rusty shears

[andrew brown]

i just moved, and its been raining ever since i got here.. i moved from the desert and within a week my cup and diamond shears are rusting.. im almost sure ive seen a post on this before.. but i was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on removing and preventing the rust.. ive never had to worry about this coming from 2% humidity..
thanks in advance..
andrew

[Mr. Smiley]

I keep my tools pretty clean by coating them in bees wax. I'm in the middle of the swamp in central Florida, so I know how tools can get nasty. It keeps glass from sticking too. :)

[steven p selchow]

Every year I go down to ft. Myers beach, I coat it with that aquadag, graphite powder. Living by the gulf. those tools rust in a week, but that works good, and no residue either.

Steve

[Greymatter Glass]

Andrew,

Get ye to a sporting goods / hunting / gun shop and get 2 things:

Rust remover and a gun cloth.

Use the rust remover per instructions. You can use WD40 and steel wool, but the commercial rust removers sold to restore old guns is the best stuff there is.

Once you've got the rust off wipe the tools with the gun cloth frolm time to time. The cloth is impregnanted with silicone based oils that stick to metal like glue, and it's super thin, so it'll burn off on first contact with hot glass.

And so hey... when / where did you move man? I never hear anything from anyone in this town :P

If it's super humid and your tools keep rusting consider getting either a gun case or a tool box for them, and put in some anti-rust paper or a dessicant bag in the case.

I used to do that with all my non-glass style tools back when I lived in Hawaii, worked great. You can get bulk dessicant from military surplus store on the cheap... various ways to recharge the stuff, usually just put it in an oven and cook it at around 180 degrees to drive out the moisture and it's good for another charge.

Also, you can wipe down your tools with any kind of 3-in-1 oil and a good soft rag, just make sure you use it very sparingly... the metal shouldnt feel oily when you're done.

I thought about getting my jacks chromed.... that would be a pretty premamnent rust solution :P

Anyways man, good luck and great wishes where ever you're on to now.

-Doug

[Udai Hussien]

Hoppes bluing fluid is the shizzy... also a fine steel wool and WD-40 and lots of elbow grease will remove rust... Doug is right aboutr the hoppes rust remover... works GREAT

[eegee]

I actually called Jim Moore about this as both my jacks and shears were rusting (in Seattle). He said:

1. Dont remove the rust - it actually protects the metal once its there and removing it just exposes more metal to rust

2. Dont use WD-40 - it doesnt protect against moisture. Its a good cleaner, and lube in a bind, but not a protectorant.

He told me to use any old oil - even motor oil. I use a tool oil I already had for some chisels, and that works ok. I wish it was better. I think I may move to what Doug said with a container with dessicant - that's a good idea.

Anyway - that's my paraphrased words from the toolmaker....

Eric

[Mr. Smiley]

I don't remove the rust either. It does seem to help protect the tool and doesn't deposit itself on the glass. I also have some Ospho I want to try... I wonder how that would react with the glass though. It turns rust into some black hard super metal... then it will no longer rust. I may give it a shot and let you guys know. The bees wax hasn't been a problem with putting any deposits on the glass. When it burns off, I just redip and it is kind of a pain to keep doing that. I've tried oils and they burn off pretty quick too. Wax is easier to apply to a hot tool.

[skip]

WD_40 is a water deterant. Thats what the WD stands for as I been told. Water Deterant Test 40 (They test ran at least 40 formulas)trying to find a way to protect tanks and shit from rusting. It probably isnt the best thing to burn though.... I'm down with trying bees wax first.

[skip]

Hey just found this online.....

In 1953, a fledgling company called Rocket Chemical Company and its staff of three set out to create a line of rust-prevention solvents and degreasers for use in the aerospace industry, in a small lab in San Diego, California.

It took them 40 attempts to get the water displacing formula worked out. But they must have been really good, because the original secret formula for WD-40—which stands for Water Displacement perfected on the 40th try—is still in use today.

Convair, an aerospace contractor, first used WD-40 to protect the outer skin of the Atlas Missile from rust and corrosion. The product actually worked so well that several employees snuck some WD-40 cans out of the plant to use at home.

A few years following WD-40's first industrial use, Rocket Chemical Company founder Norm Larsen experimented with putting WD-40 into aerosol cans, reasoning that consumers might find a use for the product at home as some of the employees had. The product made its first appearance on store shelves in San Diego in 1958.

In 1960 the company nearly doubled in size, growing to seven people, who sold an average of 45 cases per day from the trunk of their cars to hardware and sporting goods stores in the San Diego area.

In 1961 the first full truckload order for WD-40 was filled when employees came in on a Saturday to produce additional concentrate to meet the disaster needs of the victims of hurricane Carla along the U.S. Gulf coast. WD-40 was used to recondition flood and rain damaged vehicles and equipment.

[Marc VandenBerg]

In the hot shop we simply use elbow grease and scotch bright cleaning pads to remove rust. We also keep the hand tools in drawers. I do the same in my lampworking studio. A rusty tool is one of the most uncomfortable things to have to pick up and use. And beeswax is good on jacks but you get that shit on other tools and the tool is rendered useless. As much of a hassle cleaning tools every week might be its simply taking care of the tools that take care of your bottom line.
Marc

[Mr. Smiley]

Marc... why are the other tools rendered useless? I may be missing something, but I put it on my tweezers and needle nose. The only things that don't get a dip are my mashers and graphite tools. I haven't been formally trained, so I just do what works for me. Can you expand on this for me... I'm open to any and all helpful suggestions. ;)

[Marc VandenBerg]

From my experiences in the hot shop and my own lampworking studio, wax on tweezers causes them to slip off the glass, they can't grab anything warm or hot. Wax on straight shears causes the shears to slide off the glass rather than grabbing it and cutting into it. Wax is used on jacks for that very purpose, to allow the steal to slide smoothly on the hot glass. Wax on diamond shears doesn't matter because the blades grab around the glass with no way to slide out. Maybe you are not getting any wax on the tips of the tweezers or blades of the shears (the part of the tool contacting the glass) which would allow them to still work properly for some time. Hopefully this better explains my position.
Marc

[Mr. Smiley]

Yeah Mark It explains it much better. Thanks man.

I use the wax on the tweezers, but not on the inside. If some get's there, it normally burn off really quick. No problems with slippage yet, but I probably just jinxed myself. I use my tweezers like small jacks on small vessels and donuts. Keeping the outside waxed really helps. I used my pliers the same way... Thanks a bunch for the insight. See you at AGI. :D

[Greymatter Glass]

Smily... get a pare of big tweezers without "teeth" on the inside, then heat up the tweezers about 1/4 of the way up and twist the blades to make a pair of mini jacks... you can then sharpen the blades, flex the tweezers open a bit to make them open/close right. The heat of your torch is plenty to get the metal hot enough to twist with a pair of pliers... just go slow.

And yeah, Hoppes... thats the stuff I was thinking of... I might actually blue my moore tools.... that's not a bad idea.

Also, a rock hard black phosphate coating, which isn't cheap, should be a good way to protect your tools as well, as long as you sand it off the blades when done... it will burn.

... Anyways I found this paper you can buy in rolls @ Sportsmans Warehouse, that is used to line cun cases/safes that's an anti-rust agent embeded in it... line your drawers with tyat and you'll never have a problem.

-Doug