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

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)

This is the down side of large inventory.
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.
In MY climate, Missouri, not a CHANCE! Maybe in yours, not
sure. Every day when the sun comes up, the air heats up faster
than something solid, and moisture can condense on the parts.
If the bins are practically hermetic, then there might be a
chance. Otherwise, maybe putting them in giant zip-lock bags,
with the dessicant and a humidity indicator card sealed inside
might help. You can check the humidity card every few months to
spot the bags that are leaking. Otherwise, you need a
protective spray.

Jon

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.

Not unless you also fill the bins with clean oil. Which isn't a bad
idea - pour off the oil, pour in a solvent, shake, stir, pour that off,
then wipe down each item as you sell it.

In the Midwest humidity, that stuff is going to rust unless you change
those desiccant bags prettty often.

At least that's what my opinion is.

GWE

On Jul 28, 1:33 am, Ignoramus21381 ignoramus21...@NOSPAM.
21381.invalid 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

Covers that snap on are far from having a hermetic seal. You would
have a better chance if you sealed the plastic boxes with EB green
tape.

Dan

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

Not a hope.

Cosmoline, LPS-3, or some other long term preservative, or store them
in airtight (thus immune to condensation issues) containers with dessicant.
A lid that snaps on will breathe. Bad.

Cheers
Trevor Jones

" wrote:

On Jul 28, 1:33 am, Ignoramus21381 ignoramus21...@NOSPAM.
21381.invalid 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

Covers that snap on are far from having a hermetic seal. You would
have a better chance if you sealed the plastic boxes with EB green
tape.

Dan

Mayonase jars?

John

Thanks to all. Yes, obviously, the lids would breathe. The question
is, would desiccant be able to take care of relatively little moisture
that enters the boxes during said "breathing".

That stuff is kind of valuable on a per tool basis. I placed moisture
measuring pieces of paper that came with desiccant, in the boxes, I
will see how they change.

Spraying them all with oil, is not very practicable.

I may clean up the shed a little and move them into the shed, and
maybe add some safe heating to them.

i

Iggy

I don't think the plastic bins will last 12 years outside. Metal containers
with
rubber seals will hold up, Moisture will get in and the dessicant will take
care of that for a while, but you are going to need to change the dessicant
on a regular basis, like every 6 months. Then if you coat the tools you may
be OK.

Consider vacuum sealed plastic bags with dessicant bags, in metal
containers.

Carl Boyd


"Ignoramus21381" wrote in message
...
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

Ignoramus21381 wrote:
Thanks to all. Yes, obviously, the lids would breathe. The question
is, would desiccant be able to take care of relatively little moisture
that enters the boxes during said "breathing".

If the parts are just sitting open in the bins, no way. The
dessicant would be saturated in a week or less. If you could
put the stuff in zip-lock bags and get everything in the bins
without the sharp edges poking tiny holes in the bags, then it
might work.
That stuff is kind of valuable on a per tool basis. I placed moisture
measuring pieces of paper that came with desiccant, in the boxes, I
will see how they change.

OK, then at least you will know how long it stays dry, but it
won't be very long unless the covers are pretty tight. The
advantage of the bags is they can expand and crumple inwards in
response to thermal expansion and atmospheric pressure changes
without actually exchanging any air inside to outside.
Spraying them all with oil, is not very practicable.
I use LPS1. They used to sell it in an economical pump sprayer
bottle that did a good job of atomizing the stuff. They don't
have that bottle available anymore, but you can buy it in
aerosol cans or buy the bulk container and provide your own
sprayer. It is kind of like WD-40 but I think it is much better
-- more lube and less evaporation. It doesn't make everything
gooey, and you can just wipe it off most things. It is good for
removing cosmolene-type stuff, too.

Jon

Carl Boyd wrote:
Iggy

I don't think the plastic bins will last 12 years outside. Metal containers
with
rubber seals will hold up, Moisture will get in and the dessicant will take
care of that for a while, but you are going to need to change the dessicant
on a regular basis, like every 6 months. Then if you coat the tools you may
be OK.

Consider vacuum sealed plastic bags with dessicant bags, in metal
containers.

Carl Boyd


"Ignoramus21381" wrote in message
...

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





Im a serious tool collector, have hundreds of unusual metalworking and
wood working tools.
The best ones I keep in side my house in large card board boxes under
my bed. there dry and warm. Other tools not so important are in drawers
in another room thats dry but cold. Not so good. Occasional rust forms
due to temp and humidity changes.
Other toolslike the big ones power presses lathes etc live in my
workshop. Thats fine in the summer. but in the winter after a cold snap
warm moist air comes in from the sea and they all run with condensation.
To prevent rust I paint it all with clean engine oil.
Works well.
Id store the tools you have in your house under your bed. Safest place.

Grant Erwin wrote:

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.

Not unless you also fill the bins with clean oil. Which isn't a bad
idea - pour off the oil, pour in a solvent, shake, stir, pour that off,
then wipe down each item as you sell it.

In the Midwest humidity, that stuff is going to rust unless you change
those desiccant bags prettty often.

At least that's what my opinion is.

GWE

I'd second the oil idea, it's probably the simplest and most reliable.
Whatever new oil is cheapest should be fine.

Pete C.

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.

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)


Is that the banding cutters?

Wes

In article ,
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)

Given the cost of storage space (your house and lot have finite size)
and of the measures needed to keep these items from rusting, and the
interest on the money tied up in the 625 items, does it make economic
sense to price them so it takes 12 years to sell out? I suspect not,
but a little work with a spreadsheet could be useful.

