Machine care for garage

I find the worst days for rust are fall and spring when it is say 40°F at night then warming greatly during the day with a humidity increase. Machines start to sweat like an iced tee glass. When it turns 65° who wants to work with the doors shut? My friend uses a dehumidifier in his shop/garage and it works well 'cause he always shut the doors. I just use the proper lubes in the proper places. Way oil etc. Then everything else gets a misting of !Gulp! WD-40. I find a trigger sprayer or 2 laying around a gal can helps me keep tooling covered. I didn't wipe things down with an oily rag as often as I needed. Just wiping the 3 collet sets takes for ever, then chucks, rotab, columns, etc etc. Now with the trigger sprayer and cheap as water WD-40 it's just a few mins to mist the whole shop. There is surely better stuff for the job but nothing beats actually getting something on the equipment/tooling.

A lot of us are also fortunate in that SWMBO may have had a go at vacuum bagging and given up on it. Small stuff you aren't gonna use for a while just toss an antirust chip on it and bag it. Leave a few inches so you can rebag in a year or 2 when you use it again. Great for surplus HSS blanks, drills etc.

Steve
 
You guys scare me using WD-40 for rust prevention!:nono:
 
WD-40 is not a lubricant it is a water displacer for drying the insides of old kettering ignition systems. It was the 40th different formulation hence the -40 on the end. If you choose to use it on something that moves like car door hinges you will end up with a door that will not open in short order. I think the correct term is hydroscopic (Attracts water). I have been an advocate of CLP Break Free and Triflon for years. Triflon is getting hard to get in suitable ratios because the active ingredient is teflon and very expansive to formulate. FWIW
Bob
 
Thank you Bob for a nice descriptive explanition what WD-40 was originally developed for and not intended to be used for. Ken
 
Try LPS 3 anti corrosion spray. I've been using for years on my machines. Spray everything and then cover with poly.
I also spray all the chrome on my vehicles for the winter months. It comes off very easily with brake clean, acetone ,varsol, or just about any hydrocarbon based solvent
 
ScubaSteve said:
I hear fluidfilm..... http://www.fluid-film.com/ is the bomb.
Click to expand...

Fluid Film is a great product, used it for yrs working on cars. But I dont know if I would want to spray it on my machines though. The stuff looks pretty gross when you spray that stuff on.

It works well, and I keep alot of it around for getting rusty bolts loosened. I would still use the AW32 or RO32 for rust protection. The fluid film just looks so messy.
 
I use a small electric heater to keep the temp a few degrees above the outside temp which seems to help. You have to be a little careful with dehumidifiers. The warmer the abient temp is, the better they work. At least the one I had, did virtually nothing when the temp was below about 45 or 50 F other than run all the time which I suppose heated the room a bit. By virtually nothing I mean the air was still humid and none condensed in the dehumidfiers tank. It worked fine when the weather warmed up. I live on the west coast of Canada so winters are damp and cool but usually above freezing.

Brian
 
I'll wipe them down with way oil and cover them when not in use. That along with a light bulb running under there is the best I can do with the garage I guess. I'll just have to watch out for those perfect storm days. My friend has a Bullard VTL at home and he was running it on a day like that. He said it was a fight to keep the water condensation off that big table.
 
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