School me on oil - how do I stop my parts from rusting?

Just a Sparky · Jun 28, 2020

Real quick post because I'm pressed for time - can anyone out there well-versed in lubrication give me the scoop on what oils to use on bare-bright machine surfaces to prevent them from rusting? Lead screws, indicator dials, ball cranks, tables, etc.

I lubed up the parts for the mini-mill I've been degreasing with some Mobil DTE Medium a couple weeks ago - and they are now starting to develop a coppery reddish haze on their surface. Meanwhile the ways on the very same machine I lubed with Mobil Vactra 2 - and they are completely spotless & brilliantly shiny.

So why is it that certain oils perform better at rust inhibition than others and what should I be looking for to protect the surfaces on my machines? Vactra way oil seems to work well for inhibiting rust but I've heard way oil like that can dry out and turn into glue if not periodically re lubricated - kind of a problem with hard to reach parts like lead screws. Unfortunately I am not able to control the humidity in my garage arrangement - it sometimes gets upwards of 80% down there when it rains. Nothing I can do but find the right oil for the job.

Any advice? Thanks.

plastikdreams · Jun 28, 2020

Slide "no rust"

Just a Sparky · Jun 28, 2020

plastikdreams said:
Slide "no rust"

Pardon? I don't get it.

EDIT: Oh, 'Slide' is a brand name. Hurr.

plastikdreams · Jun 28, 2020

Just a Sparky said:
Pardon? I don't get it.

EDIT: Oh, 'Slide' is a brand name. Hurr.

They give free samples...I highly recommend them

Just a Sparky · Jun 28, 2020

Does it work as a lubricant or is it strictly a non-wearing surface protectant like some sort of varnish?

thermite · Jun 28, 2020

Just a Sparky said:
Does it work as a lubricant or is it strictly a non-wearing surface protectant like some sort of varnish?

Don't much need it, here, shop is witch-craft-spooky rust-free.

Cars and the woodchopper tools on the open-air carport, much less fortunate, Virginia monsoon and jungle climate.

"Fluid Film."

Farmers use it where animal urine and manure want to eat-up their ag equipment. Navy likes it to keep wire cable living longer lives 'stead of rust-rotting, out of sight, at the core.

A lot of it is lanolin. I like it because it is MEANT to degrade without having gotten in the way of ordinary USE, nor leaving ill-effects as it expects to be renewed not less than annually.

Boeing-developed "Boeshield" is another. Perhaps even LESS "intrusive", but not really any better-rated as to effectiveness for money spent.

Airyplanes and machine tools setting idle between specialized projects might be closer to your need than an ignorant manure-spreader, but still... don't recall a sheep ever gone rustid, either, so the same might be said for sex?

"Fluid Film" Try it, you might LIKE it!

FLUID FILM | Powerful Corrosion Protection & Lubrication

Ummmh but NOT for sex!

That's Astroglide's turf. Not a good match to machine tools. Water in it could rust yer tooling's nuts right off, two at a go.

Welll? Maybe for the "bionic"?

Just a Sparky · Jun 28, 2020

Does "Fluid Film" dry out and sludge with age and exposure to air, or does it just decompose and lose it's effectiveness? Just worried about anything with the potential to harden inside lead screws and thrust bearings. Stripping machines down is kind of a pain - would suck to have to do it annually.

Maybe what I need is a grease? Hmm. :confused:

I'm tempted to call up Mobil and ask them what the hell in regards to the rusting I'm getting with their DTE Medium - it's identified as having corrosion-protective properties! What the hell!

Rob F. · Jun 28, 2020

Just a Sparky said:
Maybe what I need is a grease? Hmm.

Cosmoline

thermite · Jun 28, 2020

Just a Sparky said:
Does "Fluid Film" dry out and sludge with age and exposure to air, or does it just decompose and lose it's effectiveness? Just worried about anything with the potential to harden inside lead screws and thrust bearings. Stripping machines down is kind of a pain - would suck to have to do it annually.

Maybe what I need is a grease? Hmm.

