Drill press column rust

I live in the humid Houston area. My woodworking shop does not have A/C, only fans to move the air around. I have a huge problem with tools getting surface rust. I have cleaned up the column on my Jet floor drill press, but in just a year, it is already getting rusty again. I put some rust preventer on it, but does not seem to have helped. I am thinking if I should get the column clean again and "cold blue" it. It will not be a shinny column any longer, but the bluing will look nicer than the rust every year or so... Any comments if this will work out ok?

sawdust&elbows said:

I live in the humid Houston area. My woodworking shop does not have A/C, only fans to move the air around. I have a huge problem with tools getting surface rust. I have cleaned up the column on my Jet floor drill press, but in just a year, it is already getting rusty again. I put some rust preventer on it, but does not seem to have helped. I am thinking if I should get the column clean again and "cold blue" it. It will not be a shinny column any longer, but the bluing will look nicer than the rust every year or so... Any comments if this will work out ok?

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I don't think you can get one year protection out of almost anything if the environment is really difficult. You'll have to re-apply a shorter intervals. On machines in storage I noticed that Vactra way oil ( with tackifier ) does about the best job. But it is messy, attracts dust and slowly dries.

Fluid Film, Spray it on , leave it, done.

A fifteen dollar can will last a long time unless you undercoat a vehicle in the snow belt.

For boats on salt water, nothing is better

It is food safe and excellent on blued steel, spray on, wipe clean, no more fingerprint damage.

Bluing doesn't provide much rust protection. Get the good sprays and polish it up frequently. Might try the waxes like Boeshield.

Go to Home Depot or equivalent.

Get a large (60pint) dehumidifier.

Wish you had bought one years ago.

I live in Iowa, moved here from North Dakota in 1984. Never saw an issue up there, but the humidity here in the summer will drip from any shop tools that are below dew point. You either have to heat them above dew point or lower the dew point by sealing the shop, and using dehumidifiers or air conditioning.
I don't know that any conformal coating will stop corrosion when there is a film of water, that is working to wash that protective oil film off. Gravity on that vertical column is pulling that film thin, and oil is a volatile hydrocarbon. It may not evaporate fast, but it evaporates.
My neighbor keeps his hand tools dry in his tool cabinet with a 40 watt light bulb in the bottom drawer. That's just enough energy to keep it above dew point.

Milland said:

Go to Home Depot or equivalent.

Get a large (60pint) dehumidifier.

Wish you had bought one years ago.

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And run the hose outdoors so it don't keep shutting-off as the bucket fills up.

Really. Think it through. "Fluid film" is grand stuff, but ...

The column is "in your face". Far WORSE slow corrosion damage is going-on where you do NOT see it. And cannot effectively coat nor renew a protective coating even if you GUESSED at it or went HUNTING for it.

"Air" .. and any moisture it carries? JF seems to "get around". Nature of the vapour, yah?

FIX.. the problem at the source.

Dry it up. Or blow-away.... to where it is NOT a problem.

You cannot EVER "win" a war against pervasive gases and vapours with wax and oil.

"Gun blue".. BTW .....is a form of rust.."doped" with trace elements. Selenous acid or such?

So countering RUST in condensing humidity with it ...is actually about as comical as shaving half yer scrotum, setting yer remaining pubic hair afire .. and standing ready to STAB ..crab lice to death ... with a sharp ice-pick.. as the terrified little buggers flee the flames in panic..

.. heading off to Washington.... for government jobs!

"Collateral damage thing?" Wait 'til you see the TAX bill!

Hurts worse if you MISS than if you HIT?

Condensing humidity is much the same.

Brownells Oxpho Blue is very easy to use and will give additional protection but you'll still need to periodically wipe it with light oil.

Scottl said:

Brownells Oxpho Blue is very easy to use and will give additional protection but you'll still need to periodically wipe it with light oil.

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Technetium 90 works a treat, too.

Been proven. Lloooong years ago, even.

Extract from Wiki:

===
When steel is immersed in water, adding a small concentration (55 ppm) of potassium pertechnetate(VII) to the water protects the steel from corrosion, even if the temperature is raised to 250 °C (523 K).[89] For this reason, pertechnetate has been used as an anodic corrosion inhibitor for steel, although technetium's radioactivity poses problems that limit this application to self-contained systems.[90] While (for example) CrO2−
4 can also inhibit corrosion, it requires a concentration ten times as high. In one experiment, a specimen of carbon steel was kept in an aqueous solution of pertechnetate for 20 years and was still uncorroded.[89] The mechanism by which pertechnetate prevents corrosion is not well understood, but seems to involve the reversible formation of a thin surface layer (passivation). One theory holds that the pertechnetate reacts with the steel surface to form a layer of technetium dioxide which prevents further corrosion; the same effect explains how iron powder can be used to remove pertechnetate from water. The effect disappears rapidly if the concentration of pertechnetate falls below the minimum concentration or if too high a concentration of other ions is added.[91]

As noted, the radioactive nature of technetium (3 MBq/L at the concentrations required) makes this corrosion protection impractical in almost all situations. Nevertheless, corrosion protection by pertechnetate ions was proposed (but never adopted) for use in boiling water reactors.[91]

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But you'll still need to risk that you might die younger of cancer?

De-humidifier seem a saner deal?

Thought so.

probably wont respond, but yes like others said, spend the $, buy a dehumidifier and keep doors shut. it's probably the salt in the air.