Would vinegar remove the rust?
Yes. Any acid would. It is the strength of the acid, temperature, and exposure time, that is important to consider.
All acids will dissolve rust. The higher the strength, the faster it reacts/dissolves.
However, acids are indiscriminate in it's dissolving/converting attacks. So, the base metal also dissolves/converts as it is exposed to the acid.
The acid's activity with other materials is related to its strength. This is where the pH scale comes in.
Molasses (sulfured) has a PH of about 6 (it is the diluted sulfuric acid in molasses that is the active ingredient). Vinegar generally has a pH of about 3 or 4, making it a more active acid. The lower the number, the more acidic.
You can reduce the reactive effect of an acid by diluting it. Mixing a volume of pH4 with a volume of pH7, will result in a pH somewhere between the 2 numbers mixed in a ratio related to the volume of each mixed. In this way you can adjust the overall pH, or activity of the end product.
Also of note, is that as the acid reacts with the rust or base metal, its acidity level decreases, or becomes more neutral.
So, if you start with a pH of 6, dissolving the rust may result in end result of pH6.5 or pH7, which isn't very active at all and unlikely to remove (or convert) either rust or base metal. So, any given acid treatment balances the amount of rust/base mental removed,with the useful life of the acid applied. High strength acids or high quantities of acids, can remove rust more quickly at the risk of losing base metal. Conversely, low strength acids and low volumes of acids run the risk of depleting themselves before all the rust has converted.
For the latent chemist out there, a warning. Mixing acids and bases together produces an exothermic reaction. The activity is related to the spread of pH factor between the two chemicals. For example, introducing Lye to Battery acid is VERY dangerous, and equates to an explosion, where both un-neutralized lye and battery acid coats nearby objects. Both these chemicals will dissolve the human eye, as well as most of the human body. In any mixing of pH different chemicals, the reaction violence is related to the difference of the pH between the materials (and, of course) the mobility of the chemicals, solid, gel, liquid, gas etc.).
Be careful of your experiments. Knowledge can be a a significant factor in both success and safety.
Cheers,
