Frozen Saws

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chainbrake

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"methyl hydrate" LOL the authorities are prolly afraid if they call it "wood alcohol" they'll get
Yep, those are my neighbors, those boys live in the park just up the road.
iu
 
Canyon Angler

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Joisey

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Not sure what you're arguing.
"Ethanol" = "Ethyl alcohol" = "grain alcohol" = the alcohol in booze.
"Methanol" = "methyl alcohol" = "methyl hydrate" = "wood alcohol."
"Isopropanol" = "isopropyl alcohol" = "rubbing alcohol."
They're just different words referring to the same things, like "Chevy" = "Chevrolet."
While the are the same things, such as they are all types of alcohol (like a Cadillac is made by Chevy) they have different properties. You can drink ethanol and get drunk. You can drink the same amount of methanol and get drunk, go blind, and kill your liver.
 
Canyon Angler

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While the are the same things, such as they are all types of alcohol (like a Cadillac is made by Chevy) they have different properties. You can drink ethanol and get drunk. You can drink the same amount of methanol and get drunk, go blind, and kill your liver.
Oh, I get it.

So, like,
milk and water and Clorox and anti-freeze and Pepsi and mercury and battery acid are all liquids
but just because they're all liquids doesn't mean you should drink them all.
Who knew???
Thanks for the heads-up! This should be a public service announcement!
 
chainbrake

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Not sure what you're arguing.
"Ethanol" = "Ethyl alcohol" = "grain alcohol" = the alcohol in booze.
"Methanol" = "methyl alcohol" = "methyl hydrate" = "wood alcohol."
"Isopropanol" = "isopropyl alcohol" = "rubbing alcohol."
They're just different words referring to the same things, like "Chevy" = "Chevrolet."
Not arguing, you give very good info. I was just putting other info out: people seemed to be interested in the difference between methyl hydrate and isopropyl alcohol. I apologize if it seemed like I was arguing. Perhaps I should have started a new comment.
 
chainbrake

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newforest

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Dem boys from da pahk look to be in da big city in that picture. Movin’ on up?

I had to put my saw in the truck this morning, it’s a little older and tired and hard-to-cranky in the cold a.m. 5 minutes near the footwell heater on full and it was sweet sweet summer time again. I should be nicer to it and just ride it indoors with me I guess; I always forget till a morning start like this one. Sorry, saw. No more cold rain & snow for you now. My clothes all smell like saw gas already anyway, dang temp inversions this time of year, cutting under thick pine all the time the air even starts looking blue.
 
chainbrake

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In Canada if you see the green stickers on the pumps it contains ethanol any of the ones that say good for the enviornment the same. thing.Mohawk and I cannot think of the others have been full of ethanol for years .Shell premium is 100 percent gas.
Kash
Just looked it up: in NS, PEI and Newfoundland & Labrador, all gasoline contains no ethanol. I won't be be giving my saws a double-dose of alcohol in my fuel if I I end up using a little bit of methanol on a frozen saw. Thanks everyone, I learned some things here.
 
Joisey

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"methyl hydrate" LOL the authorities are prolly afraid if they call it "wood alcohol" they'll get


iu
I worked with a guy that had sub duty in WWII. He and his buddies drained a portion of the alcohol out of each torpedo and drank it. Talk about slow on the draw. He'll be dead a half hour before he knows it. Talk about dain bramage.
 
GenXer

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Just looked it up: in NS, PEI and Newfoundland & Labrador, all gasoline contains no ethanol. I won't be be giving my saws a double-dose of alcohol in my fuel if I I end up using a little bit of methanol on a frozen saw. Thanks everyone, I learned some things here.
I know most of the stations around me in NB are ethanol free, I'm not sure if Irving still has it in their gas.
 
Iffykid

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Dem boys from da pahk look to be in da big city in that picture. Movin’ on up?

I had to put my saw in the truck this morning, it’s a little older and tired and hard-to-cranky in the cold a.m. 5 minutes near the footwell heater on full and it was sweet sweet summer time again. I should be nicer to it and just ride it indoors with me I guess; I always forget till a morning start like this one. Sorry, saw. No more cold rain & snow for you now. My clothes all smell like saw gas already anyway, dang temp inversions this time of year, cutting under thick pine all the time the air even starts looking blue.
My saws always rode in the cab with me in the winter along with the summer weight bar oil.
 
Canyon Angler

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I worked with a guy that had sub duty in WWII. He and his buddies drained a portion of the alcohol out of each torpedo and drank it. Talk about slow on the draw. He'll be dead a half hour before he knows it. Talk about dain bramage.
Yep, "torpedo juice" ... aka grain alcohol ... I remember (kinda) a party where they made punch with that stuff...
 
chainbrake

chainbrake

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I know most of the stations around me in NB are ethanol free, I'm not sure if Irving still has it in their gas.
Irving's St. John, New Brunswick refinery is the largest oil refinery in all of Canada.
They don't list ethanol as part of the products out of that refinery.
I think they supply most of the gasoline throughout the Maritimes.

After the two big tanker car derailments/explosions (QUE & MB), Irving has gotten its crude from Saudi Arabia.
Irving Oil accounts for 1.5% of the Saudi's crude market.
75% of the products coming from the Irving refinery are sold in the USA through a partnership with Standard Oil of California.
 
SteveSr

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It's that time of year. I's a small operator - only have 2 working saws.
Last Friday, I rode my saws hard in the rain and locked them away wet in the shipping container - like always.
It was no surprise to me that after sharpening them up on my snowy tailgate and heading out this morning
- both carburetors/fuel lines froze up after about 3 minutes of running.
45 years of chainsaws, and I had never had one freeze - let alone 2!
I took them back to my shop and thawed them for an hour in front of the wood stove.
They worked fine for 5 hours after that.
Has anyone ever put methyl hydrate in a fuel tank in the winter? If so, how much do you use? Thanks.
I think that you need to separate fuel icing issues from plain old carburetor icing due to high humidity and outside temperatures near or below freezing. The fact that they ran for 3 minutes before stopping seems to indicate regular carburetor icing and not fuel line freezing. I don't think that methyl hydrate (methanol) will do anything for carburetor icing.
 
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