Silica Gel - rust prevention

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Greetings,

I've been a little paranoid about my 2 shotguns since I've found a little rust on the ribs of the barrel.. more or less in the same location of both. (one is a 870 the other is an 11-87)

Has anyone purchased these 40g Silica canisters? I have one canister in each soft rifle case with the guns, then wrapped in garbage bags. After 3 weeks the window turned purple (not pink as indicated). Does this duration sound about right? Do others have to reheat these things about once a month or so?

Does anyone have anything negative to say about these canisters? How often does everyone lube up their firearms (assuming no shots fired)? Once a month? 6 months? 1yr?

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/silicagelcanister40g.aspx

Edit: a search for the past year didn't give me any results.
 
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Silica can work if you have a more sealed container. Not sure about all the wrapping and such.

Sounds like a pretty moist storage space. Is there anywhere else you can store the guns? I prefer upstairs closets away from an outside wall and bathrooms. What kind of lube are you using?
 
What rust inhibiting oil are you using for your stored weapons?

Eezox or CorrosionX should be considered.

Add a volatile corrosion inhibitor to your gun safe or case.
The anti-rust VCI 'cartridges' or 'shells' should be available at your local gun shops.
 
Pablo,

I've been using an Outers cheap cleaning kit and included oil. http://www.outers-guncare.com/products/cleaning_kits/cleaning_kits.aspx. The $10 one, at the bottom. BTW are aluminum rods a good idea to use? I used to only lube/clean the gun after use each use, but do I have to lube it on a regular basis, like every 6 months?

I've switched to FP-10 about a month ago when I noticed the pea sized rust spot. And today I purchased some BreakFree-CLP. Did I tell you I was paranoid?
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: brueggma

Pablo,

I've been using an Outers cheap cleaning kit and included oil. http://www.outers-guncare.com/products/cleaning_kits/cleaning_kits.aspx. The $10 one, at the bottom. BTW are aluminum rods a good idea to use? I used to only lube/clean the gun after use each use, but do I have to lube it on a regular basis, like every 6 months?

I've switched to FP-10 about a month ago when I noticed the pea sized rust spot. And today I purchased some BreakFree-CLP. Did I tell you I was paranoid?
smile.gif




Never had a problem with Al rods. Undummy listed some great products to treat with every 3-6 months or so.
 
I am into humidity control because I have some high end guitars. The following may apply to your guns. I do not know how low of a humidity you require to prevent rust, but if your guns have wood on them I do know you can cause problems if the wood is kept in a case with too low humidity.

One of my guitars has wood that was kept at 47 percent humidity for a long time before it was built. I keep that guitar at 47 percent +/- 5. Another guitar maintains better shape at 60 percent humidity.

I do know that wood will shrink, and even crack if it is kept too dry. If you guns have wood on them, you could damage the wood by keeping it in a case with low humidity.

Good humidity control requires a case that does not let air flow into/out of it easily. A plastic or metal case with a good fitting door would be a good idea. A cloth or leather case will let too much moisture through. If you are going to get into humidity control, go to Radio Shack and get a radio linked temperature and humidity system. It will run about $60. You probably want the humidity to be about 45 percent for the wood of your gun. I do not know if 45 percent humidity is low enough to prevent rust if the metal did not have oil on it. Again, If you get the humidity too dry the wood can shrink, or crack. The wood on guns in general is thicker than the wood on a guitar, and therefore less likely to show problems from exposure to too little humidity, but it is still possible. If ALL the guns you have in a case have NO wood on them, then you can go for very low humidity.


BTW, Did you see the commercial for the new Discovery program? It is called "Son Of A Gun". It is about a family who builds there own guns. In the commercial the father said something like "If you give me the metal I can build what ever gun I want." Apparently it is a new program that will begin sometime in January. I did not ketch the date.
 
I like the socks because they keep my rifles from getting dinged up and scratched up during transportation and when I'm digging in the closet/safe when looking for something. I have no faith in the silicone's sock ability to do anything else.

Here is an interesting link and the last pictures(11 weeks) is scary:
rust more rust lots of rust silly rust

And, if you're a non-believer like me, you can always do your own closet test with some scrap iron.

Browning, Kleenbore... have gun socks with VCI in them. You can search ebay's sporting section for VCI.