I'm tempted to call up Mobil and ask them what the hell in regards to the rusting I'm getting with their DTE Medium - it's identified as having corrosion-protective properties! What the hell!

Mobil.. doesn't CONTROL all of yer environment. And they were speaking of DTE's properties where it f**king belongs. INSIDE a gearbox.

Not slathered on a machine tool as if it was peanut-butter or strawberry jam trying to attract a wandering tongue.

Ask to be "schooled"? Yah GET skewled! "It's PM" Dammit!

Why don't you just follow that link, take the years since the 1940's the US Navy and a whole passel of OTHERS have been reliant on Fluid Film as a fair-decent guide ..... even if you won't take mine?

I didn't INVENT the s**t. A.N. Other PM member twigged a bunch of us to it, and it was found damned good at exactly what it claimed to be. Also turns up a "winner" in comparative product testing, protecting marine goods on water or the hard, either one.

GREASE? Is a metal-alkali saponifying an oil to be released, then re-absorbed so it don't run off and join the circus without looking back and leave a bearing or such bone-dry.

A specialized SOAP, IOW.

But not a great choice for preserving a fine surface as much as making a mucking fess on it by NOT working as you might expect a soap to do once spread all over yer bod, boots, hair if yah got any, and shop bikini or g-string thong.

Go ahead. Grease-up. Scratch yer ass. F**K up the up-hole-stirry in the sitting room, dining table, or yer new pickup truck if not "all of the above", same dam' go. And noooo "DAMHIKT!" Moly-slip G....grumble grumble.. Arco Graphite,... mumble mumble..."Never-Seize".. bumble.. bumble

Just a Sparky · Jun 28, 2020

Rob F. said:
Cosmoline

Rob F. · Jun 28, 2020

Well you did mention you might need grease for protection and nothing would protect it better than cosmoline.

For oils Starrett M1 oil leaves a protective residue.

thermite · Jun 28, 2020

Just a Sparky said:

Serious ENOUGH I stash Cosmoline and two close cousins. Also rolls and pre-cut "mini-bales" of two tribes of "VPI paper". It's damned cheap, actually, for the finer goods it can protect rather well. Metrology, but not-only.

And ANY shop WILL ... now and then .. have infrequent-use tooling, fixtures, workholding or accessories meant to go into "long term" local storage.

Cosmoline ain't exactly no "virgin" at that job, neither, ELSE I'd have been limited to a P-38 rather than an M2 with a buncha 30-rounders .. for guarding nuke warheads.. No warning. No mercy. Just short-order burger and call SGT of the guard, AFTER the threat has been liquidated. Not that he'd miss the frantic yammering of a 750 RPM M2 carbine at its work. "Underpowered" like an impatient mach-one zippered body-bag!

Betcher cold-war ASS I'm "being serious".

Just a Sparky · Jun 28, 2020

Fair enough. It's just that my only exposure to Cosmoline both in person and on-line has been in removing the stuff after it's thickened into tar-like wax. Which is... obviously not conducive to keeping the moving bits moving.

thermite · Jun 28, 2020

Just a Sparky said:
Fair enough. It's just that my only exposure to Cosmoline both in person and on-line has been in removing the stuff after it's thickened into tar-like wax. Which is... obviously not conducive to keeping the moving bits moving.

F**K's sake! "online" but Google is bustid at your house? "Move" it can do. As-in an entire roadgrader coated with it to insure it reached Sodomy Arabia from Newport News without being salt-water-air rusted to useless trash.

Cosmoline's main purpose in armories all over the world has BEEN to "thicken" but as what any GI recognizes AS "cosmoline". Messy but beloved s**t that has kept his daddy's era deadly tools safe for trusted use by the NEXT dam' war!

Or a "corrodable" HSS face mill yah only need onct in five years. Spray can will do yah. MOGAS or mineral spirits takes it off.

"Schooled"works better yah don't argue so much with Old Sods as learnt this shit the "up close and personal" hard way over as much as 75-plus years and still hang-out "right here, on PM".

