Rust prevention ?

[Air Chunk]

Hello to all,
I live in a humid area , near the potomac river in Va. On realy humid days or when there is a strom blowing in , My machines like to condensate and then rust . I have been using products such as WD 40 and CRC , and it works OK , but I was looking to see if there was something better . Thanks for the help !

 

[jkilroy]

I live in Mississippi, about 3 blocks from the Missippi, its humid ALL the time. I run a dehumidifier 24x7 which brings it down about 10%, that helps. As far as coatings go, I use LPS 3, buy the stuff by the gallon.

 

[SteveM]

Boeshield t9. You can get it at Sears.

Kept the rust off my lathe while it sat in the garage for several months. One of the woodworking mags ran a test and it blew everything away.

Steve

 

[Mike72]

Keeping your machinery warm is the best defense against this type of condensation Otherwise stay close and be prepared to wipe down and reoil when a storm like this blows in.

 

[J_R_Thiele]

This has been discussed many times in the past, so it is worth doing a search and spending some time reading.

From what I can see there are several basic approaches. The one you have taken is to try and coat the surface so after it gets wet, it does not rust. (Boeshield or LPS are MUCH better choices than WD-40)

The dehumidifier approach is to remove the water from the air, so it does not condense out on your machinery when the machinery is cooler than the air.

An approch not yet mentioned is to put block heaters on the machines, so they are warmer than the air. Infrared lights will do the same thing. So will an ordinary light bulb in the base casting. The machines do not have to be hot- just warmer than the air temp.

You can use all of the above approaches at the same time.

 

[Shimitup]

I'm in the market for a lathe,I have a table saw which is a far lighter chunk of iron than the lathe I'm going to get. Here in Houston when the wind switches around off the gulf after a cold front my saw top sweats like a pig. So I've been considering a fix too. Considering something like block heaters as someone mentioned. I want very little wattage like 10 watts max, one centered on the front of the bed,one on the back, I dont want differential heating to ruin my accuracy. Try a web search for Chromalox they make insertion heaters.

 

[Rick Rowlands]

Put in a sprinkler system that sprays WD40 on the machines when the machine temp is lower than the ambient temp and the humidity is high.

 

[Shimitup]

I just went to Chromalox.com, Whoa! do they have the heaters, at glance the selection looks pretty high wattage,things seem to start at 50 watts maybe a couple of 50w 240v at 120v in series would do the trick.

 

[Air Chunk]

Thanks for all the suggestions
"Now the light is on "