When it rains the concrete floor and all cast iron gets wet, WTF?

lowCountryCamo · Nov 23, 2014

Yesterday it rained and I had a bit of orange rust on all the cast iron. ERRR! I ran around with a oily rag rubbing the shit out of everything. It is raining again today and the concrete floor is covered in condensation I guess. Is there anything I can do? Maybe I should put weather stripping on everything. Does this ever happen to you? I live in SAV GA. about 20 miles from the ocean.

snowman · Nov 23, 2014

Welcome to hell

Zonko · Nov 23, 2014

The Climate in 'merica truly must be HELL.

Our museum sits right at the locks of the Kiel Canal, less than half a mile from the bay. We never have any problems with this sort of shit.

Damp basements, springtime warm/cold cycling....yes. Of course.

But rain resulting in water appearing in the shop ?! Duck and cover....

WHHJR · Nov 23, 2014

Fairly simple physics. The dew point of the air is near or above the temperature of your massive heat sinks (concrete, cast iron, etc). The easiest cure is heat the room and by definition the stuff in it. It happens to me several times when a warm wet weather pattern passes thru (Today).

WD-40, LPS1 etc.....

SteveF · Nov 23, 2014

It also happens because the building is poorly sealed and insufficiently insulated. Until those things are addressed it's a losing battle.

Steve

lowCountryCamo · Nov 23, 2014

Ok it is time to take action. I just bought a VMC and the entire thing is wet. :bawling:

CalG · Nov 23, 2014

IR heat lamps

SteveF said:
It also happens because the building is poorly sealed and insufficiently insulated. Until those things are addressed it's a losing battle.

Steve

point them at the machinery , they chase the dewpoint up the scale?

keeps the chickens comfy warm as well,,,,,

bedwards · Nov 23, 2014

It may not work for you, but before I closed my shop in, I covered my machines with painters tarps with a single CFL bulb under each one. The light bulb doesn't burn much electricity and raised the temp just enough to stop condensation forming. Good luck on the floor though.

bedwards

IeliteENGINEER · Nov 23, 2014

I had this problem when our cncs were round at the welding shed, walls were sweating machines sweating its horrible all you can do is cover them with oil and keep your parts in wooden boxes oiled up. I moved all the machines out to a purpose built workshop full insulation still get a bit of condensation if any water comes in even a small amount.

SND · Nov 23, 2014

My VMC was sweating bad when it was brought into a warm shop after spending a few days outside at -30.
Can't say I've ever had any real moisture/rust issues once things are inside though and it gets plenty humid for some parts of the year.

Trboatworks · Nov 23, 2014

Get some paste wax on everything.

Mike C. · Nov 23, 2014

"We never have any problems with this sort of shit.

Damp basements, springtime warm/cold cycling....yes. Of course."

Then you obviously DO have the exact same problems. It's not springtime, but here in the south, we get the same warm/cold swings in fall and spring. Add rain with fast temp shifts and you get condensation. low country is on the southeast coast of the US. Prevailing winds are out of the northwest, so temps in Savannah are more influenced by the continental climate than the Atlantic (opposite of the west coast, where the ocean controls the climate...ie, San Francisco).

The solution is just as has been said, you need to insulate and get some form of climate control/humidity reduction in there. Before I insulated the machine shop area of my shop, I walked out one morning to find condensation from the floor and metal roof causing an indoor rainstorm on my machinery. Insulation helps wonderfully. Just slows the rate of heating and cooling to the point everything can keep up. That said, when I go out and open the door today, I'll probably get wet machines as soon as the rainy moist air hits them. I'll kick on the window unit AC/heat and dry things out in a few minutes.

Light bulbs, as mentioned, work great. I had an old fridge with a light bulb in it that I kept my micrometers, cutting tools, machine arbors, tool holders, and other critical bits in before insulation. Never a spot of rust on anything. You might also put a dehumidifier in there, once it is insulated. Sealing it up better might help some, but the root problem is temperature swings. There is virtually no way to keep the humidity out without an AC or heater along with the sealing, so your first priority needs to be insulating.

swarf_rat · Nov 23, 2014

Zonko said:
The Climate in 'merica truly must be HELL.

'merica is a big place. The climate in Georgia is hell and no mistake. If conditions are right (wet warm air mass quickly replacing colder conditions) the machines will rain so quickly you cannot wipe fast enough, it just forms again until the machines warm beyond the dew point. You sweat just as bad while you are wiping. A lot of the East and Southeast is like that.

Now out here in California, condensing conditions are rare enough to be considered nonexistent. In the Nevada desert, they are nonexistent.

The only cure if you live in the Southeast is to keep the machine temperature above the dew point. That means keeping the machines heated above the dew point, or lowering the dew point with a sealed building and dehumidifier.

snowman · Nov 23, 2014

Mike C. said:
"We never have any problems with this sort of shit.

Damp basements, springtime warm/cold cycling....yes. Of course."

