Table care question??

[Martin 007]

Looking for a bit of advice on table treatment for my knee mill. I live here in Florida where humidity can be a problem. Although I cleaned the rust from the bare table with WD-40, over a short time the rust came back. I don’t use oil as my main material is aluminum. I have yet to use cooling fluid, but I will be soon. So the question is; what should I treat the table with? Maybe wax? Any suggestions for cooling fluid other than oil would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance
Doug

[Geof]

If you start using a water mix coolant at a concentration maybe twice what the manufacturer recommends you should avoid most rust formation. With a high enough concentration when the water evaporates it leaves behind a film of oil that prevents rust.

[Martin 007]

Is there a certain brand that is more recomended or mixture prefered? I was also reading the thread on cutting Aluminum, and see how lowering the DOC and keeping the right chip feed helps keep it cool. I also have the ability to feed air at the bit. Maybe that would cause less of a mess. Still wouldn't solve the rust problem, but just further thought. I also have the same trouble with my table saw, but oils and wax are bad for the finished product when it all is said and done. Maybe a closed room with AC might work...Ha

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

I don't put much faith in WD-40 as a rust inhibitor. W (water) D (displacement) 40 (40th attempt) I believe was designed to get rid o water, not prevent rust or lubricate.

I'm old fashioned. For rust removal I prefer rubber gloves, kerosene and elbow grease. Sometimes instead of kerosene, Automatic transmission fluid.

As Geof indicated, a "richer" concentration of coolant will help. You might look around a bit, I believe there are even water-based rust inhibitors available.

Dick Z

[rcsimpson]

Corrosion-X is your friend. I treated my ENCO knee mill with this after a good polishing with some "fourpul ought steel wool" and it stayed rust free even in a non-AC environment. I sold it to a guy and he stripped it down with MEK or something. It rusted overnight something fearce.

http://www.corrosionx.com/

[JDenyer232]

Originally Posted by Martin 007 Looking for a bit of advice on table treatment for my knee mill. I live here in Florida where humidity can be a problem. Although I cleaned the rust from the bare table with WD-40, over a short time the rust came back. I don’t use oil as my main material is aluminum. I have yet to use cooling fluid, but I will be soon. So the question is; what should I treat the table with? Maybe wax? Any suggestions for cooling fluid other than oil would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance Doug

Here is how we do it. We use a water soluble oil as the cutting fluid, rustlick ultracut 250R which works great on aluminum and brass as well as steels. We take a quart spray bottle and mix a 50/50 dilution of the ultracut and water. When done for the day we clean and squegee the tables and vises, and spray on the 50/50 mix. When we come in the next morning there is a nice glossy coating of mineral oil on the table and vise, just turn the coolant on and rinse it off, it will just mix in with your coolant and not contaminate it like wd 40 would. Hope this helps.

[Martin 007]

Thanks JDenyer. I think that is what we use at work for the drop saw. I only used the WD to clean the table and vise as it had rust from shipping and sitting while I got it set up. I actually thought though that spraying it afterwards and not whipping it off would displace the moisture and keep away the rust,... Not. WD does make a good "Soap" so to say when using scotch-brite to get rid of rust.
So now I have been using the machine more and more and I havent started using coolant yet, and I might not ever use it. I have been using air and with the whipeing down and such to cleanup ect.. the rust isnt comming back. I will start to spray it down as you have said. If the Ultracut is the same as we have it is nice to work with. I'm only cutting aluminum with this machine, so othr than the table galleys I dont really need oil and might not need coolant. Thanks for the info all of you.

Doug