Winter's Rust

[Jim Knauss]

Hello all,
The last couple weeks have finally been nice enough for me to get off the couch and out to my unheated (except for space heaters) shop. I had waxed my tool tops when I was done for the season and I mean WAXED! Still had rust starting on everything except my old Tablesaw which had been replaced. I never even waxed the old saw and still no rust! It finally occured to me that before I knew better I used SILICONE! Yes, folks, I did a no-no and didnt Know better till I joined the Creek. I never had a finishing problem due to silicone that I know of. So guess what, after a few hours of cleaning rust off I'm going back to using silicone spray and paste wax like I used to until I see a problem. I like the ease of use and slick feel after you apply a coat of silicone spray. Anyone else use Silicone before they knew better?

Have a great day,
Jim Knauss

[Steve Clardy]

I still use wd-40 and 220 paper for cleanup. Then baby powder occasionally.
I usually don't wax unless I have to leave for a week or two.
I'm a homebody. Work in my shop daily

[Bart Leetch]

Just Johnsons past wax in an insulated shop with heat paid for by the company I work for.:D :eek: :D

[Dev Emch]

Where I live, winter is often dry. We get snow but the relative hummidity is nothing compared to what I see back east. Back east, its a major problem. Your first line of defense is to insulate and heat the shop to 50 degrees. This keeps condensation from forming.

If you shut down your shop for the winter season and dont heat, then your in trouble. Silicone or not. You should first spray all machined parts like screws, nuts ways, etc. with liberal amounts of WD-40.

Then spray all your tops with WD-40 and let stand. WD-40 penetrates the pores and hauls out the H-2-O offending molecules. After about a day, wipe off the residue which contains the offending water.

Then coat the tops with clean motor oil. I use quaker state as I had some left over from my old gas guzzler SUV (I switched over to diesel yrs ago). Use lots of of it! Sather it on. A little oil today keeps the rust away. Then wrap up the surface using that industrial shrink wrap plastic. You know, cerran wrap on steriods. The stuff they wrap pallets with today. Wrap up the top and sides to keep the oil nicely sealed in. Now your ready for the worst winter. Heck, now you can keep your machine outdoors as long as you use a heavy tarp to cover it.

This method is the old method used when cosmoline is not available. Been used for years and years. Now we use shrink wrap plastic instead of resin paper or newspaper. Cleaner and works better.

The problem with cast iron is that its like a huge ice tea glass in the middle of July. The thermal properties of cast iron are such that if you go through these heat and cold cycles, your going to get condenstate from the atmosphere and this can actually penetrate many oil products if not properly sealed in because oil floats on water.

Good Luck....