VCI emitter rust preventative

[Doug J]

Has anybody any experience of using these little tins of vapour rust preventative. I have a problem with rust during the winter and wondered if this stuff is any good. I thought of placing a large poly bag over my lathe and mill with one of these tins underneath. Any thoughts?

Doug

[jackrae]

They work but are quite expensive and if you use the machine you lose the local benefit of the vapour release - since it disperses when you remove the cover.

Might be better to either spray your equipment with a rust preventative, lay larger machines up with a small heater built in - say a 40watt light bulb or go for the more expensive technique of installing a small dehumidifier into your workshop (which provides the added bonus of heating your workshop at the same time)

By heating the machine to above ambient temperature you are avoiding the cold surface that the water droplets adhere to when they condense out of the cold air.

If you opt for water displacement sprays then I suggest you avoid the well known WD4x product and go for Castrol WDF. I find the former good for freeing tight joints but it seems to leave no protective film and rust sets in at a (not much) later date. WDF seems to leave a protective film that prevents subsequent rusting.

regards
jack

[SteveW]

I support the 'Don't use WD40' stuff. I tried this and ended up with brown staining on the lathe bed especially up the less used tailstock end.

At one of the exhibitions I bought some 220 slide oil from either the Warco or Chester stand. Its a bit like hypoy oil in consistency but without the 'orrible smell. It also sticks to the slides well and protect them. The only down side is the crud also sticks and I now tend to use the cast off A4 paper under the cutting tool held by a small magnet to the cross slide to catch most of it. I see the advantage of paper is it'll rip while cloth could be lethal.

Anyway the slides seem a lot better with the oil.