I have a bunch of the little silica gel packets saved and dry and use some from time to time. Just got a similar dessicant packet from the nori we made sushi with, and it's labelled "Lime Dessicant/Do Not Eat/Do Not Open/Your Children Will Die/blah/blah".
So wp says this stuff is (by now) calcium hydroxide. Any use in the home shop? We eat a lot of sushi.
I dunno, but I do know you can re-dehydrate desiccant for reuse. Low heat for a long time does the job.
Maybe put good tools in a ziplock baggy with a desiccant pack for long term storage.
I was thinking more as a chemical than as a dessicant. I find myself doing quite a bit of electrolytic derusting with the current batch of projects and might want to do some small plating after I find out more about it.
Lime, as a dessicant, is effective, BUT it's pretty much the same as cement (the stuff that comes in 80 lb sacks for a few bucks). It isn't like the reversible dessicants of a chem lab (Drierite is calcium sulphate).
Once lime has hydrated, nothing short of a hot oven will dry it quickly.
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