I’m building a new garage and I’m planning to use some of the space for my work shop. It won’t be climate controlled for a couple of years when the money is there. I live in Wisconsin and the climate changes all the time. I’m concerned about my stuff getting rusty if there is down time between projects. Any suggestions to keep my tools looking and running well without the moisture and condensation causing rust problems?
Thanks,
JACman
Replies
My workshop is in an unheated/cooled garage in Houston, Texas -- one of the most humid cities in the country. Rust is a serious problem, but my rust-prevention technique has worked well. It is a two step process. First, I spray on a coat of T-9 -- a product developed by Boeing (I think) to protect metal on aircraft. Spray it on, let it sit for a while and then wipe off the excess. Then, I rub on a coat of paste wax. Let it dry for a few minutes and buff off. I try to repeat the procedure a couple times a year, or if I notice any traces of oxidation. The paste wax on top of t-9 may seem redundant, but t-9 leaves a sticky residue if left by itself. Wax keeps the surfaces slick. But paste wax by itself does not seem to work as effectively or for as long as wax plus t-9. Good luck.
That sounds like a good aproach. Thanks for the information.
JACman
HHI'm in Humble and use paste wax on my cast iron to prevent rust. I'll try the T-9 first and the then the wax. Do you have problems with your hand tools? I've just bought some plane sacks for my hand planes and hope that will help--starting to see some oxidation on them. Thanks. Tom"Notice that at no time do my fingers leave my hand"
Yes, in fact, handtools seem to be even more susceptible to rust. And I hate that fact because, while I like my bandsaw and jointer, I love my handtools. Not only do handtools have to contend with the gulf coast humidity, they also have to contend with the sweat I generate from using them. I don't know what the deal is with my sweat, but I should market it as a rust-creator. One little iddy bitty drop of sweat on a saw or a handplane and it is rust city.
T-9 and wax work just as well on handtools. I've used the same basic regimen on everything from LN planes, chisels, saws, and marking tools. The only difference is that I try to give all the tools I use a fresh coat of t-9 when I'm done for the day. Just remember to wipe the t-9 off the sole of planes before using them the next time -- it leaves a semi sticky residue that makes planing difficult. I've tried camelia oil -- recommended by LN -- but was disappointed by the results. It didn't seem to keep rust off as well as t-9. I haven't used plane socks. At this point I've accumulated enough iron that I'd have to take out a small loan to buy enough socks (don't tell the mrs.). And for those planes and tools I use only on occaision, I keep them stored in the house to help minimize rust.
I've followed Lonnie Bird's advice on the planes and used paste wax, but still get some spots. I would hope on those the socks and wax would do the trick. And I know what you mean about sweat--setting up my table saw, I leaned on the top with my sweaty forearm and did not wipe it down immediately, and I see the stain every time I use the saw. It should buff out with a pad, but I've not taken the time to rub it out. We live in a harsh climate for tools. I look forward to a climate controlled shop--give me AC! Tom"Notice that at no time do my fingers leave my hand"
Hey Guys,
Have you thought of putting some silica packs in them plane socks, cabinets/drawers where you store them handtools?
Google it up and you'll find all kinds of sizes. I used to work in computers and most if not all the parts came with 'em inside. They work, and helps to keep the electric bill down too.
Just 'cause I'm not Al Gore doesn't mean I can't do my Green!
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
BobI save 'em all the time. You can pop 'em in the 'wave for a few seconds to rejuvenate them if they get too 'wet'. I've got them scattered throughout my hand tool cabinet. Houston probably averages 85% humidity, so we need all the help we can get. Tom"Notice that at no time do my fingers leave my hand"
Tom,
Yeah man, and keep the air circulating too. 'Puter fans work great!
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
BobDo you run a fan 24/7? How long? My shop is like HoustonHeights--unairconditioned garage. We've got the opposite problem you folks in the NE have--heat and humidity 9 months of the year. The rest of the time it's just warm and humid. :) I really don't have a big problem with rust because I've been diligent with the wax trying to protect the hand tools. But I've found that rust is a persistent foe and will catch up to you if you don't keep it up. Tom"Notice that at no time do my fingers leave my hand"
Tom,
I think the key is to keep the air moving and protect exposed surfaces with wax.
To that end, yes I do keep the fans going 24x7. I have a JDS fan/filter mounted on beams up high set on low speed. I keep my planes & chisels in a wall mounted cabinet above my workbench; 2 computer fans on top that draw/exhaust air out of the top of the cabinet. All the shelves have holes drilled in them to allow air circulation up through the cabinet and out the top via the fans.
I keep the crosscut sled on top of the TS all the time when not in use, which is sized to cover the top. I have several others as well that hang on the wall. In 30+ years I haven't cut it into pieces, unlike Lon Schleining might have done! <G> Oh, and the runners and bottom on the sled are coated with wax too.
All smooth metal surfaces, i.e. planer, jointer, etc. are treated with a light coat of Butchers wax once every 6 months, applied with 000 steel wool. Let it dry and buff it off with cheesecloth.
Once a month, perhaps more depending on use, I crumple up some waxed paper and go over all these surfaces to rejuvenate them.
Hey, I'm an old fart and despise RUST!
Now, it's waaaaay past my snooze time so I think I'm gonna leave ya now! I'll catch ya in the mornin.
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 8/23/2007 10:18 pm ET by KiddervilleAcres
Tom,
I have socks on some of my better planes and I have learned NOT to depend on them. Still wax 'em.
Alan - planesaw
Thanks, Alan. Will do. Tom"Notice that at no time do my fingers leave my hand"
HoustonHeights has the plan, that method works in South Alabama too. If you're not using the tools over the winter, consider LPS-4. It's a nasty, waxy, cosmoline-like coating that was developed for outdoor storage of metal 'things' for the military.
Hey JAC,
In my neck 'o the woods, up north in NH, my woodshop experiences wide temperature/humidity swings too. I heat it in colder months only when I'm up there using it.
I've developed a regimen of cleaning the woodshop weekly. My method is to rub paste wax (Butchers Wax) into all exposed metal surfaces with 0000 steel wool, let 'em haze over and then buff 'em out with pieces of old towels or burlap rags.
For planes, chisels and other hand tools, I crumple up wax paper and give 'em a rub down.
No rust in my woodshop, and it's cheap!
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
What HoustonHeights said. That procedure works here in Florida too. Another suggestion - keeps your tools covered when not in use. Keeps moisture (and moisture laden dust) from settling on your tools. I use old cotton bed sheets.
Regards,
Dick
JACman,
All the suggestions about using various coatings is good and should be done. However, I happened on something a few years ago that worked for me and I would be interested to find out if others in different climates also find that it works. At the time, I had a very small uninsulated, unheated space I was using for a shop. My tools were getting rusty because of condensation. I tried wax and other coating and it helped but I was spending a lot of time waxing my tools. I found that if, during times of the year when condensation was occuring, I kept a small fan running it would circulate enough air so that condensation did not occur and, hence, no rust. I was amazed. But, it worked. Now that my shop is insulated, I no longer have the problem eventhough I don't heat it unless I'm in there working. So, that is another option.
Bill
I'm in the Milwaukee area and keep my hand planes and other smaller woodworking hand tools in the house during winter and if I want to do anything in the garage, I heat it with propane (not great but it works) or wait till it's warmer. My garage is detached and I didn't insulate it or run a gas line out there. My machines stay out there and I have been using paste wax with great results. I also cover the horizontal surfaces with Harbor Freight moving blankets and after the temperature has been raised enough, the tops are warm, too. That has kept the condensation from forming and causing problems.
I used Top Cote for a while but spraying it from a can wastes too much of it. If I have any rust, I use Scotch Brite pads, then put on a few coats of wax.
Hand tools are easy to keep rust free with a heated toolbox. I've been doing this for about 25 years now in climates as diverse as my native Great Britain and the US Gulf Coast. Slainte.
Richard Jones Furniture
What differential of temperature do you need to prevent rust?
My, there's a question, ha, ha. I haven't got a clue. I've never gone into it in so much scientific detail.
What I do know is that if the doors of the cabinets are kept closed when the tools are not in use then there's a slight heat build up inside the cabinet which warms the air, the wood and the tools. It's not much heat as I use 7 watt low energy bulbs that last for ages. I surmise that the RH inside the cabinet is lower than the RH of the air in the workshop. Also I suppose the metal of the tools is slightly warmer than the air outside the toolbox.
So I guess what happens is that any air that does get in from the outside that contacts the tools doesn't deposit its water on the metal which would lead to rust.
