (sorry, it was too messy for pics). While the surface rust comes off easily, they still need to soak longer. I'm *guessing* they'll soak 4 days like the leg leveler. However, I also want to make sure they aren't turning black, chrome coming off, etc. since they aren't my legs.

Man, they sure do smell good!

So here’s the two day update. I pulled both legs today. There’s some good, bad and ugly.

First, the rust came off for the most part, as seen in the pictures. There is still some rust at the bottom inside of the legs where it’s always the worst. Possibly I could let them go longer and it’d dissolve too. Not sure, and I’m not trying it. What’s good is that all of the rust on the outside came off easily with a quick wipe, as did the rust on the inside of the leg - short of at the very bottom. So it was effective at removing rust.

Not the bad and ugly. There was some bubbling chrome on on leg, and the chrome came off altogether. So now there’s a bare part on the outside of the leg. I tried to highlight that in one photo. I can’t say if I would have gotten the same result with evaporust. Hard to say.

The last pictures are of the legs after a scrub with Never Dull, and polished with a rag.

All told, it works. I’m not happen about the chrome that came off, but again, not sure if the results would have differed with other methods....

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Maybe so. I suspect any water based product would have the same issue with chrome lifting. Not sure if I was totally clear in my last post, but the chrome was bubbling before the molasses bath. Still, disappointing.

The second set of legs went in today. They’ll be in a little longer simply because I’m traveling the next couple of days. Didn’t get before pics but they were about the same as the first set. I’ll try and add more pics when they are done since I’m pic happy. But I think the pics tell the whole story...

One interesting thing I did note, and I can't say if it's related to the molasses specifically. When I did my vinegar rust experiment, the items flash rusted as soon as I took them out of the vinegar. It was easy enough to clean off, but still, it happened. That didn't happen with the legs today, even after I washed them off in the sink. Not sure if that's molasses related or if it's just the nature of the metal in the legs....

Are you using molasses or something else?

Ok, final update. The last legs turned out better me than the first set, simply due to lack of bubbling chrome. Again, a two day soak. I think they could go a lot longer but they are not mine so I don’t want to risk damage.

The last pic obviously shows them on the machine. The coin door was rusty too but got a vinegar bath. Don’t mind the mess, it’s been a long day....

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