Power tools in the rain: adice?

Posted by on August 5, 2005, 2:29 pm

I figured wood workers might be a good group to post this question to.
Was building an outdoor shed in our back yard. Had a lot of tools out
there. Foolishly trusted the weather man who claimed no chance of
showers.

We caught a pop of thunder shower today. Had all my tools for the shed
outside. Got rained on hard for 15 minutes. Wondering if there is any
advice on how to handle them. I dried them all off (
and took them inside). But was wondering if sraying them internally
with WD40 for its water displacement qualities would help - or any
other suggestion.

Left out tools: framing nail gun, pancacke compressor, circular sawm
drill.

Many thanks!

Posted by Fred on August 5, 2005, 3:07 pm

>I figured wood workers might be a good group to post this question to.
> Was building an outdoor shed in our back yard. Had a lot of tools out
> there. Foolishly trusted the weather man who claimed no chance of
> showers.
> We caught a pop of thunder shower today. Had all my tools for the shed
> outside. Got rained on hard for 15 minutes. Wondering if there is any
> advice on how to handle them. I dried them all off (
> and took them inside). But was wondering if sraying them internally
> with WD40 for its water displacement qualities would help - or any
> other suggestion.
> Left out tools: framing nail gun, pancacke compressor, circular sawm
> drill.
> Many thanks!

Nail gun should be ok. The rest (anything with motor and electrical switch)
should be completely dry first. Don't use WD40.

If you have mud inside the tools, flush it with distilled water and make
sure you don't have sand embedded in the moving parts and let it completely
dry. I would take it apart and manually clean it with distilled water and
re-grease all moving parts.

Posted by John Gilmer on August 7, 2005, 8:35 am

> Nail gun should be ok. The rest (anything with motor and electrical

switch)

> should be completely dry first. Don't use WD40.

What's wrong with WD-40? One should let the carrier evaporate after
spraying so that the sparks don't cause a minor "explosion" but driving out
water is what WD-40 does best!

Posted by Fred on August 7, 2005, 1:38 pm

>> Nail gun should be ok. The rest (anything with motor and electrical

> switch)

>> should be completely dry first. Don't use WD40.

> What's wrong with WD-40? One should let the carrier evaporate after
> spraying so that the sparks don't cause a minor "explosion" but driving
> out
> water is what WD-40 does best!

Read the other posts regarding WD40. It attracts dust and dirt plus you
don't want it driving the dirty acid ran water (good conductor by the way)
into areas in the motor and electrical contacts. WD40 is a good conductor,
certainly much more so after it attracts dusts and dirt, while distilled
water, which I prefer over WD40, is a good insulator but 120V may not make
that much of a difference unless you run into higher voltages in the kV
range. Just my opinion FWIW.

Posted by RicodJour on August 5, 2005, 3:31 pm

todd.roat@uc.edu wrote:

> I figured wood workers might be a good group to post this question to.
> Was building an outdoor shed in our back yard. Had a lot of tools out
> there. Foolishly trusted the weather man who claimed no chance of
> showers.
> We caught a pop of thunder shower today. Had all my tools for the shed
> outside. Got rained on hard for 15 minutes. Wondering if there is any
> advice on how to handle them. I dried them all off (
> and took them inside). But was wondering if sraying them internally
> with WD40 for its water displacement qualities would help - or any
> other suggestion.
> Left out tools: framing nail gun, pancacke compressor, circular sawm
> drill.

Never listen to the weather man - it's an exercise in futility.

Most of the time, it's not a big problem. Dry off the compressor with
a hair dryer, then blow compressed air through the other tools. I'd
consider waiting a day or so before using them.

Spraying WD-40 is as likely to short out the tools as water if you
spray enough of it to displace the water.

Where were you when it rained? Normally it starts raining you cover up
the tools with a tarp and wait for it to blow over.

R

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