Cleco Rust

[WingsOnWheels]

I have clecos from two different vendors. In the picture below, you can see the clecos on the left I bought from Avery about a month ago already have quite a bit of rust. The clecos on the right are about 4 months old from Brown tool. They are both stored in the same container.

Can anyone suggest a decent method to prevent rust on the Avery clecos? I would prefer to not rub them down with oil and have to deal with getting the oil in rivet holes ect.

 

[LovelyLibertyRV8a]

Try this...

Throw a little bag of silica gel in the container. This works in tool boxes when you store tools for a long period to prevent surface rust.

 

[xavierm]

rust store

I bought silica gel from The Rust Store, placed it in my container I store my clecos, and haven't had a problem.
I also put one in the drawers of my tool chest.

 

[llavalle]

I had a similar problem with rust of some clecos (around 50 of them). In my case, the plating was defective and rust was on the tip of the clecos. They were like that when I got them.

Only the 3/32 ones were affected. My garage is very dry and this was the only tool that had this problem. Contacted Avery and they offered to exchange them for new ones. Because I had to pay brokerage fees and taxes for the clecos to get back to me, Bob @ Avery offered to put in more clecos. Their customer service is excellent. I can't recommend them enough.

 

[WingsOnWheels]

Throw a little bag of silica gel in the container. This works in tool boxes when you store tools for a long period to prevent surface rust.

The Silica gel is a great idea, the only problem is that since I am working on the wing skins at the moment, 95% of my 325 3/32 clecos are on the plane at any given moment. Humidity can get quite high here which is probably the primary cause of the issue.

 

[negearth]

Dehumidifier in the shop?

 

[Phil]

Has anyone tried soaking them in Evapo-Rust???

I've been thinking about it, but I also think I'd have a terrible time getting the stuff out of the internal part of the cleco.

 

[xavierm]

I thought about it

Has anyone tried soaking them in Evapo-Rust???

I've been thinking about it, but I also think I'd have a terrible time getting the stuff out of the internal part of the cleco.

You can always put the clecos on one of those salad spinner things.
When I have the need to clean mine, I "soak and spin". They come out great.