Drying vs Non-Drying Vegetable Oils

[Chris-PA]

I believe an important aspect has totally been ignored here with bio oils (rapseed, olive, etc.). These oils can flock/solify when exposed to temperatures below freezing

Possibly, but I haven't seen it with canola/rapeseed over the span of several years use. It's not the yukon here, but it does get well below freezing regularly.

 

[usmcbuckwild]

Possibly, but I haven't seen it with canola/rapeseed over the span of several years use. It's not the yukon here, but it does get well below freezing regularly.

The flow point (pour point) and cloud point is more important than actual freezing point, although they are close temperature wise. Cloud point is typically the lowest “usable” temperature of product. Although that definition isn’t all that definitive. There are so many changes to account for (viscosity, flow, water content and crystalization, temperature shear/breakdown) when predicting the lowest usable temperature for product. Like the old school way of using a little diesel to thin dino bar oil: at sub-zero (f) the diesel cloud point can actually be HIGHER than the actual cloud point of the bar oil.

 

[Rosss]

I figured about -10 C was the limit for canoloa with out keeping the oil warm in the house and then warming up the saw and and adding the warm oil to the warm saw.

 

[usmcbuckwild]

I figured about -10 C was the limit for canoloa with out keeping the oil warm in the house and then warming up the saw and and adding the warm oil to the warm saw.

Which is alot more than most people will do. Kuros to you for having the foresight to do so.

My personal opinion is a custom mix is the the most effective way to go. I would have to do more research to speak intelligently to the components of a mixture, but it would seem that there should be an established baseline for a “homebrew” vegi oil mix.

 

[wyk]

I'm five years straight running Rapeseed(canola) oil for bar oil. I do not cut it with anything. I have run it in standard and ported saws. From 30cc up to 93cc. I haven't noticed bars wearing any more than with standard oil. It rarely hard freezes here, so I couldn't tell you how it would handle that. I left a 281XP sitting for at least 9 months once. I simply poured out all the fluids out of it, refilled it, and went cutting. The chain was a bit tight, but all I had to do was run it along a log a couple of times to loosen it. Here in Ireland, the costs of bulk rapeseed are about half that of bar oil. Rapeseed bio degrades very rapidly in the environment, as well. At the rate I save money with rapeseed oil, I can replace my bars several times a year if needs be. But, I don't need to.

 

[Philbert]

Impressive photos!

Philbert

 

[wyk]

Impressive photos!

Philbert

I rarely do any felling or firewood on the estate in Ireland unless the trees are becoming dangerous or wind blown. The estate is about 800 years old or so, and has never been open to the public, so when I do have to process wood it is often huge. My family is distantly related (circa Revolutionary War). The wall you see in the first pic is older than the USA. I am almost always behind in work, tho. Loads of stuff on the ground about the place. And some of it I have to leave for lack of a place to put it.

 

[Rosss]

Tried out canola while milling today with a 36 inch bar. Impressed so far.
The links on the returning/cutting side of the bar had oil on the underside when I lifted them out of the rail to look.

The warehouse store near me has canola for $1.25 a litre in the 16 litre size. I wasn't looking for saving money but he cost savings vs bar oil ($6 litre)is significant.

 

[holeycow]

most vegetable oils pollute the land and water through commercial farming techniques

dino oil pollutes the air

take your pick

 

[Chris-PA]

most vegetable oils pollute the land and water through commercial farming techniques

dino oil pollutes the air

take your pick

Everything we do has negative impacts on the rest of the environment. Obtaining and producing the petroleum based oil also causes large amounts of environmental damage. Both have negative impact in their production and use. Probably none of us here have the resources to do an end-to-end systemic analysis of the impacts, so we must make some guesses.

In terms of personal health, breathing vegetable oils is probably not a good idea either, but I'm betting it's slightly better than petroleum.

Bio oils could be made with less negative impacts, although in most cases that would make them too precious to be wasted as chainsaw bar oil. Essentially, these oils are only available to us by leveraging the large amounts of petroleum used in their production.

In terms of what gets spread on my land (which is the only place I cut), there isn't much doubt that petroleum has worse negative impacts.

My cost for canola is slightly less.

Therefore on balance using canola makes sense for me, and has worked well for several years now.

 

[GerrySM]

Reporting back a year or so later, and in all that time I have used cheap OLIVE OIL on my chainsaws and other equipment, e.g. my Makita Hedge trimmer (I use an olive oil spray on this item):




I HAVE NEVER HAD ANOTHER CHAIN OR BLADE FREEZE UP CAUSED BY DRIED OIL, as I used to get with Canola. Olive Oil is a little more expensive than canola, but worth it to me.

 

[CR888]

well done! I too as a result of this thread started using olive oil spray cans for my hedge trimmers. NO more seized up blades on units not run for periods (I have 5 hedge trimmers in various forms). Still using canola in saws as I get is free & they are being regularly used. But I would switch to olive if I could get it cheap enough. Olive is still cheaper than bar oil though, but I can say it works well on the trimmer blades. I use it too on my axe handles I make and all other wood handled yard tools.

 

[holeycow]

Everything we do has negative impacts on the rest of the environment. Obtaining and producing the petroleum based oil also causes large amounts of environmental damage. Both have negative impact in their production and use. Probably none of us here have the resources to do an end-to-end systemic analysis of the impacts, so we must make some guesses.

In terms of personal health, breathing vegetable oils is probably not a good idea either, but I'm betting it's slightly better than petroleum.

Bio oils could be made with less negative impacts, although in most cases that would make them too precious to be wasted as chainsaw bar oil. Essentially, these oils are only available to us by leveraging the large amounts of petroleum used in their production.

In terms of what gets spread on my land (which is the only place I cut), there isn't much doubt that petroleum has worse negative impacts.

My cost for canola is slightly less.

Therefore on balance using canola makes sense for me, and has worked well for several years now.

When you live in big prairie farming country and see the pest control techniques ongoing through the entire farming season it should make you wonder if supporting that abomination is being socially responsible or not.

My personal opinion, fwiw, is that “modern” farming is the biggest polluter on earth. The last 40years and for ever how long this continues will go down in history as a very dark time in food production.

FWIW.

 

[cus_deluxe]

My personal opinion, fwiw, is that “modern” farming is the biggest polluter on earth. The last 40years and for ever how long this continues will go down in history as a very dark time in food production.

Thats a fact.