My vinegar soak is similar but a bit different. I've got various containers, of which probably the most often used is a plastic drywall "mud pan," like a big version of what you might use to make loaves of bread, but from plastic. It'll take items up to a disassembled No. 5 jack plane. For longer planes, I use a wallpaper soaking pan. Put the item in, make sure the (white) vinegar covers it, go do other stuff for 24 hours.
After brushing off the rust with a brass wire brush, I rinse it thoroughly in running water, then hit the item hard with WD-40 and let it sit for a while. We're dinosaurs - we still get paper newspapers - and a section of newspaper makes for a good place to put the tool parts for this WD-40 treatment. Wipe the tool/tool parts down, reassemble as needed.
I've been told that I should neutralize the vinegar with a paste of baking soda, and I might even get around to trying that next time I'm cleaning up a tool.
If you're soaking a tool with brass parts, like the adjusting nut on a bench plane, remove the brass before putting the steel parts in vinegar. The vinegar does not improve the brass.
