One ounce of prevention is worth…

In this case about 3 hours of cure. I should have taken before pictures, but trust me when I say these were corroded badly. I had these 4 dull Oregon chains stored in a bucket under my deck, awaiting a time when I was motivated enough to sharpen them. Through a weird sequence of events, the bucket got water in it, and I forgot about them until recently. Completely rusted stuck when I came across them. Being stubborn and not wanting to toss them out with so much life left in them, I got to work. 24 hours in a kerosene bath did very little, but I figured it would be better than nothing. Then they were painstakingly scrubbed with a wire brush in the parts washer until most of the surface rust was gone. Then I soaked them in penetrating oil, and got most of the links moving freely. Another bath in the parts washer, more scrubbing, followed by another dousing in penetrating oil did the trick. All the links move more or less freely now. A couple lessons learned here, that I won’t soon forget given the amount of work I had to put into these to salvage them.

 

Did you see if they travel freely in the bar groove?

 

I will check that out tomorrow. I may have to run a small flat file over the drivers to knock down any high spots first. That's not a bad idea anyway. To start I was more concerned about getting the links free again.

 

I only ask as ive thrown chains in a cut and the drivers get nicked ever so slightly and wont set in the bar groove. Like you i hate to toss a chain with good meat on the cutters and ive gone with a flat file to get rid of the nicks. PITA but ive done it. Hate to see you wear out a bar as a result of it.

 

As bad is this was, this is an improvement over when I was first starting out years ago. I used to throw out dull chains rather than sharpen them! Eventually the light bulb goes off and the real journey begins...

 

Wonder if this would have been a good one to use Coca Cola on?

 

There's a thought. I've used Coca-Cola on old coins I've found and it does work. Maybe I'll try that if I ever come across someone else's rusty discarded chains

 

x2

 

Nice rescue!

 

Looks like you did a great job, my friend. I have an old hard-nosed Stihl bar, I'm sure is .063 Guage, from the '80's. Got a MS290 from a coworker for a friend, as I was checking it out, cleaning it, trued up the bar, I noticed the chain didn't fit the bar sprocket right. Did some ... he had a 3/8 chain on .325 saw......store sold him the wrong chain.
I made a .325 .058 gauge chain for it to see how it ran.
I may try to clean up the old chain...

 

Nice job. An overnight soak in vinegar is my “go to” rust remover.

 

A dremel tool with a small sanding drum makes quick work of this!

 

A 50/50mix of lemon juice and warm water will remove the rust, I use this method on many different things. Even on old collectable cans, surface rust will come off without harming the painted label, an over night soaking will do wonders....

 

This really turned out to be a good learning experience. In recent months I’ve become a bit of a chain hoarder. With this disastrous chain storage fail and subsequent cleanup still fresh in my mind, I’ve completely changed tactics. The new system is to sharpen a chain, and if it’s not going to be used immediately, clean it in the parts washer with a wire brush to remove any fine metal chips/grit, blast it off good and dry with an air hose, then get a liberal coating of oil on it to prevent surface rust. I have a bunch hanging up at home, coated in oil. I’ll be darned if I didn’t learn my lesson

 

Been there. Different circumstances, but same results. I cooked mine in my ultrasonic cleaner for several hours, then the wire brush. Some lessons are a PIA, and some are a pain in the thumb muscle

 

I have some chains hanging in a less than ideal storage area and keep expecting them to rust, but so far so good. They don't get direct water on them. Been hanging some there for a long time now with no ill effects. I assume this can at least be partly attributed to bar oilers doing their jobs and keeping the chains coated with oil. Yeah, I am of the kind to have several working chains in each size/pitch instead of running one or two of them through before starting on a new one. Trying to curb that habit. I bet I have at least a dozen 18" chains that are used to some degree or near death, but still fine for working.