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Keeping your tools from rusting

crossthread

Titanium
Joined
Aug 5, 2004
Location
Richmond,VA,USA
I know that a lot of different ideas have been presented to keep your finer tools from rusting. My shop is not sealed up all that well and not air conditioned. When the weather gets "balmy" here in central Virginia everything sweats. I can control it fairly well on my larger machines but my measuring tools, spare chucks and things like that are a different matter. I found a solution you might want to try. I got a refrigerator from the junk yard (free) and added two more racks. The seals were still in excellent shape I guess the compressor just gave out. I put a container of that stuff they use to keep boats dry in the bottom. It works really well. I have my eyes open for another one now that it worked so good. I will then have one beside the lathe and one beside the mill.
 
I am in an unconditioned space right now also. I use camphor blocks smashed up and set in a little container with holes in some of my tool boxes, and am going to get a dehumidifier ASAP. I had one in my garage for years and nothing rusted in there, but it croaked.
 
they sell bags full of that "stuff". you put them on a scale from time to time and when full they go in the microwave.
 
My problem eKretz is that there is really no way to seal up my whole shop. I would love to "condition" the whole thing but there is just no way. My Vidmar cabinets work pretty well since I put heat mats on the bottom shelf. These are the rubber mats people buy to heat seed trays to make things germinate. Not really all that hot but enough to raise the temperature in the cabinet enough to keep the moisture from condensing. I have one of those in the bottom of my three largest cabinets. You don't lose any space to speak of since they are only 1/4" thick. The problem I have is with the larger stuff that has more mass and therefore more thermal inertia. Chucks, tool post grinder, boring heads, dividing heads etc. now all go in the fridge.
 
It also helps to wipe everything down after use. Some people, like myself, have oils or something in their skin that cause excessive rusting.
 
There are a lot of brews available out there. But an application of ATF thinned down with mineral spirits and/or toluene seems to do a good job at low cost. A small piece of paper towel wet down with it and placed in the box with the tool works well too. The residue isn't very offensive, wipes off easily. Also fans in the shop to keep the air moving helps with condensation of water on cool iron surfaces.
 
I have had the same problem unheated shop single layer of tin between inside and outside very well ventilated... I wipe all tools off after use and put them away. Spare chucks, larger MT drills, collets etc wipe down with oil and covered to keep dust off. I also have drop cloths on the machines to keep dust/grit off them especially if I am using a grinder.

I was recently put on to fuid film I have started using it on my collects and spare tooling. It does smell a little not real bad though.
 
There are a lot of brews available out there. But an application of ATF thinned down with mineral spirits and/or toluene seems to do a good job at low cost. A small piece of paper towel wet down with it and placed in the box with the tool works well too. The residue isn't very offensive, wipes off easily. Also fans in the shop to keep the air moving helps with condensation of water on cool iron surfaces.

+1 on all points.
the atf/acetone/spirits or linseed oil mix works really well.
i keep a big tomato can with it.. you can even spray the stuff out of a cheap garden sprayer for outside stuff, cranes, materials, etc.
i experimented for a minute with different mixes and came up with something kinda cool.. in a big can; add the aforementioned, a little heat, some japan dryer, a big chunk of beeswax chopped up into little pieces and a cup or two of paste wax. 'heat' until everything dissolves and incorporates. cools to a paste that can be wiped onto raw surfaces with a rag and kinda seems to polymerize when dry. can be scrubbed off easily with degreaser and scotch brite.
obviously not for measuring tools and such but great for a cheap and super effective heavy duty corrosion inhibitor.

as for the fans.. rob a few squirrel cage motors out of old hvac units. hvac houses recycle them so they're either free or very cheap. rig up a little plug with high/low switch and put a cheap air filter on the intake. WAY quieter than pedestal fans and move much more air, and with the added bonus of cleaning large particulate with the filter.


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I am in an unconditioned space right now also. I use camphor blocks smashed up and set in a little container with holes in some of my tool boxes, and am going to get a dehumidifier ASAP. I had one in my garage for years and nothing rusted in there, but it croaked.

I highly recommend getting the extended warranties on dehumidifiers for that reason. Its the only thing I buy extra warranty for because they tend to only last a couple years. Depending on the credit card you use, you can get an extra year or two of warranty as well. So far the warranty I bought for a dehumidifier (Frigidaire) 4 years ago has paid out twice.
 
I use mineral oil and a harbor freight paint sprayer at 7 psi. Been doing it for 5 years now and it works great.

