Thread: Coastal rust

Just far enoughto not get a serious sea breeze every day? I asume you get them over in the eastern end of Oz.

I am afraid that there is nowhere that you will be free of rust. I live about 750 K's from the nearest salt water and I still need to wipe my machines down every week or so, even more so when there is a little humidity around.

Robert

Acid from hands, wood sap etc and as Specialist said any humidity will do it too. Generally 50%rh or above and because your machines are "cold metal" the condensation/humidity condense on them. On top of that if there is any dust on your machine that moisture is then absorbed by the dust and sits there untill it evaporates or you wipe it off. Oil up guys.

I live a good 1.5Km from the ocean, as long as I cover the tablesaw and bandsaw with a cotton sheet and occasionally to very occasionally wipe over the surface with Silverglide, I have no rust probs. The tools I have rust problems are my oland tools which are handled weekly, so I give them a wipe with Camellia Oil at the end of the turning session.

I have been pretty safe from sea spray in Bungendore

Thanks for the responses. Looks like a couple of kms are all you need - plus some common sense - I use ubeaut wax on my machines and I'm in Canberra (mind you some of the local inhabitants (or visitors) are more corrosive than salt!) .
Cheers,
Adam

Originally Posted by Chumley

Thanks for the responses. Looks like a couple of kms are all you need - plus some common sense - I use ubeaut wax on my machines and I'm in Canberra (mind you some of the local inhabitants (or visitors) are more corrosive than salt!) .
Cheers,
Adam

You don't have to be too far inland to be safe from that really nasty salt-spray. Sea spray is particularly potent, of course, but plain old water is the main enemy. F'rinstance, I have way less of a problem here on the western side of Brisbane (~15k from the sea in a straight line) than my dad had in his shed up on the Atherton tableland, at least 50k from the salt water. There are quite a few variables beside average RH - diurnal temperature swings are important. Despite the higher RH, we rarely hit dew-point temps inside a shed on the coast, so you could easily have a worse problem in Longreach at some times of the year than in a warm spot close to the coast.

As the panel agrees - wax-up or oil-up regularly....

My 2c,

I've moved around a bit from coast to inland.

The worst place for rust was Bendigo, a few hundred k's from the coast.
The dew was so dense my shed was almost like a hothouse with the amount of water drops landing on everything. Not sorry I moved south towards the coast, though I did like Bendigo.

200m from beach and nothing stops rust, you can slow it, but you can't stop it.

I am reasonably lucky in the mountains rust wise. That is not to say there is no rust. January and February are the worst when the humidity can get to almost 100%. I give the tools the odd wipe with 3 in 1 oil and the cast iron tables get a wipe of wax. The contrast with the coast is large. You can almost see the rust form on things down in Sydney.

I'm 100 meters from the ocean and have no problems with rust.

My garage is on the opposite side of the house from the beach so not in direct line from any breaze off the beach.

An occasional wax or oil of the saw or lathe is all I even need to do.

I do cover the machines when not in use. Wool blanket for the lathe. vinyl floor covering on the top of the table saw.

I don't think I explained the extent of the rust problem.

We are 200m from the surf, with very high humidity and high rainfall, so not only cast iron rusts, aluminium goes to white powder, brass turns green, chrome plating rusts off, even have had cheap stainless steel get rust stains.

Covering and sealing from elements is only way to slow onset, have had a bench plane turn red during lunch .

Coat the bare metal with CRC DryGlide. It puts a thin teflon coating on the metal.