Care and Maintenance of your Cast Iron tables?

[Bill Serino]

Question fellas.

It's wet season here in southern AZ. I have a handful of tools with larger cast iron tables. What do you guys that live in wet areas do to keep your tables/tools rust free?

I spent 10 minutes wiping the tables down with some oil. Made me feel better.

[Vinito Caleb]

I move mine to Arizona every summer.
Egad man!! Where's a better place than AZ for dry air??

Oil is better then nuthin. Probably some gooderer coatings for the purpose, but none are all that effective in my experience.
You need to keep the temperature of the cast iron above the dewpoint temperature. Either lower the dewpoint (air conditioning or dehumidifier to lower humidity) or heat the cast iron. I've put an incandescent light bulb in the base of machines to do that before. Surely more efficient heaters than light bulbs out there, but bulbs worked. Don't need much (like 20 to 40W) but of course incandescent bulbs are getting more sparse over the years. The heat wicks through the metal and keeps condensation off it. Not a great solution (HVAC is the best of course) but better than having to clean rust off the tables.

[Wayne Lomman]

Apply a thin coat of inorganic zinc primer. Better quality rattle cans of zinc primer are suitable. Its a thin enough coat to have no effect on the geometry of the table. Make sure your cast iron is completely clean of rust and contamination before applying. This works and when it eventually wears off, its easy to touch up. Cheers

[Charles Taylor]

Johnson's paste floor wax.

[Randal Blair]

Johnson's paste floor wax.

I've used this method for years - however I first wipe the surface down with a fine machine oil then a coat of wax.
I've done this for my table saw, bandsaw, jointer and my oscillating sander.

[John K Jordan]

Question fellas.
It's wet season here in southern AZ. I have a handful of tools with larger cast iron tables. What do you guys that live in wet areas do to keep your tables/tools rust free?
I spent 10 minutes wiping the tables down with some oil. Made me feel better.

I installed heat and air in my shop and the air conditioning keeps the humidity low in the summer. I do spray and wipe some metal protector on the bandsaw table but that is mostly to protect it when processing green wood. I apply Renaissance Wax to the lathe ways but that is to reduce friction.

I have a Robland sliding table attachment for my PM66 and their instructions are use a blackboard eraser to periodically rub pure talc powder onto the cast iron. They say this fills tiny pores and prevents rust. That method may apply only to some types of cast iron which is more porous than others.

I've wondered if applying the wrong type of oil might cause finishing problems if some got transferred to a wood surface.

JKJ

[David Eisenhauer]

Johnsons. Reapply when it looks like it needs it or if I see a small rust spot rearing its head. Scuff the problem spot with a synthetic steel wool pad, buff on some Johnsons. I have found over the years that new machinery takes the treatment more often, less treatment required as the years pass. Iron "pores" getting filled with wax? Who knows, but as my machinery ages, less anti-rust top maintenance required.

[Cary Falk]

T9 followed by paste wax

[Mike Manning]

SC Johnson's Paste Wax should be all you need in Southern AZ even during the monsoon season.

[Martin Wasner]

That 4% humidity and single digit dew points are a killer on cast....


The biggest thing is to not touch it with your dirty greasy hands. Don't sweat on it either. I've got one guy working for me that is going to get punched in the head the next time I see him leaning with his hands on a piece of equipment. YOU DON'T TOUCH BARE METAL!!!

I use paraffin wax for protection and for making things slipperier. Rub it on, and buff it out with #0000 steel wool. I used to use a Bostik product called Glidecote, but the vendor I got it through isn't carrying it anymore for whatever reason. The stuff they replaced it with is more slippery, but doesn't last as long.

[Eric Anderson]

I live in Austin, TX where we get hot and relatively humid summers (not New Orleans humid, but pretty bad). Rust is a constant fight. I have used T-9 and paste wax, works for a while, but lately switched to CRC 3-36, which is better than the T-9. Even with that, I normally re-coat every few weeks, and keep my Sawstop covered with an old Gor-tex mattress cover when not in use, which works quite well as it breaths but won't let moisture get on the table top. Mostly, it is a constant battle that you can't let up on. And of course, working in the shop during the summer (no AC yet) leaves little puddles of sweat that have to be cleaned up immediately or they will show rust before the cut is through.

[Bruce Page]

I’m in New Mexico, it’s pretty dry here too. I apply a coat of Johnson's paste wax once a year. I wipe parts of my metal working machinery with light oil. I wouldn’t want oil on my WW machines.

Our wet season should be starting any day – I hope!

[Frank Drew]

Virginia is extremely humid in the summer but the only time I had rust issues was when I was out of my shop for an extended period. The equipment covered with plastic sheeting was fine but, in fact, no cast iron surfaces, covered or not, rusted, only the steel, like the drill press column and the like. I've never treated the cast with oil or wax or anything but some say that keeping a ceiling fan running can prevent rust from forming (I wish I'd tried that; the pennies a day even for many days would have been worth it.) None of the hand tools in drawers had any issues but I did get some rust spots on the steel shanks of chisels where they touched the wood of the chisel rack hanging on the wall behind my bench. And speaking of which, neither of the bench vise screws rusted.

[lawrence munninghoff]

Johnsons paste wax. Been using for years. No rust.

[Randall J Cox]

Central Calif here, use either talcum powder or Johnsons paste wax. Johnsons paste wax for over 30 years, no issues. Either in VA where I lived or now taxifornia....