I think your main problem is just lack of contact-look at the picture of the piece you are trying to clean up, that thick wire looks to be barely touching in just a couple spots. Same thing with your anodes. I wind bailing wire around the anodes many times and I made sure there are multiple clips making good, redundant contact to everything. The thin and pliable bailing wire is easy to wrap snug right up all around the rebar for maximum contact. Check them out with a multi-meter, to check for good continuity and consistent charger output.
Also, again note that a battery in the circuit really helps the system out. If you don't have any battery laying around or know of anyone with one, maybe get a "refurbished" one cheap from some recycling place or something? You don't really need a regulated power supply, I have used all sorts of different battery chargers over the years and only had issues with one cheap "smart" Walmart charger.