fighting the elements

[J.T.450r]

I unfortunately for now have my shop setup in a unconditioned garage (I work in commercial HVACR so hopefully I will condition the space in a year or two) I only heat and cool the space while working in it for now. I live in maryland so we get all 4 seasons here. I store all my materials in rolling carts in my house no problems there but I am starting to see some surface rust on the outside of my lathe chucks and drill press what would be the best way to protect my equipment from the elements (rust). Right now it is very minor and may not ever turn out to be a problem, no rust on lathe bed, tooling, crossslides but to be safe what is recommended to preserve my equipment, tooling, ect.. (I am sure it is probably as simple as grease or spray lube but any insight would be helpful) Thanks J.T.

 

[RocketQ]

Dry sillicone lube.

John

 

[Jr's Farm]

A light coat of machine oil for the ways. For the cast iron tables I use Johnsons Paste Wax. Apply a thin coat, let dry then buff out.

If you're lazy and in a hurry you can wipe your ways with Water Displacement recipe #40 (WD-40) As always, be careful not to contaminate your work though.

Frank

 

[JoeyInCali]

ATF works pretty darn good for a lot of things we use.
I use it on my lathes' ways.