ELECTROLYSIS CLEANER

Have you heard about cleaning coins with an electrolysis system and wondered how you could build one yourself? Well here are the simple details of what it takes.

You only need four things to make the cleaner:

1. A DC power source. This can be anything from a battery, to one of the AC adapters used to power any household gadgets or appliances. For instance, portable radios, answering machines, toy train sets, etc. A word of caution. Not all of these have DC outputs. Check the label on the adapter to make sure it has a DC output. The higher the voltage and amperage the quicker the coin will be cleaned, or DESTROYED! The best I have used was an electric racing track power supply with an output of 20.8 VDC at 4.9 VA. Don’t go to much over this or you could “vaporize” your coin. A car battery will do this because of the high amperage.
2. A plastic (non-metal) container. The square Tupperware freezer containers work great and are just the right size for cleaning coins.
3. A piece of stainless steel. Anything will do. I have used the head off of a stainless spatula and a stainless hose clamp, just so it can be bent to be easily hung on one side of the container.
4. A couple of copper alligator clips.

Any kind of clip can be used on the positive lead but you should try to find a solid copper one for your coin clip. You can use a steel clip but it will soon be corroded. You don’t have this problem as much with a solid copper clip.

Now for putting it all together. Below is a rough drawing of what it should look like.

The “positive” wire on the power cubes almost always has a red or white stripe on it. If you are not sure which is the positive or negative wire on your power supply, just go ahead and hook it up and give it a try. If the stainless begins to bubble, you have it backwards. You want your coin to do the bubbling!

*** CAUTION *** Even though we are talking low voltages and amperages, you should not be putting your fingers in the water. It doesn’t take much to kill you if the circumstances are just right! Play it safe! Keep dry and your fingers away from the metal parts. Also, don’t let the coin or the clip touch directly while you have the power turned on. That will create a direct short and could “literally” burn up your power cube or whatever power source you are using.

You have to mix salt into your water in order for the current to flow between your coin and the stainless. I use hot water so the salt dissolves quickly. How much salt? If you have a pint container I would add a teaspoon or two. It’s not critical.

How long you leave the coin in to bubble depends on how badly it is corroded. Usually 30 seconds or so is all it takes to loosen the “junk”. The key word here is “loosen”. The final cleaning should be what you usually do to clean the coin.

That’s it! Pretty simple hey! It’s kind of fun too seeing years of oxidation literally falling off of the coins. Obviously, you can really expand on this idea and make a first-class setup that puts this one to shame so go ahead and do your own thing. Happy cleaning!