Funky sand and setting up to de rust the milling table

Tried 5% western bentonite in what I tough was blow sand.  It burned.  Tire chuck is for scale.

This bar was made by casting aluminum into a shock absorber tube surrounded by the above sand.  I slit the tube down the side.  The gap sprung open a bit and my cut was nt the best so I tied the tube shut with wire and wrapped it with aluminum foil.   It was a bit of chore to remove the aluminum that escaped anyway.  But once it was gone the tube came off easy enough.  Ready for reuse.   At some point I should try this again and take more care cutting the tube open.

I may use this bit of 2" stock to create a tool for setting the lathe tool height.

Repurposing one of my fancy goldfish tanks for de rusting the milling table.   Had a bit of crud in the valve but that was easily cleaned while it was filling.

120 gallons of water and 7.5 cups of calcium carbonate aka washing soda.  In time the water will clear.   The table is suspended from the chain.   Sections of steel fence posts are suspended from the electrical conduit.  Initially trying 10 amps.  It that is too much I can swap out the charger for a 6 amp.

To be continued.

The amp meter on the battery charger has been missing for a few decades so I scavenged on off a junked lawn tractor and put it inline.

I was tempted to make a time lapse of the process but apple recently replaced the battery on my iPhone 6 which I wanted to use.  It took too long to restore and upgrade the phone.  Missed the beginning which is interesting so maybe  next time.

This is a shot from the morning of the next day.   I have suspended the table from the cherry picker so I can pull it up to check progress.

Notice that bubbles have mostly pushed the scum away from the area over the table.