Question about Faultless casters

You have plain steel casters you want to store outside in Illinois through the winter and have them not rust? My first suggestion would be to remove the casters (the wheels) and clean them and prime them with 2 coats of good quality red oxide primer. That will slow the rust down a little. Then store them up on blocks (not touching the ground) and absolutely slathered with a wax-based spray rust preventative like Boeshield or LPS-3 (not sure about the LPS number). Then put plastic bags over the entire thing with dry paper towels inside and tape them on securely.

That might get you through one year, maybe.

You shoulda got galvanized.

GWE

Ignoramus17640 wrote:

No, they are galvanized, except obviously the zinc is gone where I welded them.

They are galvanized. But the weld beads and maybe the immediate area, lost the zinc.

Iggy I would fab a rain sheild you could slip over the caster when not in use. If these casters are kept dry it will be a big help in keeping them in working order. I would do the same for the ram on the hoist. I made mine out of roofing rubber sheet. Steve

Get some good quality cold galvanizing spray, that stuff has gotten a lot better over the years and works pretty good now. A can of that stuff isn't cheap but IMO you get what you pay for in this case.

GWE

Thanks. I usually keep the ram inside the garage. Great point on the shields, I will think what I can do easily, good idea.

Grant, I will definitely do just that, a great idea.

Why not get a tub of grease, put it in a pan and heat it until liquefied and dip each caster in it?

Well, I would not want to dip the rubber wheels into grease, but I could mix Cosmoline with a solvent and apply that to steel parts.

(I have 25 lbs of cosmoline)

I'd do the grease thing and instead of dipping - brush it into the trace. Then overcoat with cosmoline.

Martin

Mart> >

If he dips each one in hot, liquid grease and then lets the grease cool after it has permeated all of the interstices and then solidifies, he can then wipe off the grease from the rubber tires and further wipe with alcohol.

One can't wipe grease off rubber or plastic - one has to use solvents or bases like lye to dissolve and wash away the grease. Not a good idea.

Martin

Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member

know> If he dips each one in hot, liquid grease and then lets the grease cool

Alcohol is a solvent for grease, as I suggested.