Rustproofing a mower

[noodle]

How do you rustproof a mower? I know a mower should never get rust but I have a friend who has no place to store hers but under a tarp.

 

[173abn]

Noodle, is it rusting?There is a paintable medium you can apply but off the top of my head can't think of what it;s called.I'm sure if you google rustproffing it will come up.If no rust and no shed a tarp is better than nothing. russ

 

[jacko]

A tarp is indeed better than nothing but it still makes me shiver. Can you convince your friend to get something to put the mower in? There are some cheap solutions for mower storage these days.

 

[linda4]

I did mine with just simple Rustoleum paint from Home Depot. Cost me about $7.00 for two cans of the stuff and I've seen no rust on my mower since (3 years now !).

 

[KennyV]

Keep it as clean as possible and it should take a long time before any rust shows up... :smile:KennyV

 

[MowTown]

I use WD-40 on lots of my garden equipment. At the end of the season I scrub all my gear up, let it dry out real good, sharpen everything and give all the metal parts a light spraying of WD-40---even my shovel and pitchforks and such.

 

[Rose]

WD-40. I hadn't thought of that. I'll give that a try on my shovels and pitchforks. Even though I clean all the stable equipment religiously, the humidity that we get in July and August, just makes all the equipment rust up so easily. So thanks MowTown for you suggestion. My mower doesn't get very rusty, at least not yet. It is fairly new, and I wipe it down every time I use it.

 

[CarlGlas]

Whatever you do, do not spray WD40 into the control cable housing because it will cause them to rust and break. Now, I realize this doesn't make any sense because WD40 is supposed to be a lubricant and so forth, but it will. I recently spent $20 to replace a control cable and the technician asked if I had sprayed WD40 into the cable housing. I replied yes and asked how did he know and he told me that they sell more replacement cables to people who used WD40 than those who never used anything. The best thing to do if your mower should get wet is to blow the cables dry with compressed air.

Just a word to the wise...

 

[Two-Stroke]

I never knew what was in WD-40 so I looked it up: here's the wiki page. A slightly surprising quote:

WD-40's formula is a trade secret. The product is not patented in order to avoid completely disclosing its ingredients.

I agree that the best thing to do is put the mower in some kind of shed, even if it's makeshift.

 

[lizard]

Buy one that has a aluminium base then you do not have to worry..........lol
Mowers are cheap so who cares if it lasts 5 years , count your blessings.