Fluid Film for Rust Protection???

[dimwittedmoose51]

The guys on the Vanagon forum are hyping this product called fluid film for the undercarriage etc. for vehicles' rust protection up here in the "rust" belt.  Since it's primary ingredient is lanolin, why not just go to the farm supply store and buy a jar or two of cow teets/udder protection since it's virtually all lanolin and a lot cheaper??  The brand name up here is called Udder Balm.

Anyone try  lanolin for rust protection on tools and have a long term observation as to its effectiveness?  Rubbing it in with bare hands can't help but make your hands softer too, unlike WD/3in1/Liquid wrench.......lol



TIA


DM&FS

[anglesmith]

I use Inox and Lanox, both are anti moisture anti corrosion lubricants. Inox is a better "WD 40"  replacement (I grew up believing in WD40 but I switched many years ago)  Lanox has better anti corrosion properties. I use lanox on all my tools and collectibles! ( they are both great machining lubricants also) I have had display boards outside by the ocean for week, just  hosed them off and resprayed lanox with very little touch up needed!  I have tried other Lanlolin products but have found them too greasy.
Im not sure how widely available the "inox?"range of products are in USA? BTW usual disclamer no connection with company just a very happy user. Lanox is not cheap Its about $70-80 for 5lt (1 gallon) here, but then again rust is not cheap either!   Just found this US site,   http://www.indianriver.cc/Inox/index.htm
Graeme


Spelling and clarification

[anglesmith]

Fluid Film
Just read up on the thinnest grade (A) Fluid Film. Its probably very good for chassis etc, but no good for tools or collectibles! To quote from blurb "Reacts with moisture to form a soft gelatinous barrier".  Remind me of the WW2 tropic proofing Cosmoline!!  In fact on futher reading I think fluid film is a "modern revamped" Cosmoline?
Graeme

[rusty]

Silly people, when you want to know what is in something, look up the mandatory MSDS, then look up the CAS numbers.

The one and only active ingredient is hydro treated paraffin (wax)

It does not come from sheep, it comes from a refinery....

[anglesmith]

Thanks for that tip Rusty,so far Ive just looked up MSDS for lanox MX4(aerosol)  http://www.indianriver.cc/Inox/Forms/LANOX-MX4-USA.pdf  It says it has <10 % hydrocarbons, the other  ingredients (90%?) aren't disclosed, (no CAS numbers) except to say their not hazardous! Our Australian MSDS has the same CAS number for the hydrocarbons and also no CAS number against the undisclosed ingrediants.
Graeme

[EVILDR235]

I bet everyone of those products has a warning label that says ( ACCORDING TO THE STATE OF CALFORNIA, THIS PRODUCT MAY CAUSE CANCER ) I was in the Napa Valley one time and found that warning printed on a bottle Vin Rose.

EvilDr235

[rusty]

When looking up aerosol things, remember that the propellant may be a hydrocarbon, for other ingredients, try to find  a non-aerosol version of the product to get a MSDS for the remaining stuff...

As to CA...well...they elected an actor so....they deserve what they get ;P

The latest amusement is a lead warning on battery cables that contain no lead...because they *might* come into contact with a product containing lead.....really?

As to the 'fluid film', many hydrocarbons behave with water by making gooey emulsions, so that isn't really a weird special property, even heavy oil will do that given enough time. (The alcolol componants of lanolin will also emulsify water)

anything that keeps water away, or ties it up chemically will provide some protection for metal, but plain old boring turtle wax is cheaper ;P

PS: Technically, lanolin *is* a hydrocarbon, or rather, a collection of several thousand slightly different but closely similar ones...(See the wiki page for the best description of what is in it)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanolin

PPS: http://www.cosmolinedirect.com/

[oldtools]

Wow! $60.00+ a qt.?
is this an evolution of WW2 tropic proofing Cosmoline?

[Branson]

As to CA...well...they elected an actor so....they deserve what they get ;P

Ahem.  We've elected two actors into the Governor's office.
We don't have udder balm, we have bag balm.

60 bucks a quart?  Yipes!

I mentioned a while back a fellow in the Philippines who keeps his stationary tools under a roof, but otherwise out in the open, at 200 yards from the ocean.  They make furniture commercially.  What an invitation to major rust!  But his machines don't have any rust.  He wipes them with mineral oil, and then wipes them off with a dry rag.  It doesn't leave a very oily surface.

My  ShopSmith had to spend the last year outside under a cover, so I tried out the mineral oil.  I did find a small patch of rust on the tubes -- easily seen to be a patch I missed with the mineral oil, about 3 square inches.  The rest of the machine looked exactly as it did when I applied the mineral oil.  I'm sold on the effectiveness and the cost.  And no warning label --  it's sold primarily for internal use.

[keykeeper]

I have a can of stuff in my shop that I won in Iron-In-The-hat at one of our blacksmith conferences. It is a spray to protect bare metal. One of our senior members, a retired machinist, later told me it was great stuff and cost about $18 a can. He used it on anything that was prone to rust quickly-new machinings, lathe bed, etc.

I sprayed it on my anvil faces after a good cleaning with a wire wheel and scotchbrite. Said anvils are in a shed that tends to collect moisture with temperature changes. That was about a year and a half ago. The faces of the anvils still have not rusted! Before that, I was wiping them down every month to ward off the rust.

I'll post a picture/name of it when I get home from work. May be just the thing for protecting our tool collections, especially after cleaning/shining them up.

Edit: Added some pics. Here it is:



Made by LPS. Website is www.lpslabs.com

An anvil I sprayed with it, still looks "wet".....the rust spots in a linear pattern are from where I left a piece of metal laying on it, and that metal rusted!!

[Lostmind]

We used to sell that at the parts store in the 1960's.It had different colors, but same product.
I believe it's for the industrial market place.We used it in the ignition shop to spray on ignition wires.
I had thought " LPS" went out of buisness,good product, a little pricey.

[oldtools]

BRANSON..

What kind of "mineral oil" "sold primarily for internal use"??
Type, Brand name, manufacturer outlet?  cost?

[johnsironsanctuary]

Old Tools. They sell mineral oil at the drug store. Intended as a laxative, but it works great on tools. Dries to a hard film in a few days. I bought mine at an estate sale for 25 cents. I have never seen it with a brand name.
Many years ago, there was a sheep rancher that sold raw lanolin at the Louisville Lawn and Garden Equipment show. It is a good rust inhibitor, nice to your hands, but the raw stuff stinks like what it is. Sheep Sweat.

[Aunt Phil]

Fluid film, Boeshield and LPS all sell the same superjuice in a spraycan for way too much money.

Ingredients are 3 parts lanolin, 2 parts mineral oil & 7 parts mineral spirits.

You can make your own for a few bucks a quart.  The mineral spirits will generally be the most expensive ingredient.

Companies like FedEx and UPS buy it by the barrel to spray everything in the wheel well.

Lanolin has been used for an antirust coating for 1000 years.

If you're nasty add a drop of oil of wintergreen per quart and let suckers try figuring it out.

I prefer to scrub the juice on with a stubby paint brush

[clovis]

I have a can of Fluid Film that my dad got as a free sample at a trade show.

I have a strong aversion to that stuff, mostly because I sprayed it on a few items, and when I picked them back up, they weren't dry, and I got a full handful of greasy, sticky cr*p on my hands.

It might be wonderful stuff, but I haven't used it since that day.