VCI
more vci
vci

Remington had the 'VCI inhibitor' snap caps in various calibers.
Moistureguard

My local gun shop had "the inhibitor" VCI snap caps, chips, spray, and barrel caps in various calibers. Rarely find them online.
The Inhibitor

I have weapons that sit for years in the safe and they never get any rust.
 
I'm been using them for years, and they are common to manufacturing to prevent parts from rusting between manufacturing steps or while in storage.

I think that VCI's, like many things, are being introduced to many hobbies and industries.
 
WD-40 is the best oil you can use to prevent rust on the metal of your gun. It beats ALL other gun oils. It might not be the best lubricant, but it will outdo any other gun oil in the rust prevention department. By a long shot.

And the wrapping in a garbage bag idea is a bad idea plastic bags are gas permeable and can cause problems. Like someone mentioned, just store them in a closet or whatever, away from an exterior wall or bathroom/kitchen wall. Be sure to coat with WD-40 beforehand and you will have zero rust problems.
 
unDummy, I believe the silicone in the gun sock is also designed to rub off on the gun and protect it from fingerprint oil which can eventually damage the finish of a gun.

Does anybody know whether the silica pellets that you can buy in bulk for kitty litter is the same stuff as in the little moisture reducing packets you get in different retail electronics packages?

I would like to use this for moisture absorption and I can get my wife to sew up some old socks etc. that I've filled with it.
 
Originally Posted By: j_mac
WD-40 is the best oil you can use to prevent rust on the metal of your gun. It beats ALL other gun oils.


That's a HUGE claim. I simply don't believe that.
 
My safe has a jar of silica gell beads.

Bought them from local electrical wholesaler (they are used to keep moisture out of transformers and electrical equipment as they "breathe".

Start off blue, and turn pink. Put them in the over to turn them blue again.

Had an EPRI turbine storage course relatively recently (steam turbines naturally run on steam, and when you stop them and cool them down, can have major issues). One of the solutions is VPI.

I spoke to the chemist for a while on VPIs, and I mentioned some old British gun books that had blocks of natural camphor in gun cases as VPI. His assessment was that it basically DID have the properties desired for a VPI.

I've got some synthetic camphor that I'm going to mess with.
 
Originally Posted By: Jim 5
Does anybody know whether the silica pellets that you can buy in bulk for kitty litter is the same stuff as in the little moisture reducing packets you get in different retail electronics packages?

I would like to use this for moisture absorption and I can get my wife to sew up some old socks etc. that I've filled with it.


Dunno, but there's heaps available.
http://compare.ebay.com/like/350332991301?ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

I bought 5Kg for about $30 ten years ago from the electrical trades guy in town...the blue/pink transition makes for easy ID of depleted gel.
 
WD-40 Is the king despite all the assumptions, hear say and old wives tales...
This is a scientific study providing proof that it will give superior rust protection to any gun oil on the market. I have serveral pieces sitting happily right now with a coat of WD-40 protecting them from the ravages of moisture.

Here you go guys. This is a repost from an earlier thread where I was trying to prove the worth of WD-40 in another thread, sorry if the wording might sound a little harsh but I was really being put through the wringer over this.

In the other thread I was confronted with the same Gunzone article provided here and this was my response....

Did you notice that your test was conducted by a LAWYER? Did you notice that there were NO PICTURES to show the test results? And did you realize that no one ever exposes their firearms to salt spray?
Mr. Firrolo, the lawyer and author of the test you linked gave questionable descriptions of the results and used questionable procedures for the test that could introduce human error and influence the results. And what credibility does The Gun Zone have?

And now for my link...
This link is of a test conducted by the Brownells company. Brownells has been providing shooters with firearms supplies for OVER 70 YEARS! They conducted a rust prevention test of some of the oils and protectants that they sell including one of THEIR OWN oils that they formulated themselves and has their name brand on it. And they were willing to show that WD-40 out-did it! This must prove the honesty and sincerety of their testing. No lawyers involved here. Just some of the most serious people in the world concearning firearms. And there are actually pictures for you to compare for yourself!
Don't get confused by the results for Boeshield T-9, its a wax that is hard to remove. And dont pay any attention to the Cosmoline and Rig grease results as they are GREASES and are not suitable for the purposes of our discussion.

As a final note I would like to stress the point that Brownells has shown that the products they sell from their buisness are inferior to a common spray that can be found ANYWHERE. What honesty.

Please, give me your thoughts on this test.

Here's the link http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=12616...t_Preventatives
 
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