How do you stop your tooling from rusting?

[KyleH2]

Some of the taps and drill bit I have have rusted form being outside. I am in Florida and it is VERY hot and VERY humid in the summer time. The tool bits are locked away in a cabinet but they still rust. Is the best thing I can do is to coat them with WD-40? (I ask because I know sometime I will forget to coat one tool and it will rust.) What do you guys do in your non air conditioned shops to prevent tools from rusting? I thought a large one of those silica packs in each drawer might help.

[jeep534]

Originally Posted by KyleH2 Some of the taps and drill bit I have have rusted form being outside. I am in Florida and it is VERY hot and VERY humid in the summer time. The tool bits are locked away in a cabinet but they still rust. Is the best thing I can do is to coat them with WD-40? (I ask because I know sometime I will forget to coat one tool and it will rust.) What do you guys do in your non air conditioned shops to prevent tools from rusting? I thought a large one of those silica packs in each drawer might help.

Not WD40 LPS-3 I get it at Grainger. but I thought It was very expensive. for "pickling" i have used Mystic "spray Grease" with some success. it is very humid where I live. the last couple of years we have been overwhelmed with mold out side. I live in wv near the ohio river

Happy Hunting
archie =) =) =)

[fpworks]

WD40 is not a rust inhibitor by any means. We hit everything with Rustlick 631, but probably any good rust inhibitor would be fine.

Air conditioning and circulation (not ventilation) is nearly a must in any humid region to prevent corrosion.

Not sure if those silica packs are adequate...they typically have to be quite large for the applicable volume. You may want to buy a small digital humidistat and place it in the cabinet to see if the silica packs are effective.

[jalessi]

I would suggest NOT using the silica packs unless you keep your tooling in a sealed plastic container like "Tupperware"

At high levels of humidity, the pouch type desic-cant becomes over-saturated and usually leaks.

Jeff Alessi

[handlewanker]

Hi all, a lot of the time when you've got humid conditions, it's the sweat from your hands that causes the rust by leaving a smear of salt on the tools which being hygroscopic ( affinity for water) attracts moisture, and so the rusting goes on.

I have an unheated brick garage, detached from the house, and the night time temps in winter go down to 2 degrees C with Summer temps up around the 35-38 deg C outside and 50 degrees C inside, (metal roof, no insulation).
Ian.

I have to wipe my tools with a piece of clean rag that has a bit of oil on it and this usually cures the problem.

I also cover my machinery with a plastic sheet, firstly to keep the dust off but mostly to keep an atmosphere that doesn't attract moisture, works for me for the last 25 years or so.
Ian.

[Mike Nash]

I've simply decided that if the shop ain't comfy, I'm not going to want to go out there. If I'm comfy, the tools ain't gonna rust. I did a really good job insulating my detached garage after I had it built and even sheetrocked the thing. So an 8000 BTU window unit can keep the 24x30x10 high area under 80-85 and dry. We were in and out of the garage yesterday continuously and it still held the temp under 80 although we were sweat soaked before 10AM. Unfortunately, that unit is on its last legs after the last few hot humid summers in the Birmingham, Al area. The real problem with the A/C in a garage is if you have to open the overhead door when the shop is cool and it's really humid outside. Instant rust film on the machines if they aren't oily. When I moved my new mill in last weekend I left the A/C off overnight to prevent this.

I also decided this past winter to stop fooling myself and just leave a small heater on all the time on low. I would go out and stand in front of a heater for 30 minutes to an hour doing nothing, then go back in the house because I was too cold. I tried a fan forced kerosene unit before and it was quick, but I couldn't stand how I smelled afterwards. Same problem with the regular kersene heaters.

[jeep534]

Originally Posted by Mike Nash I've simply decided that if the shop ain't comfy, I'm not going to want to go out there. If I'm comfy, the tools ain't gonna rust. I did a really good job insulating my detached garage after I had it built and even sheetrocked the thing. So an 8000 BTU window unit can keep the 24x30x10 high area under 80-85 and dry. We were in and out of the garage yesterday continuously and it still held the temp under 80 although we were sweat soaked before 10AM. Unfortunately, that unit is on its last legs after the last few hot humid summers in the Birmingham, Al area. The real problem with the A/C in a garage is if you have to open the overhead door when the shop is cool and it's really humid outside. Instant rust film on the machines if they aren't oily. When I moved my new mill in last weekend I left the A/C off overnight to prevent this. I also decided this past winter to stop fooling myself and just leave a small heater on all the time on low. I would go out and stand in front of a heater for 30 minutes to an hour doing nothing, then go back in the house because I was too cold. I tried a fan forced kerosene unit before and it was quick, but I couldn't stand how I smelled afterwards. Same problem with the regular kersene heaters.

was the Kerosene heater vented to the out side. I have been looking at the Monitor and I believe toyo... also there is window air conditioners that also heat.

archie =) =) =

[Mike Nash]

No venting on the kersosene but the forced air unit could warm the garage up nicely in 10 minutes. I have thought about trying to work up a heat exchanger for it. I have probably 80 gallons of kero I would like to use. I have a suspiscion the Pri-D I used as a preservative has added to the stink. It was also bulk kero, not the unscented, mortgage your firstborn child variety.

