[njsteve]

After soaking overnight in the magic derusting cylinder, here are the results at the moment. Just an interesting note: the small pool heater I had hanging in the fluid at the top of the cylinder resulted in better derusting results on the end of the driveshaft that was closest to the heat source. So that is today's lesson: the warmer it is, the faster it works. This is an old gallon I have been using - and it more than filled the space needed to fully submerge the driveshaft...oh an BTW, driveshafts float, so I used the yoke to weigh it down enough to keep it fully submerged.

The mud colored water in the blue bucket is the runoff resulting after I scrubbed the driveshaft with a brush. That's another tip: frequently remove the object from the liquid and scrub it down to get the derusted residue off the surface and allow the liquid easier access to the metal.

P.S. don't dip certain plated items in the liquid - it will dissolve the plating. Not so much with chrome, but it removes blueing, black oxide, cad plating, zinc, galvanizing,. It will also attack pot-metal pieces. If it is plain old iron/steel (and grease-free), it works like magic.

I will pick up some more (fresher) evaporust tomorrow. After a while, the solution absorbs so much iron that it reduces its effectiveness drastically. It should be amber colored. If it is dark or black, it is no longer going to do much good.