It has to be one of the most painful parts of restoring a kettle especially if your sanding them back by hand. I also like to use original parts rather than buying new( that's code for 'I'm a Tightass')
So I thought I'd try a different technique, a mate from work suggested it and a quick search on the net revealed plenty of 'How To' videos.
Here's what I used-
And some washing soda-
After trying 3 different battery chargers I found this older style with the dial works the best. The newer chargers have a switch that trips out where as this one worked great-
The setup-
Fill with water till triangle is fully submerged and add 1-2 teaspoons of Washing soda per 1 gallon of water
Anode- attach a sacrificial piece of steel (not gal or SS)to the positive
Canode- attach some wire to the triangle and then to the negative. Don't let the negative alligator clips touch the water as it will dissolve
Make sure triangle and anode don't touch
Turn the charger on and you should start seeing bubbles on the anode and triangle within 30secs
First triangle, this one was pretty bad , pretty much all the chrome was gone and the wheels were seized onto the axle-
After 4hrs all the rust was gone, I gave it a quick hose down and wiped it with a cloth,this is how it looked-
Now that your left with rust free bare metal it's time to give it a finish
I gave it a coat of Cold-Gal, then a coat of etching primer-
And then a coat of silver enamel paint-
And here it is next to a new triangle-
Not a perfect match and there is still some pitting but it's rust free and should stay that way for a long time
This was a fun little experiment and takes the hard work out of cleaning up a triangle. It's hard work getting all the rust of a triangle especially where the bars meet.
The two main tips for this technique( I found this out after two earlier failed attempts) is a charger that won't trip and make sure you use washing soda and not baking soda. I think Arm & Hammer make it in the states
Because I had most bits on hand it only cost me $4 for the washing soda.
Pretty happy with the result and will be using this technique again