40 hour Oxalic soak

[DanielinAk]

One of these cans in the first photo turned out to be this IRTP Blatz can after soaking for 40 hours in Oxalic. I never even thought it was going to be a can I saved. Figured it was toast but I wanted to practice on a crappy can.

[Cantageous]

I love soaking Mystery cans. I've soaked them till they fell apart. Lol. Good job


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[canaddict]

How long can you soak cans in Oxalic until they do fall apart?

I had some in 48 hours or so and they did not fall apart and cleaned pretty well. At 24 hours, they were still very rough.

[Cantageous]

Lots of variables.


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[plogan42]

You can soak a mystery can in oxalic acid for a week if you wanted to.

Volume of water in container, and amount of acid are the key variables.

If the label's paint can hold up, oxalic won't destroy the can.

Citric acid, on the other hand, will devour the can to crumble in the container in about two days.

After a 24 hr. soak, even in a reasonably sized container, the solution (same proportions of acid & water) should be refreshed.

I like to use 32oz. clear plastic nut containers for soaking cans, since I don't have the fortunate luck to live in a region of the country where may dumpers can still be found (and I don't get out dumping much anymore). The clear plastic shows you want's going on and you can check the progress every 6 hrs.

When the water turns to a Gatorade-like consistency, I exchange fresh water and acid. Water temp should always be room temp. If you have 100's of dumpers and want to flesh out the labels quickly, hotter water will cause the acid to react w. ferrous oxide faster, but hotter water torments paints.

So if you're trying to clean up something you bought or traded for, apply lab-like conditions to your cleaning process, and monitor soaking conditions carefully, and frequently.

Practice makes perfect.

[Cantageous]

Dig some cans in south Florida and younwill experience how a can will rust itself to crumbs

I can only speak from my own experience butAcids can do some serious damage to cans that are already Toast, like the mystery cans sometimes found