Gentlepersons -
can anyone recommend a good oil to use on the top of a table saw to prevent rust from forming. I use the saw about 8 hours a month, normally in one long working session. Otherwise it sits in my unheated shop. I want an oil that will not stain the wood...but will protect the top.
Recommendations from this learned group would be appreciated.
Use a paste wax such as Johnson's, Butchers', etc. Avoid automotive waxes that may contain silicone.
-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)
Some folks like waxes as Nova said, I will often use boiled linseed oil. (If you read the can from the hardware store, it states that it is a metal protector and rust inhibitor.)
Honestly, I use either oil or wax depending on my mood. Sometimes I use linseed with varnish mixed in - leftover from wood finishing.
The answer is a "non-silicone paste wax" -- Johnson's, Butchers, Lundmark, are all in this category.
Then there are the high-priced treatments. I've never used 'em, so I may not have names exactly right: Top Cote, Boeshield, SLIPIT
If you insist on an oil-type protectant, there's "Cosmoline". Keep some kerosene on hand, though. You'll need it to remove the Cosmoline before any use of the saw. And you'll have to apply a new treatment when you're done. (I think waxing would be a *much* better approach. )
I get the best result from Top Kote. Sp[ray it on, wipe it off. I've had better results with this than wax. Ed
I use car wax (Turtle Wax, Johnson's, etc) on my table saw deck. It works great.
This is a BAD idea. The silicone present in automobile waxes can interfere with many wood finishes.
-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)
I didn't know that. Thanks.
Top kote's definitely the best...spray lightly then gently buff, also great to stop sap residue buildup.
Jon J.D.Power Tool Canada
Well that's a load of rubbish then. Linseed oil is acidic, and gets worse as it ages. Not the best thing to leave long-term on steel.
Read Bill Knight's research on de-acidifying linseed oil finishes if you care about chapter and verse. He has studied this a lot, in relation to his work on 18th century gunsmithing stains and finishes.
-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods
Neither did anybody else! lol
Have a nice week...
Trent
Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!
40 years ago I had a part time job after school removing the "Cosmoline" from WWII surplus tap cutting machines for a small machine shop....UGH
Actally the experts are split on this issue:
Martha Stewart-extra virgin olive oil (in a lovely raffia bottle.)
Roy Underhill-rancid bear grease.
Norm Abrams-a generous layer of endosement contracts.
My friend "Lefty"-copious amounts of blood and shredded flesh (he only tried it once with little positive results)
Galoots-Well, They don't rub anything they can't raise an etching on.
Me-I prefer newbie squeezin's ;^)
I'm dealing with an unheated shop too, and I've had lots of problems with rust in the past. I haven't tried Top Cote, Boeshield, etc. yet because I'm too lazy to figure out where to buy them, and too thrifty to buy them unless they're pretty cheap (which I gather they're not.)
In answer to some of my own recent rust queries, someone (I forget who, sorry whoever you are... :) suggested something different. It is what I now suggest to you:
Get a fan. Leave it running on low, keeping the air in your shop moving around. Helps if you have a leaky shop like I do, and you can move some air through.
The biggest cause of rust in the shop is cool metal causing moisture to condense out of the air. Tools "sweat" in the dark of night, and you wake up the next morning to find new rust on your freshly polished blurfl.
I've been experimenting with a fan for a few weeks now, and it *really* seems to help. I'm still waxing my most important things regularly, but I've been leaving a few lesser tools in an unwaxed state. I have a cheap chisel that has been sitting out in the open unprotected for at least two weeks, and if there are any rust blooms on it, they're microscopic.
I do worry what will happen when this cheap box fan decides to stop turning. I don't really like leaving something running when I'm not around to monitor it, but whether I like doing it or not, it really does seem to do the trick.
Best price I found is Lee Valley. So far, I've had my can for a year and it will last me a least one or two years more. That works out to less than 5 bucks a year and my tools are worth more than that. Ed
Martha would put nothing on the saw. "Juan", her gardener would apply it while Martha berated him off camera. She would only use the brand that she had a tip on from the CEO of the olive oil importer.
Norm's protectant would come from a yellow / black / red can that looked suspiciously like a Minwax can, but with tape over the label.
Bruce Johnson would pour motor oil all over it.
Barry
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