Rust in my sap buckets

[pjboiler275]

Does any one know if I should paint the inside of my galvanized buckets, The bottoms have some rust, I thought some paint may help. Is there a "food grade" paint. Any other ideas to fix the buckets or are they junk?

[BryanEx]

Is there a "food grade" paint.

Yep, according to the Indiana Maple Syrup Association;

http://www.indianamaplesyrup.org/paint.html

- Bryan

[PerryW]

I guess we never tested it, but we certainly used to make great tasting syrup using rusty buckets.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Sometimes you can take a scotch brite pad and scrub rust good and it will come off if it light and minor rust.

[maplemom]

Vinegar is a natural rust remover.. if it's just the bottom of the pails you might want to try letting some soak on the bottom of your buckets. All kinds of info on the net about it. That's about as food grade as it gets :)

[The Butcher]

i got a bunch of buckets that had some major rust and even small holes. I now use bags from uline to line them. They are 10 cents a bag, but i don't have to worry about washing the buckets or colored sap or leaking buckets.

[syruplover99]

well, if the holes are not very big then go get our friend duct tape and tap them right up and for the rust use viniger it works for us!! so far we have 25 bags up(kinda sticken with buckets!!) and they are ok but make sure if it freezes or is going 2 then eiether take it down over night or let the ice in the bag melt we have had excperience so do not try crushing the ice inside holes form veryyyyy easy!! i wish u luck! ;)

[Maple Hobo]

You see rust (the core tin) once the Galvanized metal is off of it.
The Galva coating does that, same as a tin roof. The Galvanized coating is considered a sacraficial metal.

Go for the food grade paint after you scrub the rust out and remove it as best you can.
Without the Galvanized coating the buckets will drgrade much faster without preventative maintanance.

[SugarSquirrel]

you can take some fine steel wool, and rub the rust. it takes most of it off. then take vinagar and it should make it good as new... well sorta...