This post addressed to the woodworkers of Puna

[EightFingers]

How is your equipment fairing with the Puna environment? What kind of maintenance schedule do you have for your cast-iron tops? How well are the electrics lasting?

[dmbwest]

Not a wood worker but have some related equipment ... I wax the steel surfaces on the table saw and bench sander.. The hand power tools I have get used constantly so I have never had any moisture related problems. That said, I still would never leave anything out in the 'open' for very long. Also find myself cleaning out the vacuums a little more often as the filters seem to want to grow stuff. A few chisels left out in the carport during a voggy / misty weekend got rusted and pitted within a few days ... amazingly fast. Nothing to do but use everything if you can ... Avoid any cheap rechargeable stuff ...

aloha,
pog

[dmbwest]

Eightfingers ... My brother is a lifelong Professional Woodworker. Hes lost a little off some fingertips over the years. Even drove him to the hospital once while holding the tip of one of them in a rag. Just tonite I thought about this and your name .... A story ?

aloha,
pog

[freestate]

My experience has more to do with North Hilo but only about two hundred yards from the water so probably similar.

I am a cabinetmaker/furniture guy and keep my tools in a pretty high state of tune. Hate rust and need my tools to last, I quit buying throwaway tools long ago. However I've only been on the island a little under 2 years; before that it was Midwest and Portland, OR.

The rust issues are pretty unreal, you can almost watch it bloom overnight. Leave nothing exposed you want to keep in good condition.

Eventually I had decent results with keeping all iron covered when not in use, re-purposed flannel sheets were a economical solution. Iron/Steel had to be waxed-steel wooled and then I would coat with Boeshield and let it sit overnight. Buff and then top coat with a good carnauba wax. Working surfaces do need a lot of attention just to keep them from getting sticky. All hand tool need to be kept in toolboxes or cases, night air is your enemy.

Never used desiccants but did use camphor tablets in toolboxes/storage.

All those steps helped slow corrosion greatly. Without those efforts I was seeing rust bloom in a couple days. Seems like I only had to polish once every few weeks afterwards.

After having lived in that environment I do see an argument for disposable tools. You can stay on top of the parts you can see but I wonder about the motor internals and any electronics (i.e. my Sawstop). If I owned Festool quality I would be nervous about my investment but I'm mostly a Porter Cable/Bosch/Dewalt/Milwaukee level guy.

In the end we moved up near Waimea. Even though we are on the wet side the rust is nearly a non-issue up here. I still do the same as I did down in Hilo but I don't have nearly the maintenance issues keeping my tools in what I consider to be acceptable shape.

Happy to offer any more info if you want it.

-Mario

[EightFingers]

Pog and Freestate, thanks for describing your experiences! I'm 4 1/2 miles from the ocean, so the salt shouldn't be as much of a problem. Also I will have a dedicated shop building with the door facing north which should help some.
Freestate, congrats on having a SawStop! I bought mine about 3 years ago after I saw the demo on it.

I'm hijacking my own post here:
Do the woodworkers ever get together or have some sort of club? I know the turners do and I have made some friends via their meetings.

[Royall]

EF the idea of getting together would be nice. I don't know about a club but just getting together once in a while to talk about wood might get me enthused enough to go back out to the shop. It would be nice to see how others have set up their shop or have some of you come to my shop and point out set up ideas.

As far as rust goes, I'm about 1 1/2 miles from the coast on Maku'u and the rust isn't too bad. Not too much different than living on the southern coast of Oregon. I think it was a little harder to manage the rust in Oregon than here. Right now though there is a bit of surface rust on the iron as I haven't been in the shop for a few months. I'll use one of my older ros with the finest paper on it with a little spray of WD-40 to clean it up with and wipe the residue off with a rag and a little lacquer thinner. Follow that up with a couple of coast of good car wax. I generally keep my machines covered up with material that is used in auto repair shops for seat covers. I bought a bunch of them from the laundry that service the dealership I used to work at on the mainland.

If anyone is interested in getting in touch, give me a call. 982-8950 I do need a spark to get going again!!

Royall

[mella l]

Oh Royal Carey and I went to a lovely show end of March at the Tsunami park, I can't think of the proper name at the moment, we should have drug you along with. The work was so inspiring, big small dainty, robust. I had no idea of the woods of local origin that looked so beautiful when worked, translucent pinks and golds lovely. Many awards for fabulous projects were given, I'm sure it must have been in the paper.

mella l

NO, really? Assume the best!

[Royall]

I was there Mella. It was the Woodturners guild show. It is there just about every year I believe. Some very inspiring work displayed there!

Royall

[EightFingers]

I like to time my visits so I can see that show. It's every year in March at the Wailoa center.

http://www.bigislandwoodturners.org/

[freestate]

I would love to talk shop, but being that I'm up near Waimea it's a bit of a hike to Puna. But if anyone is passing through Waimea we could meet for coffee or a shop visit.

Shop is on standby right now; we have a new baby (first) and are still learning how to work our schedule.