Then you obviously DO have the exact same problems. It's not springtime, but here in the south, we get the same warm/cold swings in fall and spring. Add rain with fast temp shifts and you get condensation. low country is on the southeast coast of the US. Prevailing winds are out of the northwest, so temps in Savannah are more influenced by the continental climate than the Atlantic (opposite of the west coast, where the ocean controls the climate...ie, San Francisco).

The solution is just as has been said, you need to insulate and get some form of climate control/humidity reduction in there. Before I insulated the machine shop area of my shop, I walked out one morning to find condensation from the floor and metal roof causing an indoor rainstorm on my machinery. Insulation helps wonderfully. Just slows the rate of heating and cooling to the point everything can keep up. That said, when I go out and open the door today, I'll probably get wet machines as soon as the rainy moist air hits them. I'll kick on the window unit AC/heat and dry things out in a few minutes.

Light bulbs, as mentioned, work great. I had an old fridge with a light bulb in it that I kept my micrometers, cutting tools, machine arbors, tool holders, and other critical bits in before insulation. Never a spot of rust on anything. You might also put a dehumidifier in there, once it is insulated. Sealing it up better might help some, but the root problem is temperature swings. There is virtually no way to keep the humidity out without an AC or heater along with the sealing, so your first priority needs to be insulating.

Actually, the sealing has to come before the insulating...unless using spray foam, then you get both at once.

I tried the insulating first, then spent a long time finding every single crack that was letting air through. It would have been tons easier to do prior to insulating.

I've made enough mistakes now that my NEXT shop will be perfect. But I'll also likely have to build it that way as fixing up someone elses mistakes can be harder, and more costly than just starting from scratch.

Mike C. · Nov 23, 2014

Can't be standing wide open, but doesn't need to be vacuum tight, either. Idea is to just slow the rate of warming and cooling of the air inside so that the floor and machine temps don't vary too much from it. That's why sealing alone won't do much good. With insulation, the mass of machines and floor will basically control the temp in the insulated part to the point they won't fog up. Open a door for ten minutes and you are right back to square one, though.

bigjon61 · Nov 23, 2014

When it rains the concrete floor and all cast iron gets wet, WTF?

You do have a roof, right?

Milacron · Nov 23, 2014

Zonko said:
The Climate in 'merica truly must be HELL.

Our museum sits right at the locks of the Kiel Canal, less than half a mile from the bay. We never have any problems with this sort of shit.

Damp basements, springtime warm/cold cycling....yes. Of course.

But rain resulting in water appearing in the shop ?! Duck and cover....

My shop is about 30 miles north of the OP, less than 20 miles from the ocean and I've had no such problems in identical weather conditions. I presume the difference is my shop must be better insulated than his....plus I have a coated concrete floor.

His wet iron is the result of said iron being colder than the air combined with a bit more humidity...temps tend to be warmer during rain. Insulated shop mitigates that sort of thing by keeping the iron at a more constant temperature and keeping most of the warm humid air out.

Milacron · Nov 23, 2014

swarf_rat said:
The only cure if you live in the Southeast is to keep the machine temperature above the dew point. That means keeping the machines heated above the dew point, or lowering the dew point with a sealed building and dehumidifier.

That is not "the only cure"....I'm coastal SE and have very little problem with rust just by having a properly insulated shop combined with a bit of light duty clear antirust spray on susceptable iron.

For that matter I have very little rust problems with the machines in my home garage, which is located about 500 feet from a large boat navigable salt water creek. Never used a dehumidifier either place, but the occassional use of heat and A/C probably helps. Both are off when I'm not at the shop however and I'm not at the shop way more than I am at the shop.

SteveF · Nov 23, 2014

Mike C. said:
Can't be standing wide open, but doesn't need to be vacuum tight, either. Idea is to just slow the rate of warming and cooling of the air inside so that the floor and machine temps don't vary too much from it. That's why sealing alone won't do much good. ...................

I would disagree. If the building is well sealed a dehumidifier has a fighting chance of getting the water out of the air inside the building, thus lowering the dew point. The costs of getting a building well sealed are much less than well insulated.

Now is a really good time of year to seal up the building because by either using a fan to suck out the interior air (like is done with a blower door test) or by doing the work on a windy day the cold air leaks are easy to find.

Steve

Chip Chester · Nov 23, 2014

About this time every year I roll out the "hey, get a magnetic engine block heater from Tractor Supply, stick it on the big iron thing, and plug it in" recommendation. That will make sure it's not the coldest thing in the room, and the condensation will alight somewhere else. No light bulbs to burn out, or burn thru your Bridgeport cozy, and all the heat goes right into the machine. Plus you don't have to heat the whole room in order to heat some of the things in it.

If you seek out a dehumidifier, look for one that will work at low temperatures.

Chip

When it rains the concrete floor and all cast iron gets wet, WTF?

Stainless

Diamond

Stainless

Stainless

Titanium

Stainless

Diamond

Aluminum

Cast Iron

Diamond

Diamond

Diamond

Titanium

Diamond

Diamond

Hot Rolled

Administrator

Administrator

Titanium

Diamond

Similar threads