Ratchet Corrosion

All my ratchet seize up after spending some time on Serenity. Can any ratchet survive such an unhealthy environment? Suggestions?

 

What kind of ratchet ?

 

It's not rocket science, the pawls are mild steel and rust. Solutions:
1. Throw them in plastic jar half full with oil. Keep a rag handy to wipe them before use.
2. Spray the ratchet head with penetrating oil, wipe the excess and store it in an airtight container, together with some silica gel. Options for airtight containers: ziploc bag, any type of jar or tray with a good gasketed lid (the kitchen supply store even has containers that can be evacuated via dedicated vacuum pumps). If you want an elegant solution you buy yourself a nice pelican case knock-off and move the entire molded insert from the factory tool case into it. The silica gel is refreshed by baking it in the oven when it turns blue.

 

I've tried various ways of stopping the mild steel ratchets from rusting. Best I can say is everything I tried slows rust down but doesn't stop it. Plus they're messy to handle when kept in a bag with anti-rust compounds . Best option for me was to buy stainless steel versions. They do still show occasional surface rust but are going strong after 6 months of use in salt water environment. They can be had reasonably priced if you dig a bit.

 

Which brands? I imagine Snap-On, but I'm not a millionair.

 

Good advice above but I would avoid using penetrating oil.
A spray of any other petroleum based protectant after each use
would help slow down the inevitable oxidation, even on SS models.
The other trick is to avoid over-spray on the webbing.
A rag can help with this.

 

Not so expensive when you compare buying multiple non-SS brands repeatedly.
And you're much more likely to take care of them if they're expensive.

 

I'm in the Caribbean on my boat and a friend in the US bought them and shipped them to me. Probably Amazon They were pretty cheap, though I don't remember exactly how much. They have one of those weird, made-up names you see all the time on Amazon and fleabay; Ayaport. They're holding up okay, even the one that sits in the bottom of my dinghy.

I'm sure they're all made in China anyway, but you can get them from Tulsa Chain in OK. They usually have fairly good prices.

 

Open the ratcheting mechanism when brand new, and smear a liberal coating of waterproof grease on the internals.
Maybe clean it first, the factory “grease” is a very light coating of a Vaseline type.

 

And I have a lot of good marine grease.

 

Basically, go primitive on your ratchets. Find a nice old one that has about 32 teeth to a circle (24 on 3/8) (old S&K, Craftsman teardrop 1960s gen 2 no quick release). Cut a length of canvas pant leg off an old pair of pants. Soak in a drying oil like tung oil. It dries by oxidizing, so it depletes the oxygen around it. Ordinary diesel also works, but is a bit messier. Roll all you tools up in the canvas and store in a bag or box. I have kept "cordless" tools - yankee drivers and brace-and-bit sets on boats my whole life. If you avoid condensation, you will be fine. If your boat has AC, you need to be a lot more careful, and airtight boxes and are probably a must. And keep a can of PB Blaster handy. Also, the old ratchets can be disassembled in about ten seconds - get those.

 

Everything phil says. I live in Washington state on the Kitsap peninsula and condensation is the real issue, especially the fall and spring. Right now with the day/night temperture range and increasing relative humidity, your stored tools can cycle at the dew point (i.e. humidity rises in the morning as the sun heats the atmosphere, but your tools stay chilled from the night so dew condenses on them). Imagine my supprise when I opened my tool box in the garage and found water in the bottom. Now my tools either a) live in more climate controlled storage, and/or b) are stored covered in grease or oil.

 

Have spares.

I work on and operate old commercial fishing boats... the kind that need mid panic maintenance and repair as much as preventative. Over the last 20 years ive tried about every corrosion spray there is, currently agnostic on whats better. Usually have a bottle of corrosion x, to add to the mechanism when they get used in the rain from the salt water spray. Like it better than the spray for targeting the mechanism without spilling all over the handle.

I use what the local hardware store as well as a lot of legacy craftsman wrenches. My goal is to hit the middle tier for the boat. It needs to be good enough but still not break the bank seems like several brands do that these days. Have a few proto sets from an uncle who gave them to me decades ago, and a couple snap on drivers from my short sting as a mechanic. Neither are any more corrosion resistant than gear wrench or craftsman and none of them float.... so they stay at the house shop.

My biggest upgrade as been to a Milwaukee packout box, if you wipe down after every use the gasket keeps the tools in tip top shape. My big set has endured some abuse over the last 5 years and has only lost a few 1/4 inch drivers and a few ratchet wrenches to corrosion. Id say thats a 75% improvement over the soft sided bags we used before.

 

Lanolin is the only spray on grease I've found that doesn't feel like while using tools and absorbing it through skin/lungs is adding to the pile on of potential soft tissue attacking or dementia inducing plastics/petro chemicals while the body is attempting to shed the build up, as mentioned tung oil is the other natural product but lanolin smells safer[?], reading may help grey matter fortifications, ha. No sarcasm intended, I though it was worth mentioning.