Here in the Southeast humidity is an everpresent factor most of the year. In my pole building shop the overall size and the afterhours and weekend utilization make air conditioning too expensive to justify right now. Most of my cast iron surfaces show the effects of moisture even though I cover and clean the table tops whenever I notice the need for attention. Has anyone found a solution or at least a partial solution by sealing the cast iron surfaces? Is wax the answer or is there a miracle product (like Slipit) that can protect machinery? Any advice would be appreciated-Thanks
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In the past couple of years two magazines have tested no rust coating for cast iron. They also included furniture paste wax. The furniture paste wax faired the worst. Paste wax offers little or no resistance to water vapor. In both tests, the top treatment was Boeshield T9. It stood up to standing water and high water vapor. It is formulated for use on jet aircraft.
Most users find that the best periodic treatment is to apply the Boeshield T9, let it set a few minutes and then lighty wipe off the excess. Then let it fully harden overnight, then buff and apply a single light coat of paste wax to make the machine surface slippery.
I live and coastal North Carolina and we experience high humidity. I've never had a speck of rust on my cast iron surfaces.
I used talcum powder and canvas covers many years ago with limited success. I then used SlipIt and HTC machine covers for years and that worked better. I now use Renaissance wax with HTC machine covers and I have no signs of rust in humid NE Ohio. I would recommend you try a HTC machine cover after you treat your machine tool tops. I usually get the medium size and use 2 on most machines to cover all surfaces. The last one I got is made in China, I hope it works as good as the made in USA covers.
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