Power tools in the rain: adice?

[todd.roat]

I figured wood workers might be a good group to post this question to. Was building an outdoor shed in our back yard. Had a lot of tools out there. Foolishly trusted the weather man who claimed no chance of showers.

We caught a pop of thunder shower today. Had all my tools for the shed outside. Got rained on hard for 15 minutes. Wondering if there is any advice on how to handle them. I dried them all off ( and took them inside). But was wondering if sraying them internally with WD40 for its water displacement qualities would help - or any other suggestion.

Left out tools: framing nail gun, pancacke compressor, circular sawm drill.

Many thanks!

[Fred]

Nail gun should be ok. The rest (anything with motor and electrical switch) should be completely dry first. Don't use WD40.

If you have mud inside the tools, flush it with distilled water and make sure you don't have sand embedded in the moving parts and let it completely dry. I would take it apart and manually clean it with distilled water and re-grease all moving parts.

[RicodJour]

Never listen to the weather man - it's an exercise in futility.

Most of the time, it's not a big problem. Dry off the compressor with a hair dryer, then blow compressed air through the other tools. I'd consider waiting a day or so before using them.

Spraying WD-40 is as likely to short out the tools as water if you spray enough of it to displace the water.

Where were you when it rained? Normally it starts raining you cover up the tools with a tarp and wait for it to blow over.

R

[The Kearsley Curse]

x-no-archive: yes

WD40 attracts dirt like a magnet, remember? A lot of people foolishly spray their marine engines with WD40, only to see that a year later the electrical connections are corroded, because the oil left over has attracted dirt and that dirt has attracted moisture.

If you are worried, then best to get a dry out spray for electrical equipment (have no products in mind right now). But from years of working in the rain on the west coast of BC with power tools, most power products do hold up well enough after being rained on, or worse, without worry.

[gfretwell]

Just let them dry out and get on with your life. The trades around here have their stuff getting rained on all the time and they don't do anything special.

[PrecisionMachinisT]

Actually, Ive sprayed it on the inside of wet distributer caps on many occasions--didn't seem to short them out, quite the contrary in fact.

Still, it might wash out the lubricant in the case at hand so suggest be careful if spraying it on / around any moving parts that don't have sealed lube.

[John Gilmer]

What's wrong with WD-40? One should let the carrier evaporate after spraying so that the sparks don't cause a minor "explosion" but driving out water is what WD-40 does best!

[Fred]

Read the other posts regarding WD40. It attracts dust and dirt plus you don't want it driving the dirty acid ran water (good conductor by the way) into areas in the motor and electrical contacts. WD40 is a good conductor, certainly much more so after it attracts dusts and dirt, while distilled water, which I prefer over WD40, is a good insulator but 120V may not make that much of a difference unless you run into higher voltages in the kV range. Just my opinion FWIW.