Some Parts Rusting Again After 18 Months

18 Months after fully refurbishing the Little Samson Traction Engine and making all bright parts – bright – some of the bright parts have turned rusty again.

At the time of refurbishment corrosion prevention included:-

• Every part cleaned and painted/polished.
• The Reversing Lever, Quadrant, Reach Rod, Lifting Arm all painted.
• All handles remade in stainless steel.
• The flywheel rim was covered with Vaseline.

So it’s a bit disappointing to see some rust creeping back in as shown in the photos below.

Above and below, these were completely pristine and rust- free 18 months ago. Rust inhibitor (Vaseline I think) clearly doesn’t work. Maybe try a generous coating of CRC Ant-Rust Lubricant:-

Above, rusty nuts. I thought I had made these from stainless steel. Well, that has to be the only solution.

Above, I remade the regulator reach rod in stainless steel. (I think; anyway it’s not rusty)

I might get away with painting the clevis with Chrome Paint. See end of this page for more details of Chrome Painting.

Above, rusty Cylinder Drain Cock Pins and nuts. To replace with brass pins – far easier than making stainless steel pins.

Above, typical oil-blackened pin. Fine for a couple of years but now too far gone. Solutions? Stainless would overcome the rust issue but in a prominent position such as this I prefer the black colour. I tried to blacken stainless steel but it didn’t work. Any ideas anyone?

Above the crankshaft extension. You can see the end is painted and rust-free. But the flywheel has to slide over this shaft and a) would scrape any paint off and b) would maybe make the flywheel too tight to push on.

Only solution seems to be painting (Chrome Paint) after the flywheel has been mounted.

Similar to the Drop Arm pins described above. But inconspicuous position so stainless steel pins OK.

Identical situation as for the Drop Arm pins described above. Note that the entire Reversing Assembly  is not rusty. The handle is stainless steel and the remainder treated with Chrome Paint.

Chrome Paint Treatment

I have mentioned Chrome Paint a lot above and that is because it is both effective (against corrosion) and looks good. Here is just one photo showing the Chrome Paint can, the painting process, and the results after painting:-

There are so many such examples that I can’t show them here, so I will make a page dedicated to Using Chrome Paint to Protect Bright Parts Against Corrosion.

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