They refer to 'thousands of gallons of chain-and-bar oil... carried into the forests' every year Is this quantity significant?
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Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)
31–40 of 138 posts
Re: Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)
#32My paper shredder's user manual recommends* periodically shredding a paper with oil drizzled on it for lubrication. It says vegetable oil is fine. *At least, it did until I shredded it.
This surprises me; vegetable oil gets sticky as it oxidizes. I would have expected something like mineral oil.
I don't know about other manufacturers, but Fellowes brand shredder oil is just expensive canola oil.
Re: Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)
#33Could you engineer a chainsaw that doesn't need lubrication? Maybe a dynamic tensioner that pulls the chain taught instead of riding on a frame? Or what about rethinking the design entirely and using a long screw with cutting teeth all along it (no metal on metal moving parts)?
Re: Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)
#34The article talks about "canola based oils". Has anyone used just plain canola oil to do the job?
I’ve been using only canola oil for my chainsaw for the last 3 years. No problems so far. I use it about every 2-4 months
Re: Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same with guitar players and fingerboard oils. Use mineral oil because it's food-safe and won't go rancid. Same reason I use it on my cutting board.
Wait a moment. Mineral oils are food-safe? Don't they accumulate in the body and act as endocrine disruptors?
To my knowledge it can absorb a little through the skin but not through the intestines though more than a little will give you the shits real bad.
Re: Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)
#36Tangentially related: Boston Dynamics' BigDog, which utilizes hydraulic actuators, would constantly leak hydraulic fluid while operating, be it through normal weepage or catastrophic leaks (e.g. burst hoses). Initially, they used petroleum-based hydraulic fluid, but as they began to operate out in the woods etc, this proved to be untenable, so they eventually switched to using a vegetable-based hydraulic fluid that w…
The more traditional kind of dog leaks all the time as well
Re: Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same with guitar players and fingerboard oils. Use mineral oil because it's food-safe and won't go rancid. Same reason I use it on my cutting board.
Wait a moment. Mineral oils are food-safe? Don't they accumulate in the body and act as endocrine disruptors?
Mineral oil is commonly used to coat/maintain butcher block cutting boards, and as a storage coating on high carbon knives. It is recognized as safe by the FDA when produced according to food safety guidelines and under quality control.
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfr...
Re: Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)
#38They refer to 'thousands of gallons of chain-and-bar oil... carried into the forests' every year Is this quantity significant?
Or does it matter that the petroleum came from the forests, the deserts and some underseas equivalents? Petroleum is a natural thing. There are no doubt problems with the refined versions of petroleum but natural oils have issues too. The right solution might still be to ban petroleum oils from this job. But it seems foolish to pretend they are any less natural than vegetable oils.
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Re: Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)
#39They refer to 'thousands of gallons of chain-and-bar oil... carried into the forests' every year Is this quantity significant?
Or does it matter that the petroleum came from the forests, the deserts and some underseas equivalents? Petroleum is a natural thing. There are no doubt problems with the refined versions of petroleum but natural oils have issues too. The right solution might still be to ban petroleum oils from this job. But it seems foolish to pretend they are any less natural than vegetable oils.
> Petroleum is a natural thing.
Cyanide is also a natural thing. Is it compatible with complex life in this planet? No.
Natural occurrence is not a sufficient measure for compatibility in an ecological context.
Re: Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed, gas engines probably drip or exhaust more oil. Certainly 2 stroke chainsaws. There's a rumor among cyclists that "3 in 1 oil" is bad for bikes because it contains vegetable oil that gums up. But cyclists will debate about oil for days.
Cyclists debate about oil for days. Cycle mechanics just use WD40.
Without falling into an oil debate, no cycle mechanic I’ve ever spoken to uses or would recommend wd40 for chain oil. It’s far too thin and is primarily for freeing stuck parts and cleaning. It’s not meant for long term lubrication - it dries out or get washed off almost instantly.
3 in 1 is fine, but the main advantage of a proper chain lube is that they don’t attract grime and dirt as quickly