As a young man in the 1970s, Andy Andrews worked on tugboats in the New York harbor and saw firsthand that rust was an ever-present enemy of the tools and equipment on board.
“As you know, there are summer days in New York where it is 90 degrees with 90% humidity and, on top of it, your tugboats are near the ocean,” says Andrews. “So, naturally, I had thought that I had seen the most corrosive natural environment that could exist . . . that is, until I came to Hawaii.
a table saw that andrews uses in his shop
“What’s different here in Hawaii is that the temperature and humidity is always high, day and night. I think the record low is 54°F and I have never seen it that low in 10 years of living here. Hawaii’s warm, moist air makes things rust 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and I can tell you that it never stops.”
Protecting Tools and Equipment with HinderRUST
Today, Andrews owns and manages Leilani Creations, a wood fabrication shop and nursery on the island of Hawaii.
“I’ve had this business for ten years now, and we mostly do cabinet work, as well as construction of pallets and crates,” says Andrews. “We use table saws and band saws, jointers, and all types of hand tools, and I can tell you that fighting rust in Hawaii is an on-going battle. Even 304 and 305 stainless steel fasteners quickly corrode. I am always hunting down new rust-preventing products to test on our shop equipment and hand tools.
a jointer that andrews uses in his shop
“Over the years, I bought seven or eight different brands, and a couple worked well, but most did not hold up at all. I found that the ones that worked were more appropriate for items that were stored for long periods of time and not regularly used. But the problem with these is that they left a heavy coating on the tools and machinery. I even tried a MIL-spec product, but it dried to a paraffin-like layer on the equipment, which made the equipment completely unusable.”
a miter fence that andrews uses in his shop
Andrews first stumbled upon HinderRUST in December 2014 when he contacted Fluoramics and spoke with Frank Reick, the founder of the company. He bought the original HinderRUST product and it worked quite well. Two years later in the fall of 2016, Andrews once again contacted Fluoramics to purchase more HinderRUST, and ended up talking with Frank’s son, Gregg.
“Gregg told me about their latest formulation, HinderRUST HV100, which was specifically designed to maximize rust prevention and be exceptionally long lasting,” says Andrews. “Gregg sent some HV100 samples to me in November and I agreed to test it for a few months and report back.”
The Results
“The first two images are of a band saw and a jointer, which are tools that we do not use every day. What I found is that I can put it on and I don’t need to wipe it off at all. Best of all, HinderRUST HV100 enabled us to use the equipment when we needed to, without ever having to remove the product. And, as you know,
uncoated and hinderrust coated screwdrivers
HinderRUST is also lubricating, so it makes using these tools even easier. Things glide really well. I applied the HinderRUST in November of 2016, and reapplied the product after several uses. I took these photos in mid-April, and as you can see, the saws showed no rust.
“The table saw bed and the miter fence image is great because it shows how HV100 protected the saw, but because we put nothing on the miter fence you can see how much it had been attacked by corrosion. That miter fence looked like this after just 90 days.
uncoated and hinderrust coated chisels
“The image of the screw drivers is very revealing because one is treated and one is not, but they were both kept in the same drawer for five months. The same goes for the chisels, which are used at least once a week.
“If you look closely at the bevel edge of the top chisel, you can see rust forming because as this chisel was used, the rust appeared on this small surface in just days.
uncoated and hinderrust coated chisels
The chisels without handles were never used, so this was a pure experiment. When we began, they were both coated with rust, so we wire brushed them off with a wheel and then applied HinderRUST to just the top one. You can easily see how corroded the one chisel became
The two hammers in this horizontal image were wire brushed at the start of the test and we treated just the bottom one with HV100. They sat in our shop, uncovered, for five months.
untreated and treated hammers with hinderrust hv100
The countersinks and bits are made from really high-quality carbon steel and they would rust almost immediately if we did not protect them.
“When we first came to Hawaii, we thought that we could control rust just by keeping our tools from getting wet, but we quickly realized how bad it was. The rust is relentless. We actually keep fans running in the shop 24 hours a day just to keep the air circulating, which helps a little. I also transferred the HinderRUST into an airtight plastic container and we use a little brush or a rag to apply it. We really like that we don’t have to use very much HinderRUST to get a good protective coating. Way less than with the other products we tried. And you can’t just wipe this product off, so the protection lasts much longer than other products. We generally reapply a light coating every 60 days, and that keeps the tools rust free.”