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Summer, sweat, tools - a cautionary tale.

A

Andy Kev.

Nordic Pine
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One of the reasons I more or less detest summer (I hate only Christmas, Brussels Sprouts and football more) is the humidity because humidity + exertion = sweat.

Therefore I've been recently been working at my bench for only an hour or two a time. My second most used plane is my low angle jointer and it was last in action a couple of days ago. I'm very aware of the dangers of sweat hitting tool steel and always dab any drops up. When I last sharpened the plane, - a couple of days ago - all was fine.

About an hour ago it seemed that the edge needed touching up and so I dissembled the iron, cap etc and the amount of rust on everything from the iron to the Norris mechanism, its housing and the bed was shocking. It was fine two days ago! I thought I'd intercepted all the sweat drops but obviously hadn't.

I have more or less sorted it out with sandpaper and oil but I'm far from happy that it is back at 100% and will look at it again tomorrow after the oil has soaked in a bit.

I tell this sorry tale because it occurs to me that if it happened to me, it could happen to someone else.
 
Wow, that's pretty extreme! If it gets too warm in my 'shop (say 23decC++) I retreat indoors where it's much cooler. A really comfortable temperature for me to work is anywhere around 15-18 degC - Rob
 
Gosh, I've never heard of such a thing. Do you sweat sulphuric acid, perhaps? :ROFLMAO:

As far as I'm concerned, there is no such thing as "too hot".
 
I'm happy in my cool basement, but if I was sweating that much I think I'd take a break.

But I have read similar posts in the past, and am willing to believe that some of us are cursed with more corrosive secretions than the rest. I just hope it deters midges and mozzies!

Of course, it's also possible that the whole problem is caused by a severe lack of delicious sprouts in your diet! :)
 
I have no explanation and perhaps my sweat is peculiarly corrosive. However, it does occur to me that once the sweat gets right into the doings of the Norris mechanism, it's not going to be doing too much evaporating and effectively can get on with corroding. There's perhaps less scope for this kind of thing with a Bailey-style plane.
 
Woodbloke said:
Wow, that's pretty extreme! If it gets too warm in my 'shop (say 23decC++) I retreat indoors where it's much cooler. A really comfortable temperature for me to work is anywhere around 15-18 degC - Rob
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My shop, which is the spare bedroom converted to a sensible purpose, has been suffering under the same 30°+ heat which I have. I can usually put in an hour before a T shirt gets thoroughly soaked.
 
In engineering circles, having “rusty hands “ is a considerable disadvantage.
I applied for an apprenticeship with Jones & Shipman at the age of 16, applicants were given a day in the workshop by way of a job interview.
I was rejected because of my rusty hands 🙂
I was devastated, but in the event they did me a favour as they went down the pan a few years later, like most of British manufacturing.
 
Andy Kev. said:
My shop, which is the spare bedroom converted to a sensible purpose, has been suffering under the same 30°+ heat which I have. I can usually put in an hour before a T shirt gets thoroughly soaked.
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30deg C is definitely way above my pay grade. For me there's absolutely no pleasure in doing practical work in that sort of heat. As said above, I find somewhere much cooler and open a good book - Rob
 
Many years ago I worked in an swanky office (they had a telex machine, that ages anyone who knows). we were partitioning off a part of the reception in an A listed building so no permanent fittings. It was a Sunday afternoon and the office was roasting, my hands were sweaty and I lost my hammer which flew in slow motion across teh room and landed square upon the receptionists fancy glass topped desk. I was not a popular apprentice. Hated working in excessive heat ever since.
 
Duke, I thought about a fan but then thought that it might mean shavings and dust going everywhere.

Andy P, I've just shelled out for an air conditioning machine for the bedroom and it has meant a massive improvement. I'll see if there's something affordable which will just dehumidify.

The temp is supposed to drop to the mid to high 20s this week and autumn will then be round the corner. At that point my productivity rockets!
 
Woodbloke said:
30deg C is definitely way above my pay grade. For me there's absolutely no pleasure in doing practical work in that sort of heat. As said above, I find somewhere much cooler and open a good book - Rob
Click to expand...
You can get in a year's worth of marking out though!:)
 
A bit more information: I've just put in another hour at the bench, this time using mostly my LA Jack which has exactly the same Norris mechanism as the low angle jointer.

At the end of the session in which I had been sweating as usual but fairly sure that I had got none on the plane apart from 3 drops which I had instantly dabbed off, I took the plane apart. It became clear what had happened to the jointer. If a sweat drop hits the edge of the iron, some of it inevitably gets over the edge and then moves anywhere it wants. This explains how it can get to the Norris mechanism and presumably by capilliary action into the well holding the mechanism.

I was fairly sure that no sweat had got under the iron but some had made it to the mechanism well, although this time I got to it before it got inside. Therefore it becomes a matter of routine to dab sweat drops as you go along but also to take the plane apart at the end of the session, remove any sweat and add a drop of oil.

I'll have a look at my Bailey style planes later but so far they seem less vulnerable.
 
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