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My 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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is one of those times when programming analogies don't work. Ecosystems are diabolically complex and nonlinear. A small perturbation might be okay one year and collapse everything the next, depending on a thousand other factors. It's good to try, but it would be a terrible policy to mandate.
It occurs to me that large computer programs can also be diabolically complex and nonlinear. Changing a single byte of code can result in a huge change in process behavior. I generally disdain the temptation to use computer analogies for natural processes too, but in this case your objection isn’t strong.
Exactly how to understand and intervene in complex systems is an active area of multidisciplinary research, not something trivial or remotely well understood.
This is interesting, because I was just reading how unused vegetable oil is in common use for AK-47 rifles in Africa. (Nobody clarified if other rifles receive the same treatment.)
https://www.hoppes.com/hoppes-support/ho-sds.html
which is pretty vague on most products but indicates ignition temp of their "lubricating gun oil" is 410F so anything around that won't start a fire, at least. that aligns closely with popular frying oils.
in general even modern ARs can be run totally dry for hundreds or thousands of rounds, until carbon fouling stops them. so it probably doesn't matter so much. worst thing that would happen is you'd get a gummy residue or a bit more carbon buildup. notably, lower quality gun oils already pose those problems.
here's a couple of nerds trying it out with canola: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8nZWALQRgM
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tangentially related, in the early 00’s in a datacenter belonging to a large multinational corporation, there was an IBM as/400 that frequently leaked puddles of yellow liquid. A puddle was found under it; the puddle was cleaned up. The puddle came back. Repeatedly. The data center management was perplexed. The internal as/400 professionals were stumped. IBM techs were called in. They assured the datacenter’s managem…
Dunno how anyone could be perplexed ... piss smells like piss.
If you have 0 ideas about what it is, and piss seems improbable, I could see the confusion
My 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.
Is this a compulsion common to paper shredders, similar to how every label maker must be stored in a container labeled "Label Maker"?
They refer to 'thousands of gallons of chain-and-bar oil... carried into the forests' every year Is this quantity significant?
No. You run maybe a pint of bar and chain oil through a big felling saw in an entire day of running it. More transmission and hydraulic fluid leaks from logging equipment constantly.
Without getting into whether it's actually a significant pollutant compared to other sources, I think your estimate is considerably low. I'm usually worn out before I can cut for a whole day, but I've gone through more than 2 quarts in a day. And here's someone professional who says he goes through a gallon a day of bar and chain oil with a similarly sized saw (possibly because he's able to keep going longer): https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=46008.msg662...
Tangentially 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…
Tangentially related, in the early 00’s in a datacenter belonging to a large multinational corporation, there was an IBM as/400 that frequently leaked puddles of yellow liquid. A puddle was found under it; the puddle was cleaned up. The puddle came back. Repeatedly. The data center management was perplexed. The internal as/400 professionals were stumped. IBM techs were called in. They assured the datacenter’s managem…
This does not jibe with my experiences or anybody I know's experiences, I think it needs more development. I've had friends who used vegetable oils then they dried out or worse turned rancid and gummed stuff up. Especially bad if a tool is left for a while, or in a hot place, though I guess this is not so much a problem in Europe. This doesn't seem like a significant enough problem to justify that anyway, "thousands…
There are drying oils and non-drying oils. Drying oils are what you want to put on your cast iron pan to polymerize the oil into a coating. Tung oil would be a bad choice for chain lubricant because it will gum up, but castor oil should be more suitable for said chain.
After every use they get a soapy wipe out, rinse, then a one minute heat with a quarter inch of oil in the pan. The iron just soaks it right up so it’s all ready and greasy for the next fry.
Painting the pans with flaxseed oil leaves an uneven spidery brown pattern. If food sticks to the pan you have to sacrifice some of the coating. It wasn’t a durable solution for me.