Storing and protecting hand tools

[danst96]

Morning all,

As a few of you may have picked up, i am moving to Canada very soon. I have put up a post previously relating to this but as mentioned back then, I plan to take the majority of my workshop with me.
One thing id like to ask, does anyone have any best practices or thoughts as how to protect my planes and other hand tools from rust? The majority of our stuff will be going by sea, its a roughly 9 day boat journey (so not too bad) and then another couple of weeks through the port and by train.

For things like planes, am i best disassembling them and oiling everything or should I just put a film of oil over the surfaces without disassembling?

Appreciate the thoughts of anyone who may have stored tools for a while.

Thanks!

 

[Jacob]

I doubt they will be out on an open deck in bad weather! Just normal packaging should do it, perhaps a few plastic bags extra.

 

[Rorschach]

I would think you could get a better packing density if you took the tools apart, less chance of damage too. I would oil everything and pack it as tightly together as possible.

 

[Blackswanwood]

I agree with the posts above. If you want to take a belt and braces approach you could buy some silica gel sachets to absorb any moisture. They are used in shipping containers with dry goods.

 

[Cabinetman]

You could try vacuum bags – the sort that are used for shrinking down pillows and duvets? That would stop any moisture completely. As was said I wouldn’t worry overly as your stuff will be in a container and they don’t seem to rust much on the way over here from China!

 

[Just4Fun]

If you want to take a belt and braces approach you could buy some silica gel sachets to absorb any moisture.

Silica gel is ideal but if you can't get hold of suitable quantities cheaply you could use rice instead. It absorbs moisture and you can get large quantities cheaply so you can use it instead of polystyrene peanuts or whatever to pack your tools in. The downside is the weight of course but maybe in the context of household goods travelling by ship that is not a barrier.

 

[danst96]

This is very helpful all thanks. Silica gel is a good shout, i will see what i can get hold of. As mentioned above its not going to be open deck however the moisture levels will be relatively high i think as it crosses the North Atlantic.

 

[Jameshow]

How about spraying cheap oil onto old towels and wrapping them in that.

Cheers James

 

[Ttrees]

Having made leather sheaths before for a lot of tools, which gave less than desirable results.
I'd slather on some motor oil and wrap them in plastic bags.

 

[Richard_C]

You could take all the blades out, pop them in your pockets and take them with you on the aeroplane - can't see a pocket full of cutters being a problem at check-in.....or?

Seriously though, what time of year are you going? My daughter spent a year in Hamilton as part of her degree course, we went out to visit and did a grand tour at the end. There was a 3 week period duruing her year when there were blizzards all up the US/Canada eastern seaboard, one day it "warmed up" to -18C. So if you are likley to be unloading in winter think about how you might pack so it's easy to unpack. I doubt water ingress will be a problem, when I was HR head for a big company we used to send expats all round the world and rarely had any issues with furniture or belongings. Condensation - pack in nice warm damp UK, end up in dry cold Canada - could occur and I wonder if wrapping in cloths might make things worse not better.

Does your shipping company have any advisory pages on their website?

(an aside, were I not retired and therefore unable to get a visa, I would seriously think about Canada as a place to live)

(as another aside, if you are near the US border and plan to travel - we went to Seattle for a couple of days from Vancouver - check out the US rules for land border crossings and ESTAs or not, we found them picky to the point of aggressive in both directions even though we had followed the rules fastidiously and are boringly respectable-looking old. If I recall, the land border rules are slightly different from the ones where USA is first point of arrival by air from the UK.)


Enjoy.

 

[danst96]

You could take all the blades out, pop them in your pockets and take them with you on the aeroplane - can't see a pocket full of cutters being a problem at check-in.....or?

Seriously though, what time of year are you going? My daughter spent a year in Hamilton as part of her degree course, we went out to visit and did a grand tour at the end. There was a 3 week period duruing her year when there were blizzards all up the US/Canada eastern seaboard, one day it "warmed up" to -18C. So if you are likley to be unloading in winter think about how you might pack so it's easy to unpack. I doubt water ingress will be a problem, when I was HR head for a big company we used to send expats all round the world and rarely had any issues with furniture or belongings. Condensation - pack in nice warm damp UK, end up in dry cold Canada - could occur and I wonder if wrapping in cloths might make things worse not better.

Does your shipping company have any advisory pages on their website?

(an aside, were I not retired and therefore unable to get a visa, I would seriously think about Canada as a place to live)

(as another aside, if you are near the US border and plan to travel - we went to Seattle for a couple of days from Vancouver - check out the US rules for land border crossings and ESTAs or not, we found them picky to the point of aggressive in both directions even though we had followed the rules fastidiously and are boringly respectable-looking old. If I recall, the land border rules are slightly different from the ones where USA is first point of arrival by air from the UK.)


Enjoy.

Thanks Richard. We are aiming on moving next month depending on work permits so will be middle of summer. Im heading to Saskatchewan so summers are generally pretty hot and dry and winters brutally cold and dry. So yes im less worried about the otherside, just the time between.

I will check the shipping company website, thats a good shout.

Ive traveled from US into Canada (Seattle to Calgary) and had no issues at the border but have heard bad stories. My new job will likely involve a fair bit of travel between US and Canada (once the borders open obviously) so will be interesting to see how that goes. I think even as a non Canadian or US citizen you can get a membership with a body like NEXUS which I believe largely removes much of the conflict and time at the border but I think you have to be travelling pretty frequently to justify it and potentially have to have been in Canada or US for a certain period of time, not entirely sure on this point.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

I've moved across the Atlantic twice, once to the USA and then back to the UK ~10 years later. All I did was make boxes to pack tools I normally carry around in toolbags, and more boxes for things like clamps, finishes and other odds and ends. I just packed the tools in with a bit of bubble wrap to stop them banging into each other while the boxes were manhandled about as they, plus all my other household goods, were packed into a container. I also have workshop based tool chests on castors with lots of power tools and workshop based hand tools stored in them. Again, I just packed the kit away and shoved bubble wrap in there and around some tools so they couldn't rattle about and hit each other. That was it really. Everything (household goods, luggage, tools in boxes, plus my workbench, saw horses, step ladders, etc) was tightly packed in the shipping container by the moving company and nothing untoward happened and all the kit (plus household goods) was in good shape at the far end.

I didn't worry about rust or anything like that; containers are pretty airtight and changes in humidity takes quite a while to really register inside the container, weeks rather than days.

If you're taking across your heavy kit, e.g., planer/ thicknesser, table saw, bandsaw, etc, I have no advice. Each time I moved across the Atlantic I sold anything like that and when needed, bought replacements.

On the whole, I suggest you don't get overly anxious about your kit, worrying about rust, disassembling stuff and anally bubble wrapping every single item. Just pack with reasonable protection and things should be okay. Slainte.