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+1 on the fan. My shop is a reasonably well insulated shop but with kind-of leaky doors. Summers I have a window fan constantly pulling air thru the shop to keep it cool-ish, I only need to start the AC a few times. That said, the air pulling thru the shop tends to evaporate the oil off the bridgeport table and lathe chuck/backplate etc which will flash rust, so I keep a rag in the corner of the lathe chip tray where the tramp oil collects and use that to wipe down exposed surfaces every week or so.

The drawers of old library card catalog cabinet with the tooling gets a tablespoon of whatever motor oil is handy drizzled over the contents once a summer. Fabric shop towels draped over the larger tooling on shelves gets the same. The turret lathe has a relatively unventilated cabinet door w/ a collet rack on the inside, I give that area a few squirts of way oil.

I put all 4 machines up on jackscrews so I could get them mostly level (garage floor is fairly pitched and uneven), I have the impression that ventilation under the machines avoids rust from water wicking up thru the concrete, which I have seen with items incautiously left on the raw floor. This spring I painted the shop floor, which seems to have substantially reduced humidity, it certainly looks better; definitely recommend doing that if possible.
 
Vanguard...it's ironic that you would mention beeswax. I have quite a bit of it since I raise bees. I thin it with turpentine until I can spray it in a Sure-Shot. I coat all my big machinery tables, vises on the mill, lathe etc. It's kind of like cosmoline light. Absolutely no rust or corrosion at all. Just a very, very thin layer does it. It wipes off easily with a rag dampened with turpentine.
 
My shop is generally well insulated but I don't control the climate. I find that a mixture my fading eyesight and positive thought work pretty well to keep rust at an acceptable level. If it does get beyond that point, I add in equal parts of avoidance and denial. Finally, when it gets really bad, I wire brush it off as best I can then spray some LP3 on it. Once I've done that, I no longer use the tool because I don't want to touch it.
 
i experimented for a minute with different mixes and came up with something kinda cool.. in a big can; add the aforementioned, a little heat, some japan dryer, a big chunk of beeswax chopped up into little pieces and a cup or two of paste wax. 'heat' until everything dissolves and incorporates. cools to a paste that can be wiped onto raw surfaces with a rag and kinda seems to polymerize when dry. can be scrubbed off easily with degreaser and scotch brite.

Interesting. Do you think it's water proof and wash-off resistant? I have exposed hyd. piston rods outside I might try it on
 
It also helps to wipe everything down after use. Some people, like myself, have oils or something in their skin that cause excessive rusting.
I have an employee like this.
Things he handles or touches develop rust faster or leaves stains. Sometime just fingerprints that appear after a day or a week out of nowhere.
Beginning to think he is some sort of alien in disguise. In clean and pack he has to wear gloves.
Bob
 
I have been using LPS 2 and think it is the best yet. It lasts longer than WD40 but is not as permanent as the waxy sprays. A good compromise? They describe it as non-drying, but I find if you leave it a few days, it is almost dry and you can handle tools etc without getting oil over your hands, as you would with straight oil.

The first time I used it, the smell was terrible, now I don't mind it at all. Weird.
 
Vanguard...it's ironic that you would mention beeswax. I have quite a bit of it since I raise bees. I thin it with turpentine until I can spray it in a Sure-Shot. I coat all my big machinery tables, vises on the mill, lathe etc. It's kind of like cosmoline light. Absolutely no rust or corrosion at all. Just a very, very thin layer does it. It wipes off easily with a rag dampened with turpentine.

Do you have the slightest idea what "turpentine" is? Obviously not.
 
I got a refrigerator from the junk yard (free) and added two more racks. The seals were still in excellent shape I guess the compressor just gave out. I put a container of that stuff they use to keep boats dry in the bottom. It works really well. I have my eyes open for another one now that it worked so good. I will then have one beside the lathe and one beside the mill.

If it's still wired, you can hook up the lightbulb so that it stays on all the time, and that will keep the contents warm and dry. (incandescent bulb) Welding shops used to do that to keep their stick rods dry.
 
Move to Southern California. That is where I came from and after 10 years in Virginia the effects of humidity still blindside me. I guess it is a case of an old dog unable to learn new tricks. My favorite example is a scissor knurl I occasionally use on a manual lathe for personal tooling projects. I used to just blow it off and toss it back in a drawer and a couple years later use it again, it always looked the same and worked great. First time in Virginia 6 months in a drawer it rusted up where the wheels were frozen and it would no longer pivot. I used to always clean tools nicely before putting them away, now they get put back half oily so they will not rust.
On the Cali end I had no AC or Heat, here I at least have some of both, while inefficient, that I am upgrading.
 








 
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