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Inhibiting rust formation on polishing pins

2003

I am using light weight metal pins and 1/8 ball bearings to wet polish small pewter castings and this works great. My problem is that I only need the machine a couple of days a week and if the pins and bearings are left wet they rust.
Drying 10 lb of metal is very difficult, can I add anything into the water between operations that will stop the rusting?

Any suggestions would be very appreciated.

Gary McGee
hobbyist - Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand

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Hi, Gary. Anything at all that is either alkaline or oily will help somewhat. If the product needs to be food-safe, magnesium hydroxide or even baking soda [in bulk on eBay or Amazon [affil links] will help a bit. Chemical suppliers can offer metasilicate and other formulations. Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
October 14, 2009