Live data from Hacker News

Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)

fs.fed.us

41–50 of 138 posts

Re: Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)

#41

Earlier 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.

WD40 is a terrible choice of chain lubricant, it’s too volatile.

Re: Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)

#42

They refer to 'thousands of gallons of chain-and-bar oil... carried into the forests' every year Is this quantity significant?

By “significant” I take you to mean, “causing enough harm to be noticeable.” I don’t know the answer to that. Consider that chainsaws are only one of many polluting tools that people use in forests, e.g., snowmobiles, generators, of course cars. There are many non-petroleum pollutants as well, like lead ammunition and trash. I believe it’s a useful practice to reduce harm from each of these as much as possible. That…

A key piece of advice in performance optimization is to profile first. The same should apply to environmentalism. Some interventions have orders of magnitude more impact than others, and we shouldn’t pretend otherwise

Re: Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)

#43

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.

Re: Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)

#44

Earlier 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.

WD40 is a penetrant, not a lubricant, I don’t know any Mechanics who use it.

Definitely will debate lubricants for days, but no one who is in the industry uses standard WD40

Re: Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)

#45
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have any studies been done on breathing vegetable oil aerosols?

We'll probably get some solid observational data, due to the rise of vaping, but that will take a few years.

What about all of the fast food fry cooks?

Re: Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)

#46

The 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

Thanks

Re: Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)

#48

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…

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.

Isn't a certain degree of gumming-up advantageous? It would keep the oil in place after it works it's way into all the nooks and crannies, ending up more like a grease. This behaviour could be good for corrosion prevention.

Re: Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)

#49
post #12

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.

The last time in needed to lubricate my paper shredder, I used sewing machine oil on it.
Post reply on HN