Joe



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

Ignoramus21381 wrote:

Thanks to all. Yes, obviously, the lids would breathe. The question
is, would desiccant be able to take care of relatively little moisture
that enters the boxes during said "breathing".

No!

In the shortest of terms, it might be satisfactory. The dessicant has
a limited amount of water that it can absorb, then it is just so much
filler.
If you expect them to last, airtight is the only way. Vaccuum would be
even better. Dessicant in both cases.


That stuff is kind of valuable on a per tool basis. I placed moisture
measuring pieces of paper that came with desiccant, in the boxes, I
will see how they change.

They will look really good for quite a while, then rust.

Spraying them all with oil, is not very practicable.

Then that narrows down the options, doesn't it.

I may clean up the shed a little and move them into the shed, and
maybe add some safe heating to them.

That will improve things somewhat, but you still will not have
alleviated the issues that come of atmospheric moisture.

Cheers
Trevor Jones

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 08:59:06 -0400, Wes wrote:
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)


Is that the banding cutters?


Yes, Signode banding cutters with plastic sleeves on the grips for softness.

i

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 10:22:45 -0400, Joseph Gwinn wrote:
In article ,
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)

Given the cost of storage space (your house and lot have finite size)
and of the measures needed to keep these items from rusting, and the
interest on the money tied up in the 625 items, does it make economic
sense to price them so it takes 12 years to sell out? I suspect not,
but a little work with a spreadsheet could be useful.

I do not know. I will be happy to sell them for about 1/3 of the "12
year" price if I could find a buyer for the entire lot. Which I doubt
is going to happen.

i

Don, good point about the ammo boxes. I will see if I can acquire any
(I have a few small .50 cal boxes, but not nearly enough and I need
bigger size).

Meanwhile, heeding the warnings, I will monitor the condition of stuff
in the plastic totes. I put relatively big bags of desiccant there,
and a little moisture indicating strip in each, as well. If I see the
strips change color to pink, or the bags getting heavier, I will treat
that as an urgent matter.

i

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 17:15:15 -0500, Ignoramus31827
wrote:

Don, good point about the ammo boxes. I will see if I can acquire any
(I have a few small .50 cal boxes, but not nearly enough and I need
bigger size).

Meanwhile, heeding the warnings, I will monitor the condition of stuff
in the plastic totes. I put relatively big bags of desiccant there,
and a little moisture indicating strip in each, as well. If I see the
strips change color to pink, or the bags getting heavier, I will treat
that as an urgent matter.

i
20 mm boxes, are about optimum for storage of bulk items.

Gunner

On Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:49:31 GMT, Gunner wrote:
On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 17:15:15 -0500, Ignoramus31827
wrote:

Don, good point about the ammo boxes. I will see if I can acquire any
(I have a few small .50 cal boxes, but not nearly enough and I need
bigger size).

Meanwhile, heeding the warnings, I will monitor the condition of stuff
in the plastic totes. I put relatively big bags of desiccant there,
and a little moisture indicating strip in each, as well. If I see the
strips change color to pink, or the bags getting heavier, I will treat
that as an urgent matter.

i
20 mm boxes, are about optimum for storage of bulk items.

Gunner

I looked at them, they are too small for me.

i

Ignoramus3970 wrote:
On Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:49:31 GMT, Gunner wrote:

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 17:15:15 -0500, Ignoramus31827
wrote:


Don, good point about the ammo boxes. I will see if I can acquire any
(I have a few small .50 cal boxes, but not nearly enough and I need
bigger size).

Meanwhile, heeding the warnings, I will monitor the condition of stuff
in the plastic totes. I put relatively big bags of desiccant there,
and a little moisture indicating strip in each, as well. If I see the
strips change color to pink, or the bags getting heavier, I will treat
that as an urgent matter.

i

20 mm boxes, are about optimum for storage of bulk items.

Gunner


I looked at them, they are too small for me.

i

Keep an eye out for 45 gallon size parts cans from your surplus sources.

Usually a rubber donut seal, and a lever operated ring clamp to hold
the lid on.

Airtight, reliable, and spacious storage.

A couple dessicant packs into one of those, and your moisture issues
are done.

Or you could find a couple engine cans (aircraft engines, tank
engines, etc). :-) Not real convienient to get open, though. But they
usually have a vaccuum guage on them to see if they have been leaking.

Cheers
Trevor Jones

I keep my ceramic cutting material in 50 cal, and shipped across country
lots of important stuff packed in them. When I got here, I had extra
red rags from the packing to stock the shop :-)

I still have a dozen or so that need to be allocated. I think some will
go to the 'Yard Barn' to keep rats out of stuff or moisture.

Martin

Martin H. Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
TSRA, Life; NRA LOH & Endowment Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot's Medal.
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.
http://lufkinced.com/


Gunner wrote:
On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 17:15:15 -0500, Ignoramus31827
wrote:

Don, good point about the ammo boxes. I will see if I can acquire any
(I have a few small .50 cal boxes, but not nearly enough and I need
bigger size).

Meanwhile, heeding the warnings, I will monitor the condition of stuff
in the plastic totes. I put relatively big bags of desiccant there,
and a little moisture indicating strip in each, as well. If I see the
strips change color to pink, or the bags getting heavier, I will treat
that as an urgent matter.

i
20 mm boxes, are about optimum for storage of bulk items.

Gunner

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