It ain't Faceplant nor Twit-turd with madding hordes of juvenile delinquents posturing and swappin fotos of their INHERITED-ignorant bare asses at each other.

It's a MANUFACTURING forum. We endeavour to MAKE asses of each other!

DDoug · Jun 29, 2020

No worries...it's just a "Mini Mill".....

But please...No sparks around hydrocarbons...Heavy Nor Light.

deltap · Jun 29, 2020

What else might be in that garage? Cars with salt film all over them? Batteries with acid fumes coming from them? Bag of salt for drive and walks with calcium cloride added for low temp? Fertilizer for the garden? I remember having some tools immersed is sea water and no matter how many times they were rinsed with fresh water the rusting continued.

solidworks4u · Jun 29, 2020

I understand that engine motor oil (like for the car) is blended to absorb the moisture (the small amount of condensation that forms in humid locations, when a motor is run long enough this small amount of water will be baked out of the oil) and if you have ever seen engine with bad head gasket the oil is milky from the oil and coolant. If you have hydraulic oil system the water usually will collect in the reserve and can be drained off.

thermite · Jun 29, 2020

deltap said:
What else might be in that garage? Cars with salt film all over them? Batteries with acid fumes coming from them? Bag of salt for drive and walks with calcium cloride added for low temp? Fertilizer for the garden? I remember having some tools immersed is sea water and no matter how many times they were rinsed with fresh water the rusting continued.

Man, oh, man, ain't THAT the trooth! Hands got ahead of brains cleaning sumthin with the TINIEST amount of Muriatic acid INSIDE the shop!

"Hydronium Ions" recalled too damned LATE outta Jr HS through University chemistry courses I had been rather fond of "reached out and touched" anything remotely rust-capable in the whole damned space same day to within 24 hours and..

"curses, self-shagged. Yet again!"

Acids, Ammonia, salts, caustics and such concentrated bad-news were exiled to an outdoor hooch soon after to at least REMIND my daffy-ass WTF it WAS being dealt with that hour off the back of the inconvenience of going after it - then rigging a safer place to USE it.

Flammables got a place of their outdoors-own, too - same as in the Army where as a MINIMUM, we'd dig a hole, lay a steel wall-locker on its back into a "grave" as "paint locker". Didn't so much "prevent" any possible fire. Sure as s*** put it where we could control one better than if under the clothing and matresses of a coupla dozen snoring GI's.

Many a day, screwing your own convenience a "SMALL locker" rations-worth pays-off in avoiding BIGGER rations dealt outta the bottomless "hurt locker".

flubber · Jun 30, 2020

different rust preventative options

You might want to consider Dow-Corning Metal Protective Coating. I think you can buy it from MSC or other supply houses. We bought it in 12oz cans and used it on some EDM equipment and tooling items that were put in longer term storage. Attached is data sheet. Some stamping firms in the north used to coat $100k+ forming dies with stuff and store them outside.

Dow Metal Proactive Coating | Krayden

We were a very high volume screw machine and CNC shop with over 60 multi-spindle machines. For one customer we produced a lot of hydraulic cartridge valve bodies and inserts with very close tolerances and fine surface finishes. We machined in oil on both our screw machines and CNC milling machines. The steel parts did not like going from oil to water soluble etc. For packing and shipping, we originally put parts in heavy duty Rust-Veto product by Houghton. Good stuff, but dried to a hard waxy finish that was difficult to remove when customer had to plate. We eventually went to a mixture of mineral spirits (Varsol?) and automatic transmission fluid. The stuff worked great for our purposes, but it never really dried and the customer didn't care. We had to pack the items after dipped into special rust-preventative plastic bags (yellow tint in color) and then placed them into specially sized boxes. We shipped millions of pieces per year over a few different sizes.

tech610 · Jul 2, 2020

I second the Fluid Film. It seeps into nooks and crannies and doesn't dry out. Also great for work leather boots and leather gloves.

School me on oil - how do I stop my parts from rusting?

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