As I posted on here before I’m helping my boss market some of our corrosion inhibiting gun bags. This stuff is proven and a lot of our work is wrapping stuff in the same material for the government or other huge corporations. Everything from jet engines to the power turbines for the hoover dam get packaged up by us in this “VCI” material.
So since these $10 gun bags are the only product that we have that targets individual consumers I started up a facebook page and started getting out there on fun forums to try and educate people about what our product actually is. Typically I start out with a post like this:
Hello all, I came across this forum and wanted to share some information about gun storage in particular “gun bags” with VCI technology.
first off, in the spirit of full disclosure, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mike and I am a packaging engineer from a company called Heritage Packaging in Western New York. We specialize in protective packaging with the majority of our work dealing with government and military contracts. One of our contracts was for a M16 preservation bag for the USMC. At the conclusion of the contract we took the opportunity to make a consumer targeted versions of the bag. We called this product line Zcorr and it remains our only consumer product. As that, I have been assigned a mission to utilize “social media” to help educate and interact with gun enthusiasts in order to establish a better understanding of gun storage options and of VCI technology.
So with that long winded introduction out of the way let me share some information about gun storage with particular attention to corrosion.
Why corrosion? Corrosion is irreversible. All weapons will corrode at different rates and different environments will cause weapons to corrode at varying rates. The goal is to prevent the corrosion from occurring by keeping water from coming in contact with the weapon while in storage.
The military actually came up with a solution to this way back in the early 1900’s. By utilizing a paper with a nitrite compound within which would turn to vapor and create a weak polar bond with the metal they were able to effectively prevent water from gaining that same electron and oxidizing the metal. This technology known as VCI or Vapor Corrosion Inhibitor, since the 1900’s has expanded into hundreds of other industries including in concrete to prevent re-bar from rusting, in nuclear power plants cooling systems, and in oil pipe lines.
More recently the industry has changed the compound from various nitrites to new formulas due to health concerns and then proceeded to impregnate the VCI’s into polymers which are more durable than paper.
To sum this up, VCI technology works. It has proven science behind it and has had 100 years of use in various industries…etc
Well, here are some of the replies I’ve gotten that I simply can’t help but to laugh at:
I would not choose to use a plastic bag, for long term storage, there are some designs that are referred to as being long term, How long? No one knows, every time one is found some one opens it.
If I decided to store something for long term I would use a long term storage container, THE AMMO CAN! If I did not want to share the inside of the can with atmosphere I would find a small piece of hot ice and place it in the can, then let it evaporate until the atmosphere was displaced, wrap to protect the item I was placing in long term storage in the container, close the lid and secure, the term of ‘long term’ will end when the container is opened.
OR: I would place the container on the stove to heat, the heat expands the air, the hot expanded air has less moisture?, wrap for protection and place the item in the container, and close the lid, when the container cools, the can seals with a vacuum as in the outside pressure is greater than the pressure inside the container.Moisture is relative, air is elastic, it can flow, it is a gas, it can expand and or be compressed. Water is a fluid, it flows, it is solid and can not be compressed.
We are not talking about hot high temperature that would melt the seal.
Then there is the opposite, high pressure for storage, air when compressed is dry as evident when the storage tank is drained from the bottom, any air that was in the tank and or compressed when it enters the tank the air is ‘squeezed’ forcing the moisture out of suspension, air when compressed loosed it’s capacity/ability to hold moisture, when air that has been compressed is released it expands without moisture, it is believed we lost at least one Atomic Sub because the moisture in the tanks was not removed before being released, air that has been compressed also looses heat, when released it expands with a large drop in temperature, not a problem with dry air, when pressure is released the moisture in the tank exits with the escaping air, when the air expands, the moisture in the air can freeze.
Then there are 30 cal, 20MM, 50 cal containers and the containers used by the AIR Force to store and ship jet engines and or parts with the little access window
I have a camera which uses film. (Oh, NO!. Not film?? How quaint. Do they still make that stuff?)
Film should be stored in a cool, dry place. The professional photographers whom I know store their film in the refrigerator. When they take out some to use they allow it to come to room temperature before opening the container.
If you doubt a refrigerator’s dryness, or a freezer, ask your wife.
If enough of us start storing guns there we might be able to have Sears come out with a model which includes:
Ice maker
Vegetable bin
Meat drawer
Gun drawer
Butter keeper
Let me tell you what has been practiced by professional
photographers for the last fifty years.
First locate a hi quality tupperware container with good
fitting snap on lid that will hold a slight vacuum when you
press down on lid when sealing.
Second, locate the professional dessicant blocks or bags that come in
various sizes. (EBAT) These chemicals absorb oxygen and moisture
in the air over time and in order to dry them you simply bake them
in an oven at 350 degrees.Sure the tupperware containers allow some vapor pass through
but only at a slow rate and the dessicant packages can accumulate
any transmission for at least five years depending on the size of the
container and the dessicant package. Whenever you think you want
to remove any moisture vapor that may have leaked in simply
open container, bake the dessicant package ( it works like a sponge )
to dry it out and then reseal.IF you DONT LIKE this idea, fill the tupperware with OIL of any kind
and then submerge your pistol and then apply tupperware top.I GUARANTEE this will work. So what, in fifty years you have to shake
the oil off and wash it somehow. The oil submerged method btw
was not from the photographers. (BTW, might want to remove grips 1st)PS. I have a friend with a brand new 1967 Corvette sealed in
polyetheleyne film with a vacuum hose nozzle on one end and
another port on the other end. Every couple of years,
he vacuums as much air as he can from the enclosure
and then while vacuuming, he takes a CO2 fire extinguisher
and blows into the other end of the package.
Basically the idea of course is to store the car in a pure
CO2 environment to prevent oxidation. This is pretty
wild but it is working well in South Louisiana Swamp Land.
Anyone here smart enough to understand what’s wrong with those ideas?
I don’t have a C02 fire extinguisher. Will my Halon 1211 one work fine?