On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 19:33:50 -0500, Ignoramus21381
wrote:

I have 625 tools of a certain kind. If I sell one per week, that means
that I will be selling them for the next 12 years. (scary thought)

They are made of steel and have dark finish (phosphate), but are not painted.

I am going to store them outdoors, in three rectangular plastic bins
with covers that snap over them, so that rain water does not
penetrate.

In addition, I placed desiccant bags in those bins.

Would you say that it is sufficient to prevent them from rusting for
12 years.

Thanks

i

No. Others have said why. Consider metal ammo boxes of appropriate
size. They have excellent seals. Flush and backfill with dry argon
from your TIG and/or toss in a desiccant pack and you're good for a
coupla decades. Well duh, they're designed to keep ammo viable for
long times in all manner of environments including jungle, right?
After you sell all of the tools, you could also sell the ammo boxes
because they last about forever. I'm still storing some stuff in a
couple of ammo boxes that were surplus from WW II or maybe Korea.

BTW, argon from your TIG is an excellent dry inert preservative. I
have kept epoxy and urethane paints and catalysts for years that
aren't supposed to last more than a week after the can is opened, by
flushing and backfilling the cans with argon after use. The catalyst
for the epoxy primer I used on the recent Rockchucker clamp was first
opened in 1999.

Argon also serves well to keep the remainder of an opened bottle of
nice red wine from oxidizing. My preferred approach is to finish the
wine, but decorum and/or libido do occasionally preclude gluttony.