We have been educated to follow instructions because it moves personal responsibility one level of management up. Yet if you're bodging, all responsibility is yours. You must know what you're doing. Notice that bubbles appear around the negative clamp. This is hydrogen. Hydrogen is explosive, think "Hindenburg disaster," so don't use the water in your rust removal setup to extinguish cigarettes and keep it in a ventilated area. This is common sense. Furthermore, you might think that ordinary kitchen salt might make a great electrolyte. However, the chemical name of kitchen salt is sodium chloride. Since we are bodging we might produce some unintended consequences. If the ingredients are sodium and chlorine, those consequences are chlorine gas, which was used as a war gas in World War I, and sodium hydroxide (caustic soda). From a general knowledge of history and chemistry, it should therefore be clear that kitchen salt and sparks (from cigarettes or nearby battery chargers) should be avoided. Also, don't stick your hands into the conducting water. Bodging doesn't require an advanced education, but it does require a real education connecting what you've learned to real-world problems. It's interesting to note that the more you know, the more likely you are to worry about the risks of bodging. Yet, the more you know, the more you realize that often even experts are simply bodging. You may find this comforting or worrying depending on your personality and how much you know.