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Rust is the Enemy

Dabbler

ersatz engineer
you could make a greedy bucket... that is a self starting siphon which will empty the bucket down a hose when it gets near full (google greedy wine glass) - as long as you have a slope to drain to...
 

Susquatch

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you could make a greedy bucket... that is a self starting siphon which will empty the bucket down a hose when it gets near full (google greedy wine glass) - as long as you have a slope to drain to...

I LOVE learning new cool things!

I've never heard of that before! Yet, I use syphons all the time.

Thank you @Dabbler!!! VERY COOL!!!
 

architect

Super User
Any simple ideas on preventing surface rust on welding tables? Rather not spray it and breath in the off gas in my tiny garage.
 

Susquatch

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Any simple ideas on preventing surface rust on welding tables? Rather not spray it and breath in the off gas in my tiny garage.

Keep the relative humidity down below 60% or so.

I'm with @Brent H on this one. Usage is a great way to keep the rust down. A flap disk works great too - especially after a vaca.

I'm over 70. There are some excellent products around that have not killed me or affected my sex life (yet anyway). I personally like Fluid Film (Princess Auto) in the pail (not spray can). It can be wiped on with rags very thinly. But it will stink if you get it hot.

If you are really concerned about vapours, try rubbing it down with a high quality cooking oil. It will smell if you get it hot too, but at least you will be smelling something you normally eat anyway. Just remember that it's a welding table (sparks etc) so you don't want any more oil on it than required to stop the oxidation. I wouldn't spray it on, I'd rub it on.

For that matter, why worry about it? A little fresh rust makes for easy markups.
 

architect

Super User
Maybe I'll give Fluid Film and crack the garage door open. I installed a fan anyone to keep it cool/warm and move the air around.

Yeah, I guess I could just let the surface rust go. It's a cheapo PA table bought on sale anyway but wanted to keep it "clean". I'm also noticing some light surface rust on my drill table etc so I'll give fluid film a go there. I'll probably for the the can and not the pail as I can't imagine needing that much of it as I don't run a farm after all :)
 

Susquatch

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Maybe I'll give Fluid Film and crack the garage door open. I installed a fan anyone to keep it cool/warm and move the air around.

Yeah, I guess I could just let the surface rust go. It's a cheapo PA table bought on sale anyway but wanted to keep it "clean". I'm also noticing some light surface rust on my drill table etc so I'll give fluid film a go there. I'll probably for the the can and not the pail as I can't imagine needing that much of it as I don't run a farm after all :)

The reason for the pail is to be able to use a brush or a rag to get much lower quantities on the target surface. But you can always spray some on a rag and then rub it on. Or spray it on the table and spread it out.

If you crack the garage door, you will need to run the dehumidifier more. Otherwise, your welding table would be the least of my worries. Toronto isn't as humid as Chatham/Leamington but it's still BAD. Humidity is the root of your problem.
 

John Conroy

member
Premium Member
When I use Fluid Film I spray a small area then spread it over a larger area with a hand covered in a nitrile glove or clean shop rag. After the rag soaks up some of the fluid it will act as an applicator. It takes very little fluid to form a rust barrier.
 

PeterT

Ultra Member
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Do you guys notice anything about Fluid Film if oil is ever applied afterwards? Not that one would consciously do both, but I mean does regular oil bead off because of the lanolin or other ingredients in FF? Just wondering if its a one or the other type application? I can see FF for several of my outdoor equipment needs & other applications but maybe not a good recipe for machine bedways, vise slides etc. that get their lathering of way oil or hydraulic oil? I might be getting this cross threaded with some buddies who were using specialized sprays on their chains & then if they ever went back to oil based, it wouldn't stick as well. But maybe that was teflon additive in the spray or something completely different chemistry.
 

Susquatch

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Do you guys notice anything about Fluid Film if oil is ever applied afterwards? Not that one would consciously do both, but I mean does regular oil bead off because of the lanolin or other ingredients in FF? Just wondering if its a one or the other type application? I can see FF for several of my outdoor equipment needs & other applications but maybe not a good recipe for machine bedways, vise slides etc. that get their lathering of way oil or hydraulic oil? I might be getting this cross threaded with some buddies who were using specialized sprays on their chains & then if they ever went back to oil based, it wouldn't stick as well. But maybe that was teflon additive in the spray or something completely different chemistry.

I don't think I can help. I ONLY use Fluid Film as a rust preventative. It is an awesome preventative for stuff that has to be left outdoors all winter long (or all year long). I don't use it as a lubricant and I don't think of it as one either. So I wouldn't mix applications with oil or grease.

Yes, it is does contain lanolin (which comes from processing sheep wool) or so I learned from another member. But there is other natural ingredients in there too - all apparently non-toxic.

I first heard about it from the ships engineer on one of Canada's navy frigates. They use it on exposed steel surfaces on board the ship.

If you don't use it as a lubricant, I don't think you need to worry about oil compatability. For example I wouldn't put it on chains or ways or screws or....... In fact, I wouldn't use it on tools or tool surfaces. Grease and oil work fairly well for corrosion protection for things like that all on their own.

