rust

[lurcher]

hi lads i have a large wall mounted tool cabinet behind the cabinet i have put some insulation on against the outside wall my shop is 5mtr x 8mtr steel sheet roof insulation on underside walls are 4" block .
the tool cabinet has my very best tools in and my pet hate is rust .
on all of the door frames i have put weatherproof draughtproofing to try keep out the moisture i have to have a freezer in the shop or i am not allowed out to play .
anyway i was thinking of putting a low energy light in the tool cabinet an leave it on to keep my tools a little warmer do you think this would help with the rust situation i wipe my tools with an oily rag when i put them away and my planes lay on there sides on green beize covered shelves
lurcher

 

[carlb40]

It should help, it is an often recommended mod. Wonder if something like a shaver light would be a more compact option?

 

[MMUK]

Spray them with ACF50 when they're cleaned and ready to back in the cabinet.

 

[dann]

also keep some silica gell in with them

 

[Cheshirechappie]

I wonder whether a low energy bulb would be enough? They don't give off much heat; and whilst I may be wrong, isn't it the small amount of heat given off by an incandescent bulb that gives the benefit, by keeping the inside of the cabinet a degree or two warmer than the outside, thus causing any condensation to form somewhere cooler?

The tin of silica gel idea sounds good to me.

 

[MMUK]

If you want a low heat, how about a reptile heat mat? I have a 25w one about 10" x 8" I sometimes use as a warming pad for adhesives and such like.

 

[CHJ]

A 7-9 watt long life bulb keeps my lathe tooling warm to the touch in an old set of kitchen draws.

In the past I have had a car sidelight bulb running off a small transformer in the bottom of a large (standard door size) cabinet and that was always enough.

 

[Vann]

I wonder whether a low energy bulb would be enough?

I agree.

The old incandescent bulbs are horribly inefficient because only about 20% of the energy they burn is turned into light, the rest is heat. A low energy bulb turns almost all the energy into light.

In your circumstance you don't want the light, you want the heat. So a small "in-efficient" bulb is what you want if you opt for a lamp. A 25w incandescent bulb will give you ~20w of heat, whereas a 25w "low-energy" bulb might only give you 1 or 2 watts of heat. You might still be able to pick up a 15w incandescent bulb (~12w of heat)

This is a case where the "energy-efficient" bulb is less energy efficient than the inefficient bulb... :shock: :-s #-o

Cheers, Vann.

 

[KevM]

I've been using the pots of volatile corrosion inhibitor (vci) in toolboxes, together with a 12W pet warming mat in my tool cabinet, I went for this over a bulb because it's more robust, and gives more diffuse warmth rather than heat - so may be marginally safer, I 've also used the anti corrosion wax (protectool?) from WH on pretty much everything. Taking it all together it seems to be keeping the tin worm at bay, even with the indoor waterfall that's appeared in my garage with this latest spell of weather.

 

[KevM]

Another benefit of the pet heating mat that I use is that it's thermostatically controlled.

If you don't fancy hooking your tool cabinets up to the grid a silica gel based approach that is quite neat and self contained are the plug-in rechargeable desiccant packs that are sold for caravans & boats, e.g. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rechargeable-Mi ... B000XQ8V0M - I seem to remember paying ~£10 for a pair when I bought them a few years back, so worth looking around.
Basically it's a silica gel desiccant pack with an integral heating element that you plug into the mains to dry out (recharge the desiccant effect by driving out the moisture), probably a bit pricier than the basic packs, but it's nicely self contained. Given the ambient humidity, certainly in my garage, I'd question the ability of the small desiccant packs to keep a large volume dry, the small packs are designed for use in sealed environments. The indicator silica gel which changes from pink to blue at least show you whether they've got any life left in them, the caravan packs have a colour change indicator to show when they need to be dried out, but I do seem to recall that the loose/bulk silica desiccant with indicator was withdrawn for some reason (maybe health related?)

 

[aesmith]

I wonder whether a low energy bulb would be enough?

I agree.

The old incandescent bulbs are horribly inefficient because only about 20% of the energy they burn is turned into light, the rest is heat. A low energy bulb turns almost all the energy into light.

I think it must all end up as heat though, after all if you switch the light off and then open the cupboard there's no light still bouncing around - it's all gone somewhere. Less heat from an 11W CFL than a 60W incandescent of course, but I think you still get 11W of heat.

 

[KevM]

I wonder whether a low energy bulb would be enough?

I agree.

The old incandescent bulbs are horribly inefficient because only about 20% of the energy they burn is turned into light, the rest is heat. A low energy bulb turns almost all the energy into light.

I think it must all end up as heat though, after all if you switch the light off and then open the cupboard there's no light still bouncing around - it's all gone somewhere. Less heat from an 11W CFL than a 60W incandescent of course, but I think you still get 11W of heat.

Correct, the law of conservation of energy, or the first law of thermodynamics, for a closed system basically both tell us that energy can't be created or destroyed, but can change form. Of course, if it's a glazed cabinet then the photons can spill out everywhere and it's a right arse to clear up.