Posted on 12/30/2012 5:26:58 AM PST by Red in Blue PA
On a gun site, someone suggested using the Zerust VC2-2 NoRust Vapor Capsules insides of a gun safe to prevent rust. They said these are used for metal parts in shipping containers. Was curious if anyone has used these over an extended period of time, as I am concerned these are made for short term use and not about long-term viability with guns.
(Excerpt) Read more at zerust.com ...
Where can I purchase the ones in metal containers? All I’ve ever seen are units in some type of sack and/or some type of “paper” pouch.
I have some sacks of dessicant that I used to restore by putting them in the oven. Worked fine. Now I use eva-dry (brand)renewable dessicants. When they're wet, plug them in the wall socket until they're restored, then put them back in the safe. Seems to work fine.
OK, now you will laugh but...
I use crystal cat litter (doesn’t smell) in stapled coffee filters. Works well and lasts about six months at a time.
Excellent!!! I’ll give this a try.
I also read that you can put rice in a paper bag as a dessicant. Never heard of that before.
http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=163184
What has come out of this that is very valuable is that my wife’s dad told me an “old timer’s” trick from the 40s and 50s. He said that they used to keep a brown paper bag of plain old rice in the gun cabinet, especially during rainy Vermont winters. He said the rice absorbs water. it’s basically the poor man’s silica.
Where this turned into a mega learning lesson is that he said the rice trick is what guys used if they ever accidentally got a gun wet. YES you can wipe and dry a thing to death with paper towels and a blow dryer, but it’s still hard to get into every little nook and cranny. So he said what they would do if someone dropped a gun in water is they’d first clean the gun - then they would get plastic and wrap the gun with brown paper packages of rice all around it.
He said this worked especially good with handguns because handguns can have so many parts and you can’t have any rust at all. When Tupperware first came out if somebody dropped their 1911 in water they’d put a paper towel around it then put it in a Tupperware container for a couple days covered with rice.
I Goggled this and found out it is a trick people use now for cell phones and watches. Basically any complex metal or piece of electronics can just be put into the plastic box and covered with rice and the rice sucks up the water. According to the sites I read you don’t even need to have the rice in physical contact with the water, i.e., touching it. It sucks it through the air.
This is pretty much what the DampRid did to my gun safe. There wasn’t that much moisture in the air from the rains and we only had a couple rainy weeks, but by using the wrong moisture absorber I sucked every bit of it into my gun safe. I literally made my gun safe a magnet for the moisture by trying to protect it from the moisture.
Lesson learned. While my wife is gone every gun is getting wrapped in garbage bags and every handgun is going into her plastic food containers and I’m wrapping the guns in paper towels and then putting in sachets of rice.
I never thought about rice as a moisture absorber, but I grew up in florida. There, all the restaurants used to put rice in the salt shakers. The humidity is so high it was the only way to keep the rice from becoming solid. I didn’t know, though, that you could use it to suck up moisture from watches, cell phones, etc... I dropped my cell phone in the ocean some 6-7 years ago and had to toss it.. If I’d known this trick then I would have saved a valuable tool.
No oven, no nothing. Works well. Did not know the Golden Rod heaters were only good for places with temperature changes that allow condensation. Have to get the moisture out of the air as well.
$25.00 from Cannon Gun safes http://www.cannonsafe.com/options-accessories/silica-gel-dehumidifier.html
Use a conventional oven. A microwave would be dangerous.
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