Originally Posted by
jttoner
My shop only has 3 walls and rust has always been a concern but easily dealt with thanks to WD-40. I know many disagree with using it for rust prevention, but it seems to be working fine for me. A few days ago I noticed a rat scampering about in my shop. He was huge. I went to Home Depot and bought five of their large traps. I wanted some poison as well but it seems they no longer sell the good stuff. As I was placing the traps in strategic locations, I discovered corrosion, not from rust, but from rat pee, on the table of my 4th axis, some Hardinge collets, and no longer available "Made in USA" Greenfield taps and dies. Because these were not used very often, I stored them on a shelf where they were largely out of sight. The taps and dies cleaned up fairly well after soaking them overnight in dilute bleach. To clean up the 4th axis table I had to use WD-40 and a scraper made from 6061. The surface survived with a few pits and several stains, but checked out as flat, i.e., no high spots from the corrosion.
I enclosed the 4th axis and my Rapid turn inside Tupperware containers. Same for my various lathe chucks. I decided to enclose my lathe tools and holders inside zip lock sandwich bags. Everything is well protected now, but I'm going to have to replace some lathe tool holders. The new ones will be safe from the elements as well as from the rodents, but the question is whether to by Aloris or ChiCom. I believe we get what we pay for and I can afford Aloris, but is there any practical between them and the ChiComs, like rigidity and/or repeatability? The Aloris holders have served me well. No metric screws, the threads don't go south, and the Allen socket holes don't round out.
I went to check my traps. Two of the five were missing, Must've snagged Ratzilla but he was able to get away, trap and all.