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Preventing equipment sweat

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Every year around this time all my stuff sweats when the temperature and humidity changes I find oiling then helps but that can gets messy I heard beeswax also can be used. I am curious what everyone uses. 

Desert, works very well.  Extremely seldom we have enough humidity to condense; even dew is a rarity!

  • Author

Unfortunately being in the Midwest and living less then a mile from the Great Lakes we have lot of humidity.

Keep the heat on its the only way i know ...

I live in the Deep South , we don’t have humidity,it’s just plain wet! I use wd 40 on all my tools and anvils, it works well.

The "WD" in WD-40 stands for "Water Displacement", so that's good.

I have the same issues. My shop has a dirt floor and no heat except for the forge. When it warms up that cold anvil will be dripping wet sometimes. I might try running the fan some.

I can host your tools for the winter months here in the dry desert.... ;)

 

I ran into that today. Went from the 20s to almost 60 today. Went to the shop and the anvil looked like I just dumped my water pail over it. 

No heat and dirt floor here too. Going to break out the wd40 I think.

Cover your anvil with some heavy canvass and strap a rope around the waist. 

If you are worried about rust a good car wax will keep the finish you desire

I've found that polished items tend to take longer to rust and form an easier to remove layer when they do.  Cold gun bluing can be good for stuff like hammers.  It'll wear off the struck faces but everything else stays fairly rust free. 

Wax will work but it catches fire when you put hot steel on the face.  I used some old fryer oil (peanut)  for tool quenching and figured I'd give it a try for an anvil coating.  I wiped off the excess and used the anvil like normal.  The peanut oil burnt into a sticky residue that was hard to get off.  I ended up using a wire wheel in my angle grinder to get the last of it off.  That wire wheel still smells faintly of french fries.

 

Timber Ridge-- I'm about 70 miles south of you on the south bank of the Kankakee river out in the country and get the condensation in my pole barn shop also. Nothing seems to stop the sweating real good. I use Marvell mystery oil before it gets bad but right now is really damp. We are under a flood watch too.

Jerry

  • Author

Yeah so far the best I think I have found is a thin layer of chain saw bar oil as long as you clean it off before you use your anvil it works well but yesterday was rough everything that was bare metal had a nice coat of rust on it that. I think I will give a box fan a try the next time it warms up

Are you worried about rust on the body or the face? If the face, just use it.

  • Author

Not worried I am no collector so they can rust because i use them. I was curious if anyone had any other technique besides the ones I use. I didn’t know about the fan running helping. 

I'm betting mine is getting wet again. Almost 60 yesterday, and almost 6 inches of snow today. Supposed to be high 40's and rain tomorrow. If you don't like the weather here, just wait a couple hours.

LPS 3 is an aerosol formulated to stop rust and leaves a wax layer to prevent further rusting. It's wintergreen scented.

However, my favorite way to prevent equipment rust is Gold Bond powder, it's nicely scented too.

Frosty The Lucky.

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

my favorite way to prevent equipment rust is Gold Bond powder

For the itch that gives an anvil fits.

From horn to heel it is ideal.

Frosty The Lucky.

I keep two box fans on 24/7 here in Fl. and about every 3 months I hit my large metal tools with WD-40...

WD40 is what I use in the trailer..  It's the only thing that is reasonably cheap and easy to apply..  The anvil needs to be coated after every session.. 

Try a canvas on your anvil. I use no spray of any description and have no rust on the anvil ever. I would have plenty if I left it uncovered. 

As far as spray to prevent rust, I spray my boat trailer with Lanolin spray. Sticks like the proverbial and smells real nice. 

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