First time cleaning cans

[Ctbott1]

We find some cans when we dig bottles and for the longest time I never thought twice. We clean lots of items we find digging bottles or metal detecting so we decided to give this a try.

We watched lots of videos and read lots of threads. We decided to pick two mystery cans that looked to be trashed and give them a try.

Here are the before and after pictures. The flat can ended up being a feiganspan xxx amber ale but only the top half cleaned (I think it had been burned). Cone top ended up being a hortons ale.

This was after a soak of about 15 hours. We used two heaping spoonfuls of oxalic per quart of room temp water.

It was a fun first try and I guess the one lesson is those big warts don’t clean off well so no point trying cans covered with them?

[DaveNH]

Way better than my first time Yeah those rust nodules never clean and when they do come off you are let with holes. Maybe try with mystery cans next time that don't have the nodules and you'll have better results. I think the amount of acid you used for a quart of water is about right, but I recommend using hot hot water (especially for mystery cans.) Thanks for posting.

[Ctbott1]

Yea we have decided to skip any with those modules next time. We just put two more in acid that don’t have the bumps. We have 100s of cans to choose from so maybe we will eventually get good at it.

One thing I wasn’t sure about is whether it makes sense to remove the cans after some amount of time and try cleaning them with a toothbrush. I’ve seen people suggest to try and other to just let them be.

Eventually maybe we will graduate from the one can at a time process using mason jars into larger scale cleanings but have to get our feet wet first.

[DaveNH]

Some guys remove the cans after a period of time (e.g. 30 mins, 1 hour, etc) depending on the amount of rust and rareness of the can(s) and then tooth brush them. After that they rinse with fresh water and re-soak. It's a matter of personal preference I guess as well as trial and error. For me, I sink 20 cans in a 5 gal. bucket with a lid (keeps the water hot longer) in the hottest water (I even boil some water) and let them sit in the acid for +/- 4 hours. Then I do the tooth brush thing, fresh water rinse and even sink them in a small bucket of water with baking soda to neutralizes (stops) the acid. Practice makes perfect. There's a lot of great information on the Rusty Bunch that'll help with cleaning cans. Perhaps you might even consider joining when you add the beer can bug to your bottle collecting interests!!

[Ctbott1]

My second batch ended up being a rupperts and a Ballantine. Not that exciting. Third batch of cans, one is a piels which I guess is nothing. The other two are looking more like cans people might want to keep

[idigrust]

You may want to use rubber gloves when handling oxalic soaked cans, pretty hazardous stuff, try not breathing the fumes too. I dump a bunch of baking soda in the used acid to dilute it before dumping down the drain.

[Ctbott1]

Thank you I dig rust. This can had been soaked after cleaning but I definitely appreciate all the pointers for using the chemicals. I don’t want to be messing myself up over some cans

[Ctbott1]

Here are some more attempts at cleaning mystery cans. Having fun with my kid.

[Ctbott1]

Few more cans we have cleaned. All mystery cans so fun to see what comes out

[BLindstrom]

Love those Narragansetts!

[Ctbott1]

I would be happy to give it a try. I assume I can buy it at Home Depot or somewhere similar and just soak the cans? Do you do any type of pretreat besides removing dirt etc?

[Randy Karasek]

Here are some more attempts at cleaning mystery cans. Having fun with my kid.

Just noticed orange to black name. Welcome to the Rusty Bunch and looking like nice cleaning results so far!!!!

[DaveNH]

Welcome to the mad mad world of beer cans and Breweriana! Thanks for joining and for posting your great finds.

[Beamer]

Welcome to the Rusty Bunch. Thanks for taking the time to post the pictures. Nice finds. At some point, post some shots of your bottles. I find them interesting as well as cans.

[DanielinAk]

Very nice.


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