Let's talk about VCI Otherwise known as volatile Corrosion Inhibitors If you've ever bought a steel component like say, a bul bearing race or a tool and you found a little bit of brown paper wrapped around that has a sort of slightly oily, waxy feel to it, although not necessarily you might be able to smell a vapor off it that's probably a VCI carrier. and the idea is that you have an oil impregnated into it, perhaps an oil and a solvent. I Don't know the exact mechanism of how this works, but it evaporates in the packaging. and It Coats every surface in a thin molecular layer of oil and prevents corrosion because it blocks the water.

H in the air, the moisture in the air, and the oxygen from getting to it and this comes in various forms. You open some control panels and you'll find a little sponge in them with a date written on it and that sponge has been pre- soaked in the oil and uh, it, uh, gradually releases it, releases it it. Vaper Within the panel with the door closed over a fairly long period of time. Other application, you might find a little sort of porous tablet also soaked in the oil just sitting in the bottom of the cabinet.

Just leave that in there if you find one. That's what it's for. The people who keep home security devices in a safe uh, seem to favor the V80 amongst other ones. a VCI Oil blend.

I Wonder if this is actually a volatile oil mixed with a less volatile oil? so the volatile one actually carries it out. it evaporates and then deposits it. But this is actually a liquid and it's you. Basically you put in a cloth and you wipe tools down or the surfaces inside and it does the same thing that gives off that vapor and uh, covers everything.

An older technique and I don't know how well this works, but traditionally machinists and mechanics would put uh CER Now this packet of CER here this was full. It's kind of empty now. It's really a lot of it has vaporized because it is a a volatile solid and uh, it's sometimes quite hard to find real stuff. I Think this is real how' you tell? it smells like camper, but there are other chemicals that do.

and the smell is quite useful. Because the tradition was to put a block a fairly big block in the bottom of your tool cabinet and just close the door. And because there's air movement within the tool cabinet. uh, the vapor from the camper would carry an oily residue onto everything in the cabinet.

And one nice thing about this is it's got a distinctive moth polish type smell. so you could smell that it was still active. When you open a drawer and got a whiff of that Aroma coming out, you could tell it was active. but also it just literally.

If I left this lying here, it would gradually disappear. It would slowly, uh, evaporate away from a solid uh, pellet. Um, but that is it. If you any thoughts in VC have you got other techniques with kerosene workers? one? or would it have to be mixed with another oil? But if you've got any thoughts on that, let me know in the comments down below.

It's quite an interesting subject and sometimes I wonder if the manufacturer seeing their T super top secret chemical uh combination for the best volatility? I Wonder if that's a lot of hype or if there is a lot of science that goes into this? I Suppose the only way you could really tell is to actually try it in enclosures with steel components. um, and just see which ones rusted with your trial methods. Now there are a couple of places you should not use VC where you've got sensitive Optical mechanisms where the oil could form on lenses and things like that and affect them in some way. but also where you've got the new era of humidity control devices, the ones that are based on electroosmosis.

It's basically a little panel that goes in the side of your electrical panel and it absorbs moisture and then there's a small DC voltage around about 3 volts across it and it carries the moisture through to the outside. I made a video about those before Rosal R O S AHL Uh, you don't want to use a VOC uh in that sort of panel because there is a possibility that it's going to actually affect its ability to absorb the moisture since this is kind of designed to block the moisture and stop that uh from working. Uh, but that is it as I say let me know Down Below in the comments if you have any thoughts in this regard, if you've got other traditional methods that were used for this and how well they worked CU it's actually quite an interesting and useful material.