Wooden shelves for tool storage?

[jakes_66]

After purchasing a large quantity of tooling with my Greaves Cincinnati horizontal milling machine, I realized I'm going to need a good bit of shelving and storage. A recent barn flooring project has left me with quite a lot of 1-1/2" to 1-3/4" thick excess northern red oak lumber. There are slitting saws, slab mills, collet sets, twist drills, etc. that need to be stored properly.

Is there anything I need to know about storing tooling long term on a wooden shelf, i.e. corrosion concerns due to the wood attracting atmospheric moisture? I would love to use up some of this leftover oak since it will make a perfectly sized cabinet for my needs, but I don't want to create a problem.

 

[Jim F]

Back in the day, and still a little bit today, machinists tool boxes were made of wood.

 

[jakes_66]

Back in the day, and still a little bit today, machinists tool boxes were made of wood.

Yes, I know there are plenty made from wood, but often lined with felt. Do I need to coat the wood or treat it somehow?

 

[Jim F]

Yes, I know there are plenty made from wood, but often lined with felt. Do I need to coat the wood or treat it somehow?

I would, just to prevent staining and for as aesthetics .

 

[hman]

I've read in several places that, because oak contains tannins, it can cause corrosion of metals in contact with the wood. And there have been several discussions on the forum about what adhesives to use/not use to adhere the felt.
Here are links to some threads nay be of interest:

Wood: Enemy of Metal?

Recently I happened to run across an interesting article on Corrosion of Metals by Wood (the article s from the National Physical Laboratory in England). As a person who enjoys woodworking as well as metal working, I often make tool holders (as in for storing on a shelf or in a drawer) out of...

www.hobby-machinist.com

Drawer Liners/moisture Control

Hi all, setting up some more Kennedy tool boxes with bottom doors , i put plywood in bottoms to put larger tools on, will they cause a rust problem?. should i soak them with oil , or is there a better cheep alternative ?. waiting on control box to finish setting up mill , came across Kennedy...

www.hobby-machinist.com

Rusty Parallels

I built this nice little box to hold some of my parallels. I stained it, varnished it and lined it with felt that I bought from Walmart. A couple of weeks later I was going to use a set of them and noticed that the bottom surface of all of them (the surface resting in the felt) was rusty...

www.hobby-machinist.com

 

[dewbane]

Red oak interacts badly with ferrous metal, and you will wind up with badly stained wood and rusty tools if there is any humidity. I think it would be worth your trouble to coat the shelves. If you wanted to make them beautiful, that's an option too. I've made lots of pretty things out of red oak dunnage hunks that were just weathered and filthy.

Whether you want them pretty or in their current weathered state, I recommend Birchwood-Casey Tru-Oil. I would poke two holes in the foil seal, rather than peeling it all the way off. I would don a nitrile glove, squirt some on the wood, and spread it around as thinly as possible with a gloved hand. I've found gloved fingers do better than rags, as there is no lint and nothing to snag.

If you want a rough, weathered look, you could be one and done with the Tru-Oil if you got good coverage the first time. You can apply Johnson's paste wax after about 24 hours, and your shelves are ready to use.

If you want to make them pretty, I can elaborate on the process. You could have truly gorgeous shelves, but it would take a lot more time to get them that way. If it were me, I probably would, but I'm sort of silly that way. Hell, I made a cover for my surface plate out of plywood, and I put a quality finish on it.

Either way, I really recommend the Johnson's paste wax. I use it on basically everything I ever make out of wood, whether it's rough or pretty. If you have stuff that's going to be sitting on the shelf for awhile, it wouldn't hurt to hit the side of it that contacts the wood with some paste wax too. Johnson's paste wax is pretty great at making a thin, protective barrier. My machine shop is in an unheated tent garage that's basically like a pole barn, and I use it on everything to keep the rust down.

 

[jakes_66]

Looking up Tru-Oil now. Thank you for your expertise

 

[ThinWoodsman]

I have heard much about the effects of wood on tools, but have seen little evidence of it despite being in a fairly humid area (half woods, half wetlands - but nowhere near as humid as where I lived in VA).

I have wood shelves all over, usually untreated. Benches and other working surfaces get the wipe-on poly treatment. Two years ago I built a couple of shelving units out of 2x4s and 3/4 plywood, stacked all sorts of rotary tables and suchlike on them, with no detrimental effect so far. I do keep a dehumidifier in the shop, though : a small $100 unit that is on a timer to fire about 4 hours a day.

The place I see the effects of humidity is in drawers. Metal, wood, plastic - doesn't matter. I bought a roll of VCI paper and line the drawers/boxes with it.

 

[f350ca]

Red oak seams very corrosive if it gets wet. When glue squeezes out of a joint and touches my steel pipe clamps, you always get a black stain on the wood. Usually not very deep, sands out easily but always stains. Some other woods will do it to a lesser extent but red oak is bad. A finish might seal it but if the finish gets scratched off any moisture in the air might cause problems.
I use other woods for shelving and boxes with had no problems, but wouldn't try oak.
Maybe cover the shelves with thin plywood ?

Greg

 

[Reddinr]

Found this quote on the Goog.

"Oak, walnut, cherry, and mahogany, have higher tannin levels, while maple, birch, and aspen rank low in tannin content and acidity. Unfortunately, both madrone and red alder fall into the high-tannin category."