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jwboatdesigns
05-01-2009, 01:52 AM
Heres one I tell people on rust prevention, and in the dark damp winter days it sure applies to workshops and machinery. To reduce rust, go and get your can of WD40/CRC. Take it outside, really wind your arm up and warm yourself up by throwing it as far away from your workshop as you can and make a mental note never ever to allow the stuff into the shop again.

Its a bit of a hobbyhorse of mine, but over the years I’ve worked as a technician in sawmills and wood processing factories have found many machines with delicate adjustments all seized up with rust where the CRC had washed the grease out, and of course its hygroscopic so it pulls moisture out of the humid air and then evaporates, leaving the moisture behind. Spray it on friday, by monday if you wipe a clean rag over something, say the bandsaw or saw table, you'll get a red smear.

Get some CRC 66, Inox or Metaflux 70-17 ( made and canned just down the road from you) and lightly spray every second day for a couple of weeks, then about three times a year and you should never have that light red film of rust again. It tends to gradually impregnate the surface of any machined cast iron it contacts, so once its in regular use it is extremely effective.

I prefer to buy it in a 5 litre container and get a trigger bottle from the local “place where its all cheap” (WalMart, Ikea, Warehouse, K Mart etc) . That 5 litres lasts me a couple of years, even using it for oilstones, stage one of derusting and restoring junkshop tools, and getting rusted machinery apart. Useful stuff indeed, even helps light fires.

Camellia oil is what the vendors of very high quality woodworking hand tools recommend, and it has the advantage that it is compatible with most finishes so when you use the tool a trace of oil left on the work is not a problem. But it's too expensive to spray all over the bed of your bandsaw every time you think you won't use it for a week or two, and Inox in particular is very commonly used in commercial operations.


JohnWelsford

Mike
05-01-2009, 05:23 AM
CRC is an American product. The UK arm is known as Ambersil and is based in Bridgwater, UK.

The only CRC type products I can find on the Web here are those marketed by Ambersil (http://www.crceurope.com/csp/web/functdisp.csp?lng=3&country=GB&brand=AMBERSIL#ACP), presumably similar to CRC but one would need to check. Inox 200 (http://www.crceurope.com/csp/web/ProdDisp.csp?lng=3&country=GB&product=INOX%20200&brand=AMBERSIL) is listed as an Ambersil product too.

I use Camellia Oil (available as a pump spray pack from Axminster Tools (http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp?pf_id=22302&name=Camellia+Oil&user_search=1&sfile=1&jump=0)) to protect my hand tools and, as John says, it ain't cheap. That said, it is protecting tools that ain't cheap either so I feel it's worth the expense. You don't need to use a lot, though, and a good wipe with an impregnated cloth will usually do the trick.

As John says too, I have had problems with WD40 use. It seems fine at first but a few days down the line and you do find there is a very fine layer of ... well, tiny little beads of rust! I've had this happen on a tenon saw and on a hedge trimmer.

Thanks for this post, John. Rust is a constant problem for anyone who uses a shed or outdoor workshop here in the damp and cold of Blighty.

Best wishes

Mike

Charlie Morgan
30-04-2009, 09:36 PM
In a previous employ as a school technology technician I was plagued with tool rusting caused by numerous young sweaty hands. Also in the summer months, machine tables etc. needed a good clean and subsequent protection. Liberon make a wax (used to be called Lubowax, but the name has changed??) which does an excellent job. Applied by cloth, it is used sparingly and does not cause anything like the waste a spray produces.
I like it anyway.
Charlie