Thread: My first tool cabinet

as promised

Inspirational, mate. Thanks, Bill.

Thanks champ it means alot

I forgot to mention the plane holder is on hinges you can lift it up and behind it and fit a few more larger tools like my cabinet scraper

I like it and I recon that this could be used for a long time even thou you say that it is short term.

Little projects will get in the way.

I would also have used shellac to seal it or gone with poly that I had laying around. Just to stop it from drying out in the can.

Thanks Christos orders are starting to pile up already my mum wants a stool my sisier a cabinet for the kids room then I need to make clocks lots and lots of clocks. For the last 2 hours I've been flattening the bench man that was a workout and annoying as well as I was chasing it around the garage. That's another project to come a decent heavy work bench with a dovetail vice as part of the bench.

So many projects to do I think you could be right after all this just may linger in the shop for a while !!!!

No need for major panic - I was simply pointing out that MDF is mostly wood, so whatever problems you have with wood will be much the same, unless it starts to seriously deteriorate.

If you want the chemistry, ammonia + water is a weak acid, & no acid is a good thing to have around ferrous metal. Formaldehyde does a number on the metal tops of the glass jars we used to use for storing tissue specimens. But I stress it's unlikely to be a severe problem unless you leave your too chest out in the weather, or your shed develops a sudden, severe, leak....

Just keep everything dry & you'll be ok.
Cheers,

It's in the garage so everything is dry but Qld in summer has high humidity and when everything was in boxes wrapped in anti corrosive paper it was a battle to stop surface rust forming every 2 days I would be rubbing away spots with steel wool and recoating it with jobo oil.

Originally Posted by section1

It's in the garage so everything is dry but Qld in summer has high humidity and when everything was in boxes wrapped in anti corrosive paper it was a battle to stop surface rust forming every 2 days I would be rubbing away spots with steel wool and recoating it with jobo oil.

Well, all I can advise is to move house - you are too close to the sea......

Cheers,

That's the Gold Coast I'm 30km away from the sea the air is salty.

I'm in Brisbane and 10k as the crow flies from the sea and don't struggle with rust... What's this jobo oil? Are you sure it's not vinegar?

That's funny why would I make this up if I didn't clean and oil my tools daily they would be covered in surface rust. But the hardest time is in summer because of the high humdity.

Jobo oil is a vegetable oil type LN sell them it's very good stuff that doesn't interfere with finishes.

Ok, let's get serious and analyse this. Berlin & I are both closer to the sea than you are, and would seem to have less of a problem, judging by your account. I certainly don't oil my tools after every use; they get an occasional coat of U-beaut paste wax, when they are lucky, & that's it. I've just been away for 6 weeks and spent yesterday checking & sharpening-up for some heavy usage, and there were only one or two of those little 'lightning strike' spots I get on some of my blades no matter what I do.

I wonder if it's condensation or very high night-time humidity that's your enemy, rather than salt-laden air? The worst place I've known for rust is where I grew up, on the Atherton Tableland, quite a bit further still from the sea. There, the daily swings in air temperature are the killer. If you are 30Ks from the sea, I take it you are up in the hinterland, which would also experience cool nights after warm, moist days?

Whatever the underlying reason for your severe rust susceptibility, limiting air changes around your tools will help. That was perhaps the main reason I went to storing tools like chisels in drawers. Inside a fairly close-fitted drawer, which is inside a cupboard, which in turn is inside a shed, certainly seems to help. Some people also swear by putting packets of silica gel in their tool drawers, but I haven't felt the need to go that far, yet....

Anyway, I hope things improve in your new storage arrangements - rust is something we all fear!

cheers,

Yes it's the humidity, for now in the winter months I can't complain but summer it's like a sauna in here even with the doors open it gets that ridiculously hot. I was even contemplating putting an aircon in but considering the amount of hours I spend in the garage the electricity bill would be over bearing.

My only alternative is to tug boat Australia closer to the south pole.

But we will see how they will hold up in this cabinet it is air tight no gaps anywhere.

The only tools I ever put anything on were saws that I had just restored... no I lie, I always put a bit of on the lip of cap irons where they touch the blade because my junk shop planes all had a line of pitting there. Even that is only a habit as none of mine have ever developed rust there.

I wasn't implying you were doing anything wrong, just wondering why I've dodged the bullets. I think it must be a temperature differential day to night, plus summer humidity, as Ian is suggesting. The cupboard should go a long way to attenuating fluctuations in both.

Matt