[MAJOR PITA]

I have a gun safe that has no provision for an electrical dehumidifier, goldenrod, fluorescent light, or other electrical way to remove moisture.

Up to now, I've been coating my firearms with a good coat of protective oil and I've placed several buckets of "Damp Rid" around the safe to prevent damage to my guns from moisture. This seems to have worked so far, but requires that I replenish the oil every couple of years, not to mention the fact that I have to occasionally empty the water out of the buckets of "Damp Rid."

Is there a better, non-electrical way to stop moisture damage to my guns?

Is there any such thing as a cordless dehumidifier, and could I use this in a safe full of guns coated with oil (fire hazard?).

Help! I'm getting tired of having to open the safe and empty the water out of all the buckets of "Damp Rid". I'm also getting tired of having to re-oil my guns every few years as the protective coating deteriorates.

I need a better solution. Any ideas?
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[Rhino_66]

Cosmoline...

We use a product called Dry-Rite in our lab. It's basically just an absorbant kitty litter that is dried in the oven before use. When dry it is a blue color, but as it absorbs moisture it starts turning pink. When it's pink, just put the pan in the drying oven for a couple hours to evaporate the water and it's good to go. It turns back to blue when it's dry. I guess it's similar to Damp-Rid, but there's no pan of water sitting there in the safe...

You could go make a rechargeable battery dehumidifier system, but that would probably require weekly maintenance to recharge. You wouldn't want to use a vented battery. Ni-Mh, Ni-Cd, or sealed gel-cell would probably be fine. You could wire a digital hygrometer to turn the system on when humidity got to a certain level. The hygrometer in my cigar humidor beeps when the humidity gets below 68%. The alarm level is programable for hi-lo alarms. It wouldn't be tough to make the alarm pulse turn on a solid state relay that turns on the dehumidifier. When the humidity gets back down to your set point, the alarm turns off and so does the dehumidifier. This setup would lengthen battery life too.

Oiling your guns is a good excuse to say hello to all your old friends. A good hour with an oily rag and a bore mop is a great way to avoid the missus when something awful is on the Lifetime network...

And if you have so many firearms that the task is tedious... We have no sympathy, cuz that's just not fair... :lol: