Rust prevention and long term storage

[eidis]

  Hi Guys !

Rust is a serious issue and we all have to face it sooner or later. The purpose of this thread is to gather enough expertise and useful information for a Wiki article.

Here is the story so far. I have been storing all my collection in my living room which is well heated throughout the year but approximately one month earlier I discovered that my consoles have started accumulating rust. The PCB's are not harmed, just the matte metal parts which show signs of slight corrosion. Glossy metal parts proved to be more immune to corrosion. I read in some article that you can mix baking soda with little bit of water to form a paste which removes rust and stops corrosion. I tried that on some metal parts and it worked. I can confirm this because later I treated the same parts with industrial metal cleaner (Contact cleaner, a.k.a. CX-80) and no dirt came off.

Here are some examples (no baking soda used here):

SNES metal frame before CX-80 treatment :
http://content27-foto.inbox.lv/albums/e/eidis/Misc/Before.jpg

After treatment:
http://content27-foto.inbox.lv/albums/e/eidis/Misc/After.jpg

I applied CX-80 to the surface and used a small rag to clean it off. Most of the times the corrosion came off without much trouble however there were some spots where it needed to be scraped off.

I found two options here:
1) Use a very fine grain sandpaper, remove the rusted spot and treat it with CX-80 afterwards.
2) Use a tiny flat head screwdriver to scrape off the rust and give it CX-80 treatment afterwards.

IMHO sandpaper method looks nicer because no matter how careful you are, scraping the part with screwdriver leaves more deeper scratches. With very fine sandpaper there is only a visible change of metal texture.

Next thing which I wanted to figure out was how to store my collection properly so that the rust stays off and does not come back for a long time to come. Some people suggested storing everything in cardboard boxes because they absorb moisture and later are able to become dry all by them selves. Some suggested putting moisture absorbers like silica gel inside the boxes as-well. Some even suggested to treat cleaned metal parts with wax.

Here is the most scariest part of all. I had stored two C64's in the attic where it gets very cold at winter (-20 C) and very hot at summer (+30 C) in a cardboard box with silica gel moisture absorbers for approximately 10 years and they were in mint condition when I last checked. No signs of rust at all, not even the slightest. However, everything which was stored in my room showed some small or slightly moderate signs of rust. A friend suggested that it was because of the frequent temperature change in my living room because of heating in the day and cooling off at night which could be responsible for moisture building up in my room.

One thing which scares me even more is that there are systems from the 80's which were not thoroughly cleaned but still show no signs of rust, like my recently acquired Amstrad CPC128, so it clearly shows that I have been incorrectly storing my equipment.

Do you have any ideas for long term storage and how to make it safe ? Please post your thoughts and suggestions so we can help better preserve our collections.

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis

Update #1

Some people claim that once the metal part is cleaned, it needs to be coated with metal lacquer to prevent premature rust. Another thing which caught my attention is removal of deep/er rust with a fine grain sandpaper. The question is, how much grit does the sandpaper need to be in order to avoid ruining the finish and, if possible, create an illusion that no sandpaper was used ? The sanding discs for Dremel are available on eBay with the following part numbers: DRE411 (180 grit), DRE412 (220 grit), DRE413 (240 grit). How do you think, is it better to use dremel with these discs at lowest speed or remove rust by hand using a sandpaper which has higher grit ? What are your thoughts and suggestions about metal lacquer and ways in which it can be applied ?

Update #2

Here is a thread by Dr_V which explains in great detail how to clean and preserve vintage electronics:
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/archive/index.php/t-16960.html

I think that metal wax could work even better than the suggested car wax. It protects the surface and makes it shiny at the same time. The final result could look similar to this:
http://metalwax.com/

Update #3

There seems to be two methods which are used for rust prevention. One of them is called "hot dip galvanizing" which is a very sophisticated industrial process and IMHO impossible to replicate at home. The other one is called "electroplating".

More info on electroplating can be found here:


Update #4

It looks like there is a cheaper and better way for DIY electroplating.

More info here:
http://www.noonco.com/nickel/

Easy Nickel And Copper Electroplating Method

And still it is too expensive, considering the amount of chemicals required and their cost. The last thing which remains is to look for a metal wax which displaces water from the source and forms a clear hard coated protective film.

Update #5

Just purchased a hygrometer on eBay. It was a sweet deal and now I will be able to deal with humidity before it tries to do something nasty to the collection.

If someone is interested, here is the link to the auction:

Weather Station Thermometer Hygrometer Desk Alarm Clock
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Weather-Station-Thermometer-Hygrometer-Desk-Alarm-Clock-/261050697382?pt=US_Weather_Meters&hash=item3cc7d586a6

This page suggests that recommended relative humidity for no rust generation is below 40%
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/relative-humidity-production-process-d_511.html

However, the relative humidity should not be below 30% or else, according to the following site, it can lead to problems with static electricity
http://electrostaticsolutions.blogspot.com/2005/01/are-air-temperature-and-humidity.html

Update #6

It turns out that grey metal parts in electronics are galvanized so this leads to another scary discovery according to this site:
http://www.smithandarrow.com.au/blog/metal-cleaning/method-cleaning-galvanized-metal-2/

Warning:
It is not advised to use abrasive cleaners on galvanized metal because they dull the galvanized metal surface. As much as possible, do not also use commercial "hard-water" cleaners because they have high levels of Hydrochloric acid (HCI) which can melt the zinc oxide surface coating on galvanized metal.

As luck would have it the CX-80 Contact cleaner which I used did its job more than well. It cleaned off rust along with the zinc protective coating. That is why the metal changed its color from dull gray to very shiny. So now it is bare metal which is very fragile to the surrounding environment and must be treated with protective coatings.

There is a process called Cold galvanizing which involves using zinc spray. IMHO this is the cheapest of the so called galvanizing methods. There are claims that it is equivalent to hot-dip galvanizing. However, hot-dip galvanizing is non-porous while cold galvanizing is. Some manufacturers claim that their zinc sprays are non-porous but this fact needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

Update #7
While browsing through the collection I noticed that rust has mostly attacked metal shielding plates for systems which were made by Nintendo, aka NES, SNES, N64. Sega Saturn had minor rust dots as well.

[lydux]

Hi Eidis,

Military cases for me... Or at worst, cardboard boxes. Each stuff wounded with fabrics... and in a cardboard box !
Except some arcade PCB that I've just badly disposed, all seems fine and running the last time I checked (some months ago), no sign of rust or yellowing plastic. My collection is stored like this since about 8 years now in a small log cabin in the garden.
I think I have about the same climatic conditions as you (maybe a bit hotter than you in winter).

But I guess you're right, putting some silica gel with the stuffs is a good idea. To be changed every year. I should do as well.


For rust, you can try removing it with vinegar. But baking soda is fine as well.
And as for yellowed plastic, it now exists a technique using hydrogen peroxide and UV light to recover the shining orignal white. I will give it a try on some really yellowed C64 I recently acquired.


Have fun !

[caius]

For rust, you can try removing it with vinegar. But baking soda is fine as well.
And as for yellowed plastic, it now exists a technique using hydrogen peroxide and UV light to recover the shining orignal white. I will give it a try on some really yellowed C64 I recently acquired.


Have fun !

Hi Master & Eidis,
how are you?I hope fine.
Lydux, perhaps did you refer to  the 'Retrobright' methode to remove yellowing from plastic?


http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=1480

[eidis]

Here is an excellent article which deals with metal restoration using various techniques:
http://makezine.com/projects/make-17/remove-anything-from-metal/

Please feel free to post your expertise on this subject.

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis

[Zoel]

This is probably the article I know for cleaning Yellow Systems.

http://playingwithsuperpower.com/the-snes-cleaning-article/

I owed my Snes since 95 and its still white, but I never bothered opening the guts of it, so I don't really know if the inside are rusting. But my Sega Saturn is a yellow, and so is the controller that came with it. I bought it used, so it was like that. Perhaps I should try this cleaning solution on the controller first then on the main console later to see if the method works as effective as these webpages say.