Look what the Pennine climate did to my tools!

[brewdexta]

I was working in the workshop on Monday evening and everything was hunky dory. I worked away for a couple of days and opened up the workshop to check the rating on my tom senior M1 motor and it had gone from shiney to rusty very quickly, it had been wiped with the ubiquitous oily rag which doesnt seem to do a lot.

So I then turned around to look at the TS light vertical I'm renovating and

I've got various so called rust protectors like Gibbs etc, I dont think they will protect against this type of condensation based rust. I don't think using a dehumidifier would help much as I would be trying to dry out Yorkshire, a bit like having air conditioning on with the car window open.

I may have put something more heavy duty on over the winter, any thoughts?


Cheers
Andy

 

[PhillipM]

Dynax UC works damned well

 

[Pete.]

Your workshop looks like it's made from the same 40mm insulated panels as mine, and the only time I've seen flash rust like that after a couple of days on a freshly fly-cut slab of cast iron. I think you need to find a better way of coating it.

Other than that - got any acid stored in the place? Open batteries on charge? Acid, especially nitric acid, will rust every damn thing in sight.

 

[brewdexta]

Dynax UC works damned well

Thanks Phil
I just looked on my shelves and I had ordered some of that for my tractor a couple of years ago so may give it ago.

Cheers
Andy

 

[octo0072000]

oil and grease mixed well and painted on with a brush works well

 

[wristpin]

Not a very scientific answer, in fact more of a question! Would a small desk fan placed on the mill keep the air moving and prevent condensation or make it worse?

 

[Shox Dr]

Sorry to see that Andy.

I Liberally coat my machines in WD40 or whatever is to hand.


As for Acid I had a bottle of Antinox sat next to my roofing square for a few days, it rusted the square just like your mills. I've sanded it, even shot blasted it and still 3 yrs on it still rusts in that area of the square really badly. I also though it would be a good idea to clean the mortar off a couple of trowels with Brick acid: same problem

 

[rtbcomp]

.............
Other than that - got any acid stored in the place? Open batteries on charge? Acid, especially nitric acid, will rust every damn thing in sight.

+1

I was doing some gold reclamation and got my quantities wrong and ended up with nitric acid fumes filling the room. After it had all cleared all the exposed steel items were coated in a brown film.

Another time I was charging a battery in the garage and a cell went down. This produced hydrogen sulphide, I could smell it in the bedroom, but put it down to the cat. Next morning all the exposed copper water pipes were coloured black.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

I have the same problem in my workshops and I have been recommended Jade oil to try, not tried it yet.

 

[Robotstar5]

Another time I was charging a battery in the garage and a cell went down. This produced hydrogen sulphide, I could smell it in the bedroom, but put it down to the cat.

 

[brewdexta]

I have no acid knocking about that I can think of, I'm not sure about the efficacy of a fan in deterring condensation/rust.

There must have been a sudden increase in humidity and/or a drop in air pressure causing condensation. Typically rust is minimal below 55% RH I believe. I've also ordered a humidity detector that I can wire back to a raspberry pi so I can send an alarm if it exceeds a threshold, however that may take a bit more work.

I have a dehumidifier arriving tomorrow, I will block up a few gaps so I'm not extracting the moisture from the whole planet, remove the rust and daub the surfaces with a oil/Gibbs if its a sliding surface or Dynax if its just for show and see how that goes.

 

[zardoz]

Do you have an extractor fan on the workshop ? That might be better than a straight forward fan.?

 

[Wayne.]

I'm facing the same problem in my garage at home

 

[Wedg1e]

What a bummer

I spray my machines with WD40, 3-in-1, paraffin or whatever i can find and they stil bl**dy well rust...

 

[brightspark]

as shox said wd40 and cover the machine with a cloth when u come to use it wipes of easy and also cleans the machines

 

[voipio]

The trouble with large pieces of metal is their thermal intertia. They take a long time to heat up and cool down. After a few days of cold weather, the large lumps of metal will get pretty cold. A spell of relatively warmer humid weather will soon have it sweating all over and rusting like a good un.

There are several ways of tackling the problem. Blocking all the draughts and installing a dehumidifier is one way. Running a heater in the workshop for a few hours when warm(er) weather has been forecast after a cold spell will also help to avoid condensation. I say warmer because if it's been -5 for a few days and a spell of +2 or 3 degrees is forecast, that would be enough. Another way might be to fit some sort of heaters to the lumpy bits.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6mm-x-50m...445?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2c6ed83a25

You would need to find some way of fixing this type of heater to the metalwork and making it electrically safe.

Here's a recent thread on dehumidifiers:

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=44046

 

[brewdexta]

I think an extractor fan would just move the air around, more damp air from outside would leak in to replace it. Either that or create a complete vacuum which may be good for stopping rust but I would need a space suit to use my tools

I have been meaning to get some dust covers for the machines so that may be the way to go in addition to dehumidifier and a plenty of grease/wax/oil

I opened up one of my nice wood planes that has been stored covered in oil and wrapped in wax paper in a box, also rusty

Maybe I should just gold plate everything

 

[Robotstar5]

I opened up one of my nice wood planes that has been stored covered in oil and wrapped in wax paper in a box, also rusty

Put a dessicant crystal pack in the box?

 

[brewdexta]

The trouble with large pieces of metal is their thermal intertia. They take a long time to heat up and cool down. After a few days of cold weather, the large lumps of metal will get pretty cold. A spell of relatively warmer humid weather will soon have it sweating all over and rusting like a good un.

There are several ways of tackling the problem. Blocking all the draughts and installing a dehumidifier is one way. Running a heater in the workshop for a few hours when warm(er) weather has been forecast after a cold spell will also help to avoid condensation. I say warmer because if it's been -5 for a few days and a spell of +2 or 3 degrees is forecast, that would be enough. Another way might be to fit some sort of heaters to the lumpy bits.

Thanks for this, I've gone the dehumidifier route, arrives tomorrow so will see how it goes. I have noticed the lathe covered in condensation before so see your point about big lumps of cold metal.

 

[brewdexta]

Put a dessicant crystal pack in the box?

May work for a while however I guess they will get saturated at some point. I think I shall have to pay for the leccie for the dehumidier