Gday All.
I know this is a long shot and I don't really expect a positive answer, however I'll ask anyway.
First off, we live about 5 Klm from the ocean (in a straight line) so any bare steel starts rusting pretty quickly.
So this leads to my problem.

As I'm not using the mig every day I can't leave a spool of wire on it, as it will start going rusty within less than a week (depending on the weather) even though the spool is inside the machine and the machine is covered with several old towels, sheets etc.

I've tried using desiccant inside the machine and I've also tried wrapping the spool with an old towel and then plastic whilst its still inside the machine.

I found the only effective way to stop the wire rusting is to remove it from the machine, put inside a plastic bag, then inside the original cardboard box, then another plastic bag, wrap the whole lot in a towel, then all that inside another plastic bag and store in a timber cupboard.

This means its a real pain if I just want to do a small welding job. So much that I bought a small inverter stick welder for the small jobs, however I'd really like to be able to keep the wire on the mig if possible.

Moving further away from the ocean is not an option at this point in time, as as attractive as that idea is.

So my question is, does anyone know if there is some product that can be applied (sprayed) on the mig wire that will stop it rusting, but not effect the quality of the weld or even the operation of the machine?

Sorry for the long winded preamble.

Thanks Peter


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