Spot treating rust on anchor chain

[Spade Anchor]

Originally Posted by Steve Bean

Compare fluid film with cosmoline? Compare with anhydrous lanolin?

I have not compared any of them. What's your opinion on them?

[sailorboy1]

if you remove the rust and don't seal the metal all you do it accelerate the corrosion

[Steve Bean]

I don't have long-term experience with lanolin or cosmoline. Lanolin is the main ingredient of Fluid Film. Cosmoline has a long history of use as a preservative coating for metals. Check Wikipedia, and CF. I've read on CF of people using lanolin for anti fouling on propellers; I have a pound of lanolin and I plan to try it on my propeller and other preservative and lubricating uses on board.

[a64pilot]

Lanocote is a derivative of Lanoline, used for props and bottoms.
It works, sort of. It puts a greasy covering on the prop, the growth still occurs, but is easier to remove.
Best use is after traveling and you know you will stay in one location anchored

[RaymondR]

I keep a spray bottle of boiled linseed oil handy to the chain locker and give the chain a spray occasionally when it is dry. Seems to stop the rust from getting worse, stops it coming loose and making a mess on the deck and lubricates it where it goes around the wildcat and stops it from jamming.


I buy raw oil and boil it myself on the galley stove rather than use the "boiled linseed oil" which is not actually boiled but has solvents added to render the oil a drying oil.

[SaltyMetals]

Sounds like your galv coat is wearing out.

Each of us has different solutions but in my case i just cut out the rusty bits because unless you do that means that the galv coat on the remaining links each side are sacrificing their galv coat to protect the rusty bits. Cut out the rusty links and use a Crosby C-link the re-join the chain. When i do this i also spray the crosby links with 2-3 coats of zinc spray because otherwise you will find that the links have rusted and are then causing loss of the galv coat on neighbouring links to protect the crosby link.

Make sure you use a Crosby link and no other substitute. There have been some good tests on other C-links (Vyv Cox of Cox Engineering) and many of them did not have the same strength as the chain they were being used to connect.

The other precautions you should take are to make a floor in your chain locker that keeps the chain off the wet area in the bottom and to rinse your chain from time to time with fresh water. Once dry, I then spray mine with a good dose of WD 40 or the equivalent. Your galv coat will last longer if you look after it.
Andrew

[Spade Anchor]

Great info. Thank you!

[Spade Anchor]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Lanocote is a derivative of Lanoline, used for props and bottoms.
It works, sort of. It puts a greasy covering on the prop, the growth still occurs, but is easier to remove.
Best use is after traveling and you know you will stay in one location anchored

Do you know approximately how long it stays applied to the prop? Do you think if applied to an anchor in use, that the coating would "stick" or would it wear off so quickly it would really be of no use?

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by jmschmidt

Wow, see what kind of to-the-point answers and good info you get when you lay down the law to the word smiths on this forum who stray from the subject, post irrelevant comments and generally forget why they are here.

JMS, that post was off topic, please refrain from making such a post again in this thread, or it will annoy the OP.

Wait, so was this post. Oh, well.

[AKA-None]

I used to repair ships, torch plus zinc is a no no unless you like zinc poisoning. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc_toxicity

[Hobie_ind]

I'm surprised nobody has recommended periodically flipping the chain end-for-end. I did that annually and know many others who do the same.

If it's already corroded and really rusty, you're probably at the point where it needs to be re-galvanized.

Finally, I would think Lanocote would have a high likelihood of getting on the foredeck while deploying or retrieving. I'm thinking slippery! Cosmoline would be even worse.........

(Hopefully those last two recommendations don't violate the terms and conditions you laid out in your initial post).

[Matt Johnson]

We had friends use Fluid Film (Lanolin) on non-galvanized chain thinking they could make it work for their trip back to Germany. Within two weeks, they had rust everywhere and on every link. Seems that is about the life expectancy for this type of "protection" when used on chain.

Matt

[Matt Johnson]

By the way, I used cold galv spray on the Crosby c-link where peened and I chipped galv off. In two years of heavy use, I had no corrosion. Seemed to work well.

Matt