Having purchased my first iron machine (a General 650) just a few months ago, and living is South Florida, where looking at metal causes it to rust, I turned to the net for advice on protection.
There have been many threads (including a recent one) that suggest wax treatments for tables saws (and other iron). Brands of paste wax most often mentioned are Johnson's, Minwax, and Butchers. My local BORG only had Minwax, so that's what I got, and its done a pretty good job of keeping the table clear of rust.
Apparently, these wax treatments are also supposed to make the table slick, so that wood kind of floats as you feed it into the blade. This, I did not find to be true. In fact, even though I had buffed and buffed, the Minwax left a finish that if anything *resisted* wood being passed over it. I was perplexed until someone in that recent WRECK thread suggested that the Minwax people say their product contains a "non-slip" additive. Ah ha!
So, I went on a scouring search for Johnson's. This stuff is not easy to find, but finally today I was in a no-name hardware shop that happened to have two tins. I brought one home.
Not only is the Johnson's easier to apply (it is softer, and also seems to glaze over faster and more consistently), but what a difference it makes to the feed factor! I mean, its like I have to hold the wood back. I now use a push stick on the other side of the table to counteract the inertia of the initial movement toward the blade. Ripping 8ft maple boards feels like being in a some kind of lost Stanley Kubrick movie about woodworking in
3001.In short, Johnson's 1, Minwax 0.
/rick