Carpet for plane storage?

[Dan Forman]

Has anyone heard of any problems resulting from storing planes on carpet over plywood? I remember a post where someone used cork, but am wondering abut using some indoor/ outdoor carpet instead.

Dan

[Mike Wenzloff]

Hi Dan,

I use a very heavy crushed felt, probably not unlike an indoor/outdoor carpet. I think the issue is one of moisture absorbtion in the material. If you have inherent moisture in the air already where you store your planes (mine are in a drawer) *and* you are currently getting rust from just the environment, the material will most likely wick it to the soles.

I don't have rust issues, so the felt I use is just to protect the non-retracted irons.

It isn't cheesy 1970's orange, is it <g>...

Mike

[Dan Forman]

Mike---What's wrong with cheddar orange shag??? :D

I have a dehumidifier, so as long as it is working, moisture shouldn't be much of a factor. The only traces of rust I have found so far is secondary to finger or hand prints on table and bandsaw.


To clarify my concern, I was thinking that carpet would provide adequate ventilation to keep moisture from being trapped against the sole of the planes, kind of like a plane sock. I'm hoping it would also block any corrosive gasses coming from the plywood, or at least allow them to dissipate so as to avoid prolonged close contact with the sole, as well as protect the blade from damage. I have a few planes which lack mechanical adjusters, and can be a pain to set up properly.

What I'm wondering, is whether I would need indoor/outdoor to effectively block those nasty plywood gasses, and whether there would be any similar corrosive agents coming from the I/O carpet itself, maybe from the glue used to bind the backing?

Dan

[Mike Wenzloff]

Hey Dan,

When you mentioned in/outdoor carpet, in my mind it was the flat stuff. Now, we need to talk about that shag...<g>

Regardless, I have my scrubs and scraper planes planes sitting directly on ply shelves in my original wall mounted tool cabinet. I made the cabinet umpteen million years ago (first thing I made--it's, uh, we'll skip it). The planes have/were never affected by any off-gassing. I also used Baltic Birch ply for the drawer bottoms in my bench that the felt is installed in for all the planes kept in it. Never a problem in 6-8 years.

I have heard the off-gassing of ply is corrosive and have heard of people having issues attributed to it. Out of the countless shops I have been in where ply is used (probably all of them darn near) to store metal planes I have never *seen* a problem.

I don't know if that is helpful or not. I can't imagine the problem would be so quick that if it were to occur you wouldn't be able to take corrective measures. And, you could always shellac the ply anyway.

Mike

[Dan Forman]

Mike---Thanks for your replies. I had never heard of the off-gas problem untill reading a thread here. Good to know it apparently needs a co-conspiritor to wreak it's evil deeds. Unless I hear of any problems, I will pick up a piece of carpet remanent on the cheap and proceed as planned. This will actually just be a temporary shelf, until I can make a proper tool cabinet.

Dan