Machine Shop

It may be better to sell and recoup the money while you can. Sell them now as functional machines, or sell them later as scrap.

If you are able to maintain them, depending on what they are, lubrication and actually running them may be the best thing.

It may be possible to rent the shop out for the time being, until you decide what to do with it. You can keep them lubed up with spray oil for now, but the machines will go bad if they are not used.

The main problem is condensation on cold metal when the temperature drops. It will help a lot to cover the equipment with tarps or old sheets to prevent cold drafts from hitting metal. I've seen this effect on a table saw in my garage; an area of the cast iron top that was covered had no rust, other parts rusted badly one winter.

Regular oil does very little to prevent rust. Look for something that performs well in salt-spray or outdoor corrosion tests. I now spray down my stuff with a big can of Break-Free CLP. Eezox and Corrosion-X are also very good.

Also, you don't want mice, squirrels or other animals depositing corrosive substances on the equipment. Make sure the place is sealed up and don't leave any bags of grass seed or other food sources around.

You may want to put some of the equipment up on wood blocks, especially if there's any chance of minor flooding during a storm.

Hi Groover

You didn't mention the type of equipment, metal working,wood working, sheet metal or any other type so to stay in a general way, you would want to oil (imagine your oiling you gun for a long storage) any machined surfaces. You would have the ways on a lathe, milling machine, shaper, tool grinder, surface plates & etc to cover with a protective coating. Drain any water based soluable oil coolants from any machines with it standing in the resorvior. Clean out chips keeping safty in mind. ... Wood working clean out saw dust so as not to hold moisture. Same with any sheet metal brakes, & any unprotected surfaces...... DO NOT OIL TORCHS or any GAS BOTTLES.
Just use common sense around any machine cutters or switchs.
There are some good folk on here that I'm sure could add a lot more to help.
Be safe & good luck with your chore.

Digger

the best way to store them would be to first properly lube all of the machines then give any exposed metal such as the bedways on a lathe or table on a mill a good coation of grease. then cover everything with canvas tarps or cheap blankets. do not use plastic tarps to cover the machines they will trap in moisture.

If you inherited a Bridgeport mill, I'm gonna hate you.

LPS 3 would be a good product to coat with.
http://www.lpslabs.com/product_pg/corrosion_pg/LPS3.html

Would there be an advantage of using LPS3 v. Break-Free CLP. Eezox or Corrosion-X?

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I used to use LPS3 on outdoor farm equipment. It's very messy after it dries for a few months and turns into gummy wax; works ok, but you can't just wipe it off when you go back to use the equipment. The stuff is expensive and the nozzle tends to clog up when you don't use it for a while.

Day to day lubrication and protection it sounds like a non-detergent SAE30 or Mobil Vectra is the way to go.

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Motor oil is fine for lubrication but it offers almost no corrosion protection; ATF fluid on a rag would be better if you want something dirt cheap. I tried my own salt spray test once on a cleaned up steel bar. The 10W30 area was just as rusted as the bare steel. Here's some tests:

http://www.6mmbr.com/corrosiontest.html
http://www.thegunzone.com/rust.html
http://www.accuratereloading.com/rustest.html