mgwolf wrote:Boil it in citric acid 1 Tb/liter for a while. 45 min will probably do it. Brass comes out nice. I just did this to a chromed part recently by accident and it is now 2/3 brass showing.

Did the Chrome flake off, or did it dissolve? Yahsee, this is the sort of simple solution (without removing too much brass, and not involving buying a buncha expensive toys, or [shudder] a lot of manual labor!) that I was hoping for! I'm gonna try that. I'm getting my citric acid powder from a soap-making supplies store, at about two bucks a pound, or five pounds for something like six and a half bucks. So far, a pound is lasting me more than a year, so two bucks is fantastic. I'm boiling PF's tomorrow!

CRCasey wrote:Ok, that one lost me, Why would citric acid crystals be in Indian grocery stores?

I am just being curious.

-Cecil

They use if in their cooking, I guess. It's used in many candies, for example, in the States --Sweet Tarts comes to mind. Not sure what they use if for in India, but I saw some the other day in my local Indian grocery store. Michael

Psyd wrote:Did the Chrome flake off, or did it dissolve?

Chris,
It dissolved off very nicely (unfortunately in my case). I polished it a little to see if the chrome was covered up or dissolved off. It was dissolved off and the remaining brass underneath polished up beautifully. Good luck with you PF. Michael

CRCasey wrote:Ok, that one lost me, Why would citric acid crystals be in Indian grocery stores?

Think "sour salt" instead of citric acid. I know very little of Indian culinary food preparation, but a cursory search revealed that it's a common ingredient for sweet & sour recipes.

If you want to have an idea of what they will look like, as I was polishing my new Rancilio Z9, I was surprised to find brass under a layer of grime - I like them. Now, much more work to do..

Rancilio Z9 Two Group Lever Machine

-phillip

phillip canuck wrote:If you want to have an idea of what they will look like
Rancilio Z9 Two Group Lever Machine

I don't see anything that looks like it used to be chromed and is now brass 'cept maybe the steamwands? Is that what you were referring to?

Psyd,
Yep, sorry about that - I see, now, you were referring to the PFs. However, the chrome is wearing off those as well - and I like that too.

-phillip

phillip canuck wrote:Psyd,
Yep, sorry about that - I see, now, you were referring to the PFs.

Hah! S'okay, I was just making sure that it wasn't me! ; >

The standard recommended concentration of citric acid in water descaling solution took the thin chrome plating off the inside of my Elektra Semiautomatica water tank - the first time I used the descaler.

Howard

howard seth wrote:The standard recommended concentration of citric acid in water descaling solution took the thin chrome plating off the inside of my Elektra Semiautomatica water tank - the first time I used the descaler.

'Kay, my PF's are soaking in it. I put a level large spoon (it's a table spoon, but I'm not sure it's a TBSP, if you know what I mean) into a twenty ounce SS frothing pitcher, and set all of that into a 1 qt sauce pan to boil. I only have one LARGE sauce pan that doesn't have a teflon, or other coating, and I wasn't going to use any of the aluminium stuff I have fro other 'experimental' uses.
I'll let y'all know how it turned out.

Any idea how long I should let it boil? It's almost 3 PM here now...