I would like to get a heat pump for the shop for sure. Maybe next year. I worked up the cost to heat for natural gas vs 20 lb propane vs resistance heat last fall and at the time, resistance beat out an 80% efficient natural gas furnace in Alabama. How's that for ridiculous considering they're pumping the natural gas out of the Gulf of Mexico in Alabama waters? Unvented natural gas logs was a little cheaper.

[mc-motorsports]

LPS is great! I use WD-40 because we use it every day to oil weld flanges and parts that are shipped out and will be welded to, WD-40 won't mess with your welds. Just wipe it off and weld, some other "rust preventatives" are hard to clean prior to welding. WD-40 isn't the best, wasn't made for a rust preventative coating, but it works.

MC

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

WD-40 (Water Displacement 40th attempt) displaces water and my personal experience tells me it's not a very good lubricant or rust inhibitor. Being an experienced machinist (old fart), I used a lot of Starrett Gage and Instrument Oil which prevented rust and corrosion.

Basically, it's 3-in-1 or other light oil mixed with oil of camphor. Of course, you never heard of it. But it used to be available at the local drug store, used for a cure for cold sores (a minor herpes infection of the lips aka fever blisters).

It's that stuff you smell in the desiccant packs.

My mother still uses it and she's in her 90's, so I assue it's safe to use. lol

Dick Z

[bodgy]

The Samurai used Camelia Oil for centuries to stop their swords from rusting. I've used it on my wood planes and it works fine.

Just started to use it on machine beds and tools. Only for rust prevention, its not a great lubricant. Only issue is that it can get a bit sticky, but we'll see.

Don't get it from specialist suppliers, its costs an arm and a leg. The bigger supermarkets have it in the food oil section. About $3 for a litre.

[handlewanker]

Hi all, the big problem in humid conditions, especially where metal is concerned is temperature difference, that is if you're working in your garage and have an airconditioner on, the inside (and all machinery) will get cooler and so the moist air will condense on anything cold.

I used to get this in UK in winter big time, when you get a really cold night down to 0 degres C and then the morning comes and the temperature rises to 4 or 5 deg C.

The garage was unheated and as soon as the temperature outside went up a degree or two, everything started dripping with water, the big vice I had was the worst, it dripped all day and had to be smeared with oil all the time.

The only real answer to the problem was to keep the temperature inside at or just above the expected next day temperature to prevent the condensation cycle taking place, only wants a few degrees.

One guy I knew back in 1975 in UK used to have a 25 Watt light bulb on under a plastic sheet on his Myford lathe, and this just kept the lathe slightly above outside temperature but didn't cost an arm and a leg to run.

You only need it when you have the Autumn and Spring cold night and warm day situation, in Winter it stays cold all the time, but if you are warming the shop without keeping the machinery warm, you can get the metal work acting as a condenser.

A few low wattage resistance type heaters attached to the machinery will keep them above the cold night temp, and a plastic cover will prevent heat loss.

I went down the kero heater path and like you said, do they stink, so I bought an LPG portable gas heater, just a cabinet on wheels with a gas bottle behind and radiant heater elements in front.

Works fine, except if the door's down you get the gas cutting off when the oxygen sensor detects a low oxygen level after about an hour, so I just open the door and run a fan for a few minutes to vent the place.

There's a real cool heater in the market that is shaped like a giant U tube, some about 20 feet long, used in some of the big tool stores, and it works by having a burner at one end blowing down the pipe and venting out the other end, with the pipe getting hot and radiating the heat in the form of infra red rays from a reflector behind it.

They are ideal where you can't heat the air due to too much air movement, but they heat the surroundings with the reflected heat very well.

I wouldn't mind making something like that for the garage with the vent end going outside to exhaust the fumes, so no danger of a fire hazard, probably needs about a 3" diam bore thin wall tube about 15 feet long and a long curved reflector behind it.

I'm about to outlay some cash to buy a load of 1" thick Poystyrene foam insulation panels for the garage roof, (approx 28 sq metres at $3 per sq metre), which being metal and uninsulated just lets any heat out at present, and also gets too bloody hot to work in, in Summer.
Ian.