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Sort of an odd topic for a guitar building forum. What if you had an old rusty tailpiece that you wanted on your new guitar. Maybe your cleaning up an old Harmony for a neighbor and the tuner plates are a bit corroded.
So what do you do? You use electricity to remove the rust.

What you need:

A plastic container.
Water.
Washing Soda (not baking soda, there is a difference).
A steel plate, 16 gauge mild steel, no coating on this plate.
An automotive battery charger that will charge at 2 amps.

What you do:

Fill the plastic container with a solution of 1 tablespoon of washing soda per gallon of water.
Hook the negative lead from the battery charger to the rusted part and place it in the solution.
Attach the positive lead from the charger to the steel plate and put it in also. Don't let these touch, that will short out the charger.
Turn on the charger to 2 amps and wait.
Should take about two hours to remove light corrosion. Heavier corrosion will require a longer time in the bath.
When the rust is gone, wash the part in hot soapy water and dry it off.

This process will remove rust and most paints, lacquers, etc. It won't remove plating but if the part is rusted there is more than likely some plating missing in those areas. When washing the part after processing, use common sense. We used this process to preserve the original finish, so don't scrub with something that will scratch the surface. Also, the electrolysis works in line of sight between the part and the steel plate. If the part is rusted on multiple sides, you'll have to move it around in the bath to remove all the rust.

Here are some pictures of an old motorcycle header that I cleaned.

Man, that header looks great Steve!
What good information!!!

Okay now where do you get washing soda?

I definitely have a use for this info, that's not the only rusty tailpiece I have!

Thanks for the tute,
Joe

ps .... do you also have the info on a similar simple process for nickel plating? Say if I fashioned a tailpiece out of brass and wanted to plate it? .... backwoods poorboy

Washing soda will be found at the grocery store near the laundry detergent.
Plating kits can be found at Caswell Plating http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/ . They have nickel plating kits starting at about $35. They also have kits for plating copper, gold, chrome, cobalt, etc.

Arm and hammer makes a washing soda called super washing soda. Its a detergent booster. I have seen it in the laundy detergent aisle at the super market.

You can do this to your old block planes that you pick up cheap. Good stuff Steve.

Now I just need a tub big enough to fit my table saw in Or my Landcruiser

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I've got some ideas on that one: http://trevorcook.typepad.com/weblog/2004/07/suv_takes_plung.html

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

this method works great, done it many of times
It does leave pits but its still better then scaring the surface with steel