Living with a damp workshop

[aesmith]

Hi there.

We've just moved, and it doesn't look like I'll have the luxury of a totally dry workshop for quite a while. The existing buildings are too draughty to keep dry with a dehumidifier like I did in the old place. This'll be fixed in time, but meanwhile I have to accept that the humidity will vary up to around 80% at times, and I maybe have to live with that for 6 months or so.

Any tips on how to keep hand tools in good order under these conditions?

I'm not sure at what humidity rust starts to become a problem, and I'd welcome comment on that as well.

Thanks in advance, Tony S

 

[pam niedermayer]

I've found that storing tools in wood boxes, cabinets, and the like keeps all rust at bay. It's like magic.

Pam

 

[Smudger]

Wooden boxes with dessicant gel - cheaply available from ebay.

 

[aesmith]

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[bugbear]

I've found that storing tools in wood boxes, cabinets, and the like keeps all rust at bay. It's like magic.

Pam

Aren't you in Texas ?!

BugBear

 

[gidon]

My shed is pretty drafty and I successfully keep things rust free with a dehumidifer. Guess it depends just how drafty it is but may be worth giving it a go.
Cheers
Gidon

 

[carpenteire]

I store some of my more valuable tools in a metal cabinet, but the shelves are lined with ply. I use camellia oil and silica dessicant to keep rust at bay.

 

[AHoman]

This'll be fixed in time, but meanwhile I have to accept that the humidity will vary up to around 80% at times, and I maybe have to live with that for 6 months or so.

I'm in northern Vermont. During the winter, my shop can be around 80% humidity when I'm not heating it. I've had good luck with plane socks, and lightly oiled planes and blades. Occasionally, small specks of rust have appeared if I've left planes out without socks -- I've used abrasive handblocks to remove this.
I've also tried dessicant packages in drawers, which works very well. This winter, I'm building a wooden chest for the tools, and plan to use large dessicant packages in the chest.
-Andy

 

[DaveL]

Another thing that can help is to fit a heat source in the bottom of your tool chest/cupboard, a low power lamp should be OK. This will keep the tools very slightly warmer than the rest of the shop, so the condensation will form somewhere else instead of on the tools.

 

[pam niedermayer]

Aren't you in Texas ?!

BugBear

Well, yeah, but a good portion of central to east Texas is pretty wet territory. Austin is in central Texas, piles of floods, right on the western boundary of the blackland prairie and eastern boundary of the balcones escarpment/high plains where the Cheyenne and buffalo used to range. The whole area was an inland sea a long, long time ago. I take my pooch for walks and pass lots of shale, schist, etc. at the bottom of creeks complete with chambered nautili fossils.

Aren't you glad you asked?

Pam

 

[Scott]

Tony

My workshop is an old cow shed (5m x 10m). It has a hay store above it that has the openings boarded up but it's nothing like properly sealed. The ground at the back is up to about chest height and I don't think damp-proofing was any consideration over the years. I put a window in the window hole but the door is just a drafty old wooden affair. After prolonged rains I've seen trickles of water in the grooves in the concrete floor. No point in trying to dehumidify the whole of France so the d/h I used to use in Scotland is never on.

Humidity is frequently very high.

I store all my hand tools in cupboards and chests with a vapour phase inhibitor in every drawer/on every shelf. Most planes, shaves etc are wrapped in anti rust paper as well. I use camellia oil on tools that I'm using every day or two but if anything will be unused for a week or more I use paste wax on all metal parts being careful not to touch with bare hands. I've never had any rusting using paste wax but have had rust spots with camellia oil on tools that haven't been used for a while. Think it's possibly a bit over-rated actually but maybe it's something I'm doing.

Anyway, I use paste wax on my table saw tables and they are as shiny as new (and never covered) so paste wax gets my vote all round. Recoat and buff out every month if it isn't getting used.

Be wary of using leather tool rolls. They can cause rust due tannic acid in the leather. The vegetable tanned leather ones are supposed to be OK but after having to clean a load of rust off my chisels I switched to cotton tool rolls and coat the chisel blades with paste wax.

You have to keep checking tools that haven't been used for a while but once you get into the habit it's not the end of the world.

I keep meaning to get round to putting a small lamp in the bottom of my main cabinet but haven't done so yet.

HTH

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Another thing that can help is to fit a heat source in the bottom of your tool chest/cupboard, a low power lamp should be OK.

Like I suggested in this thread Dave? Slainte.

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/view ... ht=#215914

 

[DaveL]

Like I suggested in this thread Dave? Slainte.

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/view ... ht=#215914

Yours is the best example I have seen, but I did not find it on a quick search, thanks for posting the link Richard.

 

[CHJ]

I find it needs very little extra heat in a set of draws or cabinet to keep all my lathe tools and bits and pieces free of condensation.

I currently have single 9 & 11 watt low energy bulbs in mine and leave them on 24-7, this keeps the internals 2-3 deg above the workshop average.

 

[aesmith]

Thanks again.

I think the heated cupboard is going to be my best bet. Assume the workshop humidity goes up to 90%, then I should aim to heat the cupboard to around 6 degrees above the workshop.

 

[ivan]

Old fashioned mothballs are a cheap and fairly effective VPI rust preventer, if you don't mind the characteristic smell: add to chest/drawers.