use magnesium to save your favorite tool from rust

I hope this video finds the hard workers who use tools & can benefit.

[Request]
can we get one volunteer to dive deeper into this topic and make a video for results? Hop into my discord linked in bio. Presently this is a side project i cannot pursue in depth, but i’d love to support by sharing all the info i have.

Those are $13 for 3 bars and if you use my link i'll get a few cents each time. But you can use any zinc or magnesium scrap you wish!

If you wish to learn more about the science of sacrificial anodes, the key words are basically: metallurgy, cathode, anode, galvanic corrosion, electrochemical properties of metals.

These magnesium bars (or similar) are often used inside of water heaters to prevent the sensitive copper components from corroding from the inside. I'd love to hear your comments about other ideas that STEM from this.

[patrickearley]

Lumber bracket. AKA Simpson hardware. All of it rusts, especially in coastal areas. Nothing survives. I’ll be testing this application shortly.

[petevenuti]

I used to bolt washers made of magnesium to my old 80's Monte Carlo frame and I still have that car today.

[colossalcollin]

I've never even considered putting a sacrificial anode to outdoor tools. Brilliant concept & video! Keep up the good work bro!

[Derfboy]

This is what is done for metal hardware on boats. It adds a decade or more to the life of some hard-to-reach parts.

[lx]

You’re close to discovering galvanized steel!

[putinisgay]

Corrosion professional here. The key is understanding a corrosion cell and how it works. In order for corrosion to occur, you need an anode, a cathode, an electrolyte, and a metallic path. The surface of any ferrous metal object will be covered in anodic and cathodic areas. These areas need an electrolyte in order to exchange ions. Attaching magnesium to a ferrous object does protect the ferrous object from corrosion. However, this would only be an effective solution if the object is buried or submerged so that the entire surface area and the anode are in contact with the electrolyte.

[plasmashears]

Practical engineering did a really good demo on different types of sacrificial anodes. Apparently, magnesium is better, but also more expensive.

[LogicalNiko]

Magnesium is a much better anode than zinc. However for a sacrificial anode to work there has to be an ion channel through the oxidizer and the anode. So essentially both surfaces need to be wet. Air makes a poor ion channel so eventually small amounts of rust will build up from humidity and time. But if you work in an environment where everything stays pretty wet all the time your method will work.

[dpool]

DID NO ONE CONSIDER THE SHAREHOLDERS 😢

[brightymcbrightface]

this used to exist. my dad had some "rustless" tools (screw drivers.) he had a Singer vacuum cleaner with brushes that don't wear. it was in his workshop for 50+ years, every part of it was replaced, the filter bag, the hose, the power cord, everything except the motor.
Corporations bought the patents to these products and threw them in the vault of "not good for business" because there's no profit in selling one vacuum cleaner to a person for life. no profit in tools that don't rust.

[Bob]

Out board motors and out drives, have sacrificial anodes attached for this reason. Your water heater has a sacrificial anode (replaceable) also!

[Yohan]

Sadly anodes need a medium for the electron pathway, like water or soil, to do their work best. That’s why magnesium anodes are great for pipelines or even water towers. While it might work to stop rust if your tool is actively submerged and the metal and anode have a water pathway, it wont work just on humidity alone. If it did someone would be a millionaire off these already.

[schnozistanczar]

This is only truly effective when constantly immersed/coated in water, high humidity will still rust your tools, this lets you keep them out in the rain for a bit more. Without the water as a medium the magnesium cannot hand over free electrons except where it makes direct contact

[bemccune]

The science behind this is super cool.

[mimiashford]

Handsome, productive, innovative AND mathing to top it all off! The whole package!

[caseywatkins]

Underground steel fuel tanks aka for gas stations( some are fiberglass tanks now) use sacrifical anodes.

[andrewmasonwerdna]

If this works I will give you praises. My life in the rust belt will thank you

[nowayjose]

You should do some more experimenting with larger objects. Figure out how much you’d actually need in a square area for it to be effective.

[djengiskhant]

As a vintage car owner, this is very intriguing!

[EternityForest]

Magnesium is super cool since it's nontoxic and as far as I know any runoff to the ocean is recoverable with current widely used tech.