Storage & Shipping

I'll need to box up my inventory and put it in a shipping/storage crate thing for the summer while I move. Any suggestions for preventing rust, etc? Just spray liberally with silicon oil?

Thanks,
Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Residue from cap smoke and fumes will cause pitting in steel very quickly if not completely cleaned away after firing. Pitting will lead to rust soon after.
Zinc Alloy also seems to suffer from over exposure to the same residue so the most important task is to thoroughly strip and clean your modelguns. Once that's done, ensure they're dry and give them a good coating of either Silicone or Gun Oil.
My own personal preference is to use Silicone on the abs and HW models, and Gun Oil on the metal models.
For long term storage I tend to oil the metal models liberally wiping them clean again prior to use.
Depending on the gun, it may be worth considering taking the recoil spring out so it isn't stored too long under tension.

I concur with Cerwyn.

The most important part is a thorough cleaning - once parts start to get corroded from cap residue it is very difficult to correct.

Before putting in storage I spray whole model with silicone oil, coating all metal surfaces. Immediately, while model is still wet from oil I wrap model in transparent plastic (or put in a plastic bag if small enough), so that oil does not dry out while in storage. Note: if something was not cleaned before spraying, corrosion will still take place under oil coating.

This seems to work ok for the past years, especially as my models unfortunately spend most time in storage :-(

When models are not oiled, you can also put silica gel bags inside boxes to absorb moisture, but I think in your situation this might be less effective.