Oiling it Old School

Other builders told me to put a coat of Boiled Linseed Oil on the inside of the tubing as an anti-corrosion measure. Turns out this is an old technique that goes back to the early days of aviation and while there are new materials, Boiled Linseed Oil is a tried and true method.


First, tape over all the openings except one end with blue painter's tape.

Yes, every piece of tubing gets taped and treated.

Boiled Linseed Oil gives off heat as it dries and is highly flammable. Everyone filled me up with horror stories about it and I didn't take any chances when I was doing the treatment. (Note the metal trashcans for used material.) I was so concerned I was laying in bed around midnight and went back out to check on things. The next day I took all the used material by the county hazardous waste dump, thinking I'd be laughed at but they told me I did good.

Maybe I was being overly cautious, but better too much than too little.

 I found watering cans with a narrow spouts worked well for getting the oil in the tubing but it's still a messy process.

Disposable foil pans catch the drips while things dry.

After a few days horizontal I pulled the tape off and stood things up. It took about two weeks for everything to dry.

Once dry it's a few more days of cleanup using mineral spirits.

Before I cleaned a piece up I took a photo of the label and the part, then wrote the part number and description down on an inventory tag I picked up from Office Depot because the mineral spirits stripped the label off the part. After the part dried they got tagged.