That said, I do hunger for a bulk source of VCI to use in drawers, tool cabinets, and tool storage boxes. But that subject takes us full circle back to the whole thrust of this thread...... LOL!
 

architect

Super User
Mill has been rusting over the last few months. I haven't used it so not sure what's going on. There was even a rust ring where I had a parts holder magnet bowl. The shop where I bought this from had it near their front door so not sure how it wasn't rusting with them but two months in my garage is looking like this. Should I to to remove the rust then fluid film? I have a small exhaust vent in my garage so it's probably as humid as outside is.

PXL_20210806_035008776.jpg PXL_20210806_035031733.jpg PXL_20210806_035317416.jpg
 

DPittman

Ultra Member
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So I live in a very dry climate where things basically never rust indoors however my brother has rust/corrosion form on many of his shop tooling that he claims is because of his use of mig gas (not sure what mixture he uses but I think an argon mix) . I haven't researched this phenomenon myself but was surprised that in a large farm shop the concentration of any mig gas could be a problem.
 

Susquatch

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Mill has been rusting over the last few months. I haven't used it so not sure what's going on. There was even a rust ring where I had a parts holder magnet bowl. The shop where I bought this from had it near their front door so not sure how it wasn't rusting with them but two months in my garage is looking like this. Should I to to remove the rust then fluid film? I have a small exhaust vent in my garage so it's probably as humid as outside is.

Read the earlier part of this thread. Rust is inevitable if the dew point is reached without other protection in place. For those of us living in high humidity regions, the best option is to stop outside air from entering, install a good Dehumidifier, set it for 50%, and drain it continuously. For the winter, run a small space heater or a few lightbulbs. In the winter, all that is usually required is to keep the temperature inside about 10°C warmer than outside. This ensures that the inside humidity never reaches the dew point.

The reason that rust forms so easily in a garage is because the garage is usually a little cooler than outside. Yet garages share the same air as outside. So when the high humidity outside air is cooled in the garage, it condenses moisture on surfaces and rust is inevitable.
 

architect

Super User
Yup read the threads. What makes a good humidifier? Just any that will do 50+pints per day? Saw Chicken lights's NOMA. Sucks that the mill started rusting before even getting to play with it :(
 

Susquatch

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Hey, could be worse. Both mine were quite rusted - as received!

The appropriate size is related to your square footage, external humidity, air infiltration rate, and internal humidity sources.

Most dehumidifiers come with a square footage or volumetric rating as well as a removal rate. They assume (correctly) that buyers have no idea what they really need. It's easy to think that more and bigger is always better. But that assumption just isn't true because load and infiltration matter and I don't like the heat that a big unit produces. There are charts and graphs (psychometric) that will tell you how much water your garage air can hold. I believe the unit (or units) need to be able to remove half that much water in two days. If I were you, I'd assume your shop is big enough to need a fairly big one (say 30 pints per day). There is a "For Living" 30 pint 400 ft2 unit at Crappy Tire right now that is highly rated. I have one in my man cave. It works great for that space which has high air infiltration. If you find that isn't enough capacity, you can always get another one and stage your units like mine.

Bigger units produce more heat and nobody likes that. I have two 50 pint 4,000 ft2 units in my shop. My shop is 3200 ft sq with 20' ceilings which is prolly equivalent to a 6,000ft2 home (more volume but less load). One is an older less efficient unit and one is a recent newer addition. I set the older one for 65% and the newer one for 50%. That way, the new one does most of the work, but when things get bad (eg opening my two 18x16 doors), the older unit kicks in too. Together, they easily keep my shop at 50 to 55%. Once they get the initial humidity down, they don't seem to do much work.

A nearby drain would be way more convenient and less maintenance, but I really like my 5 Gal pails for keeping track of what is happening.

I know you are probably looking for something more definitive, but it really isn't that simple.

Last but not least, crappy Tire has a good return policy. If you find yourself wishing you had bought more or less capacity, they will look after you.
 

architect

Super User
Thanks for the tips on the smaller unit which makes sense for my small one-car garage.

In case anyone's interested, I dug around and picked up this Midea Cube 35-pint unit from Lowes. I like the design of this as it's basically draining into a square bucket in a compact design, something important in my tiny tiny garage. The size of the bucket means I don't have to dump the water regularly, and I don't want to drill down my concrete floor to make a drain. But if you have a drain then you can basically sit the unit right ontop of the drain too. Most of these are residential units so I just hope it holds up to all the shop dust etc.

1628294681107.png

Also got some advice offline from Brent about Scotch-brite and Evapo Rust to clean up the surface rust on mill table and mill, and then protect it with some way oil and Minwax.
 

Susquatch

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That’s a brilliant design with the built-in bucket underneath.

The two tiny units I got for my travel trailer are both like that too.

Screenshot_20210807-073256_Amazon Shopping.jpg

But I hunger for a small hose (tube) drain to the sinks.

I plan to add that but have not been able to find a small bulkhead connector yet. I want something in 1/4" size range. I may have to make one.
 
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