Anyway, all I know is that this light bulb trick is effective and has been for me for a long time. Once the toolbox is wired up there's almost no work to do except put in a new bulb every couple or three years, and there's no piddling around with wax, oil, socks, silica bags and so on. It's just a case of reaching in to the tool box and picking up a rust free tool. At the end of each session, shove the tools back in the box, close the door, and walk away. Slainte. Richard Jones Furniture
Seven watts isn't much. Should be a cheap way to keep the rust away if you have your hand tools organized in a closed cabinet. Since the absolute humidity (amount of moisture in the air) remains the same, the relative humidity changes a lot for the little amount of temperature change. I know from the apartment business that once you turn the heat on that you don't need the dehumidifier any more. Some kids think that, since a dehumidifier is furnished, it should be on all year.
Hi Richard,
I use a similar setup but use a string of Christmas lights to provide the heat. Works great or at least it certainly seems to have helped. My wax regimen frequency has been vastly reduced.
I also suspect that over time the metal tools act as a sort of heat sink too.
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 8/26/2007 6:51 am ET by KiddervilleAcres
Christmas lights! Do they flash on and off inside the toolbox, and if they do, do they only do that during Christmas? That'll entertain the chisels and planes, ha, ha. Slainte.Richard Jones Furniture
Hi Richard,
Too funny.
Actually I couldn't find low wattage bulbs that would fit standard lightbulb fixtures. What's nice about them is that I have them running throughout the bottom shelves of my plane/chisel cabinet and the heat from them forces the air to rise up through the top.
A few holes drilled through the shelves and the top and it works all by itself, no fan required. Electric bill suffers not, frugallity is paramount as I'm about to retire.
By the by, if you don't mind, I'd like to pick your brain as to the joinery on an upcoming project I'm working on. It involves drawers and doors in a Queene Anne piece.
Best Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 8/26/2007 10:16 pm ET by KiddervilleAcres
During military service in South East Asia (Vietnam war) we were able to buy a US Made tube with inside a variable electric resistance to hang in the closet. It kept rust and humidity at bay. I have not seen a similar product in the States. It was not as fragile as a light bulb, the heat source was diffuse and they came in different strength. Does any one knows if such a thing is available here? Thanks
John Cabot
Handy on the boat too.
http://www.drytheair.com/xcart/store/catalog/category_265_Goldenrod_Dehumidifiers_page_1.html ------------------------------------
It would indeed be a tragedy if the history of the human race proved to be nothing more than the story of an ape playing with a box of matches on a petrol dump. ~David Ormsby Gore
Dear dgreen,
Thank you very much for your very valuable information. I will certainly order a couple of Golden Rod, one for the shop closet and ..yes, one for the boat.
Thank you again
John Cabot
Just about any good gun shop or gun catalog/website has heaters for use in gun cabinets. They work well in tool cabinets too.
And, putting a small light bulb inside the table saw, covering the top with a fleece throw, and leaving the light on will prevent rust on the table top. The fleece works better than most blankets because the material they make them from is hydrophobic, (won,t absorb or attract moisture). I have given some thought to running resistance wires under the wings and table, but for now the light bulb is working.
The light bulb and throw trick works on other big iron as well, the throw just needs to hang down past the edges a bit to help keep the heat in. A throw over the jointer and a light bulb in the base, and it is rust proof.
I put a dehumidifier in my garage and it works fine.
I live lakeside on a large Corps lake in northcentral Arkansas. I run a dehumidifier 24/7. Also heat with a propane infrared heater - (moisture generator?)
I have had NO rust in 7 years!
A little paste wax (furniture -- NOT car) on tops of TS/jointer/etc also helps wood to slide and probably helps prevent rust. Always vacuum sawdust off all tools - stationary and hand.
In case I forgot to mention it -- run a dehumidifier 24/7 or even two if necessary with outside drainage. By the way, my wood stays about 7 to 9% moisture content.
A bad day woodworking is better than a good day working -- yes, I'm retired!
"It involves drawers and doors in a Queene Anne piece."
You're welcome to ask Bob, although I'm not into accurately reproducing historical furniture styles, particularly American ones, so there's no guarantee I'll have a good answer. On the other hand I do know a bit about historically correct construction techniques having worked on an antique or two in my time.
Ray Pine's into that sort of stuff, so perhaps it would be a good idea to ask him too. Slainte. Richard Jones Furniture
Sorry to be late to the post but I've been out of town.
I would suugest the (minor) investment in a gas/propane fired radiant heater. (W.W.Grainger) It heats "things", not the air. I have hooked mine up to a thermostat, which you could set at 40 degrees. When the heater ignites the thermostat also fires up a VERY small fan to remove any trace of ignition products. A warm tool, even slightly warm, will not condense moisture.
Frosty
"I sometimes think we consider the good fortune of the early bird and overlook the bad fortune of the early worm." FDR - 1922
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