Storing machinery in un insulated New England garage?

[Kevin Goss]

i work out of a 1 car garage, but i keep my bigger tools in a small uninsulated pole barn with 1 man door and 1 garage door. I keep wax on the tables and throw the beige cloth painters tarps over the big tools when not in use. I do try to avoid opening the garage door when there's a large temp difference interior to exterior such as on a late warm fall day when the machines are cold but the air is warm i have had water form on metal surfaces, even my tools in drawers such as in the sliding drawer tool chest will condensate. if you are just storing the tools it makes it easier as you just throw wax or oil on metal surfaces. I store my planes most of the time in a large wooden carpenter box with a arm & hammer moisture absorber in the bottom which i've never had any rust develop on anything in that box. i'd just protect as best as possible and it won't be a big issue for only 1 year.

[Kyle Stiefel]

Where to in NH?

Hello! We are moving from CA to NH with a shop full of tools and machinery. We won’t be able to build our shop for about a year, so we can either sell all of the large / heavy equipment, or store it in the un insulated garage.

My husband’s concern is that the machines will rust out before we get the shop finished.

Can you New Englanders chime in? Would this be an issue, or can I just T9 and oil everything?

Thanks!

[tom lucas]

my shop is unheated/uncooled when not in use, and there is no insulation. When finished using my machinery, I dust off and/or vacuum up all the saw dust. Then apply a light coat of WD40. If not planning to use for a few weeks or longer, I apply Johnson's paste wax right on the WD40 film. I let that dry and then dust with talcum powder using a dry-board eraser. Never had any rust. I would do the same for long term storage, except I'd probably use some fluid-film on trunions and other internal parts.

One other thing I never do is leave bottles of fluids on bare metal. Moisture will more readily condense on the bottle and run down onto the machinery. I found this out the hard way. And it can be a lot of water too. I left a gallon of Simple green sitting on my table saw one fall day. I didn't go in the shop for a few days after that but when I did there was a huge puddle of water around the jug and the saw was all rusted within it. At first I thought the jug had leaked, or my roof was leaking. But it neither. It was just condensation. Now I won't even sit anything liquid on my machinery; not even for a second. It lands on wood or painted surfaces only.