Heard a rumor about coolant causing rust, thought it was shop nonsense until my vise started sticking

For years I brushed off the old guys saying you had to wipe down your machine table and vises with way oil after using water-based coolant. I figured the coolant itself was supposed to prevent rust, right? Then last spring, after a big run of aluminum parts, I noticed my Kurt vise was getting stiff. I took it apart and found light surface rust in the bore where the jaw slides. The shop is in Seattle, so it's humid, but this was from letting coolant sit and dry on the cast iron. I started wiping everything down with a rag and a light coat of oil at the end of the day, and six months later, no more issues. It's a five-minute job that saves a huge headache. Anyone else have a simple maintenance step they ignored until it bit them?

3 comments

3 Comments

ivan_murphy8019d ago

Tbh, that's not rust, it's galvanic corrosion.

kaigibson19d agoTop Commenter

Remember my buddy's old boat trailer? He kept swearing it was just surface rust. Turned out the steel bolts were reacting with the aluminum frame like a battery. Whole corner of the frame basically turned to powder while we were pressure washing it. That was a bad day.

wade25019d ago

Man, that sounds like a total nightmare. Seeing a frame just dissolve under the spray has to be the worst feeling. Galvanic corrosion is no joke, it eats stuff from the inside out. Hope your buddy didn't have to scrap the whole trailer.