Preventing steel rusting on diy CNC router?

[Goemon]

The inside of the tubes isn't really an issue. They won't ever get more than light surface rust on them.
I wouldn't paint the flat bars if you plan on embedding them in epoxy. Just scrub them with steel wool and wd40, then wipe them with a light oil and wrap them in paper. Clean thoroughly when you are ready to use them.
When the machine is finished, you can then coat the exposed portions with wax, or a light oil periodically.

I was only planning on embedding the bottom half of my tooling steel bars. The top half was going to be exposed to mount the THK rails. Now that you say though, there is probably no reason why they have to be exposed. They could be lightly submerged and the mounting screws for the rails could go through the epoxy.

I hadn't considered WD40 as a rust prevention option. Do you think an occasional wipe down with wd40 would be enough to protect it?

[ger21]

No, WD40 will NOT stop or prevent rust. I was telling you to use it to remove the rust, and use oil to prevent rust.

[Goemon]

No, WD40 will NOT stop or prevent rust. I was telling you to use it to remove the rust, and use oil to prevent rust.

Ok I misunderstood. I thought you meant that the wd40 was the oil used to prevent the rust. I missed that there was a different oil needed for prevention.

[wizard]

Ok I misunderstood. I thought you meant that the wd40 was the oil used to prevent the rust. I missed that there was a different oil needed for prevention.

WD40 is about 50% kerosene (or something similar) with maybe another 30% very light oils and then some surfactants and other stuff. The bad part with WD40 is that much of it will evaporate leaving behind a nasty varnish like coating.

WD40 is one of those products with many great uses but surprisingly, pretty terrible at somethings people try to use it for. One of those things is tust prevention, here it just does not work.

Oils can be good up to the point that you have condensing moisture. Most oils float on water thus water beading up on the surface can push the oil away. This is a huge problem for guys in colder climates with sporadically heated shops.

One possibility is to go to a sporting goods store and buy gun lubes designed to provide rust protection. The problem here is removing this stuff once you want to put the final finish on.

You mat want to consider putting the final finish on early in the build process if your rusting conditions are real bad. Look at touching everything up after final assembly.

It can be frustrating watching your freshly machined parts rust before your eyes. Lately I've been using tooling blackening solution on parts made out of cold rolled or structural steel sheet (so called mild steel). The solution is sold in kits with one bottle referred to as a sealant. This sealant is a lot like CLP gun "oils", it even smells like them. The nice thing about this approach is there is no build up to speak of on the surface, so it is suitable for things that have to mate up. Also nothing special is required you just need gloves, running water and a few misc. items.

[Goemon]

WD40 is about 50% kerosene (or something similar) with maybe another 30% very light oils and then some surfactants and other stuff. The bad part with WD40 is that much of it will evaporate leaving behind a nasty varnish like coating.

WD40 is one of those products with many great uses but surprisingly, pretty terrible at somethings people try to use it for. One of those things is tust prevention, here it just does not work.

Oils can be good up to the point that you have condensing moisture. Most oils float on water thus water beading up on the surface can push the oil away. This is a huge problem for guys in colder climates with sporadically heated shops.

One possibility is to go to a sporting goods store and buy gun lubes designed to provide rust protection. The problem here is removing this stuff once you want to put the final finish on.

You mat want to consider putting the final finish on early in the build process if your rusting conditions are real bad. Look at touching everything up after final assembly.

It can be frustrating watching your freshly machined parts rust before your eyes. Lately I've been using tooling blackening solution on parts made out of cold rolled or structural steel sheet (so called mild steel). The solution is sold in kits with one bottle referred to as a sealant. This sealant is a lot like CLP gun "oils", it even smells like them. The nice thing about this approach is there is no build up to speak of on the surface, so it is suitable for things that have to mate up. Also nothing special is required you just need gloves, running water and a few misc. items.

Now that's my language! I have gun lube and other similar oils for my air rifles too. I also have silicone based grease that is specifically designed for machine parts. I don't know if it helps with rust but it won't bead up or fish-eye.

[wizard]

Now that's my language! I have gun lube and other similar oils for my air rifles too. I also have silicone based grease that is specifically designed for machine parts. I don't know if it helps with rust but it won't bead up or fish-eye.

Surface Silicon can be very difficult to remove from steels. I only say this due to the extremes they go to at work to remove all elemental silicon from tooling. Silicon can impact many final finishes also. Most of this probably doesn't impact your usage I just wanted to point out that Silicon can be a friend or enemy depending upon what exactly you are doing.

This is what I've been using lately for tool blackening: . There are many options possible here

[ger21]

Yeah, if you ever want to paint, or epoxy the steel in place, do NOT use anything with silicone on it.