Milling Oil?

[820wards]

I'm planning to build a mill now that I'm retired and have all this spare time on my hands... Right... Not if my wife reads that I have free time!

I have an unlimited supply of synthetic refrigerant oil that is real clean and am wondering if this oil would be good for milling lumber? This is oil that is drained after so many hours of operation. I'm not sure what weight it is, but I can find out.

Any comment?

jerry-

 

[cantcutter]

Does it have that florecent dye in it? If so it might stain the wood.... I have been using water and pinesol.

 

[820wards]

This oil is pretty clear. Slight amber color from use, but light in color. I would think for cutting firewood it would be great.

jerry-

 

[cantcutter]

It should be fine, just put it in a oil can and give the blade/band a sqirt from time to time....or you can rig up a drip system. The dyed oil looks floresent green so I would say the stuff you get is dye free.

 

[woodshop]

I have an unlimited supply of synthetic refrigerant oil that is real clean and am wondering if this oil would be good for milling lumber? This is oil that is drained after so many hours of operation.
jerry-

If indeed it is used oil, even if it looks clean, is there any possibility of it containing fine metal particles like most oil that has been lubricating metal does? If so the oil pump in your chainsaw will eventually suffer. Also extra wear on the bar and chain with fine metal in the oil.

 

[820wards]

The oil in these refrigeration compress go through super fine strainers so I'm sure it's metal free. I'll just mke sure I don't pump the oil from the bottom. I'm just thinkingwhat a sorce of free oil. I'll post back after I use some. This would be something that sawers could get free from commercial heating and air-conditioning shops.

jerry-

 

[BobL]

The oil in these refrigeration compress go through super fine strainers so I'm sure it's metal free. I'll just mke sure I don't pump the oil from the bottom. I'm just thinkingwhat a sorce of free oil. I'll post back after I use some. This would be something that sawers could get free from commercial heating and air-conditioning shops.

jerry-

Hi Jerry,

Forget the strainers, they're simply not fine enough. Put a magnet in it and see if it pulls out anything out of the oil, metal is usually a grey green sludge.Even if it had some I would not be concerned, I would use a magnet to clean it up to get the bulk of it out.

I would be concerned more than it did not have enough tackiness or is too tacky but there is a simple test for viscosity that you could use, time how long it takes for a ball bearing to fall through it and compare that to regular bar/chain oil.

Cheers

 

[cantcutter]

I wouldn't worry about metal fragments either. The only way anything other than microscopic particles will be in the oil is if they had a compressor blow up and those metal fragments will be quite visable..... I have run used motor oil in my saws with no problems.... The problem with it is the oil tank runs out faster and the oil doesn't stick to the chain so the chain gets hot and stretches....basically used motor oil is useless as a chain lube...... But maybe so is the compressor oil....they replace it because the heat breaks it down and it looses its effectiveness as a lubricant. Stll wouldn't hurt to try as the price is right....

 

[Railomatic]

The oil that has a dye in it is for the engineers incase there is a leak in the system, the engineer has a ultra violet torch which shows up a bright yellow when the light is shone onto the journals and seals and can stain things if too much hits the surface.

There are vegatable based oils that mix with water, but be careful of these because they can set rock hard when they dry out, bunging up everything in their path, not a wise move to use this.

I use a water fed system to help keep the resins at bay, you need to drill two hole in the tip, on the back side of rotation and 90 degrees to the bearing, so the water goes down the bottom side of the bar.

I vary the rate from a few dozen drops per revolution of the chain, about the same rate or slightly faster than the oiler is delivering in full out mode, but not too much or you will have a slimy mess all over you clutch, it also means you can turn down the oiler a little to save on costs.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

If i had that used oil, i'd mix it 50/50 with diesel and pour it into the tank of my pu. That would save me about $3.00 per gallon on fuel!

Rob

 

[820wards]

I talked to my dad last night who is a retired engineer and had been in the air-conditioning/heating for 45 years, and he told me that the oil in those big compressors are passes through a 100 micron filter before it's pumped back through the compressor systems. He said the oil come out virtually clear. I asked him about the viscosity of the refrigerant oil and he gave me some engineering term of 100 something. So I asked him to put it in motor oil terminology. It's about 12-15 weight oil.

I'm going to put a magnet in the oil anyway just to be sure there are no metal particals. My brother who I will be getting the oil from told me last night that none of this oil cam from blown compressors. It is from regularly scheduled oil changes on the compressors. I'm going top try it first in my small chain saws to befor I use for any milling. I have to build the mill first.

I picked up a new 820 PowerBee motor this week that was brand new, never started, that I wil be using to build the power head for my mill. I'm going to start with a 38" bar using a Gander helper handle on the end. I'll be making my own aluminum oiler tanks since I have all the materials and I'll be posting pictures on the milling thread as I progress with the build.

jerry-

 

[Railomatic]

I would be concerned more than it did not have enough tackiness or is too tacky but there is a simple test for viscosity that you could use, time how long it takes for a ball bearing to fall through it and compare that to regular bar/chain oil.

Cheers[/QUOTE]


That's one I hadn't thought about using a ball bearing, does it make a difference if the oil is warm or cold.

 

[woodshop]

That's one I hadn't thought about using a ball bearing, does it make a difference if the oil is warm or cold.

Interesting, I bet it would make a big difference. What about something like STP oil treatment? Real thick stuff... I can remember adding it to my engine oil 35 years ago so it has been around. When that gets cold though, it hardly pours, thick as molasses. It might not work in a chainsaw oiler if it was cold out until the engine warmed it up.

 

[BobL]

Timing the ballbearing drop is a fairly standard first year university physics experiment. If it's done in a reasonably wide tube compared to the diameter of the ball bearing the actual viscosity of the liquid can be calculated. Yes you definitely need to know the temperature since viscosity depends on temperature.

I thought about using this testing myself after the following event. I found some some unused engine oil under the house a few weeks back that I thought I could use in my CS. I put some in my aux oiler and the stuff was so thick the max flow rate I got was about 5 ml/min (using bar oil I get a max flow rate of around 40 ml/min and operate at around 15 - 30 ml min). Then I had to clean this goopy stuff out out of the aux oiler - arrgh ! Next time I'll use the ball bearing drop test.

 

[820wards]

I have nee using a Mobil DTE 15 weight oil in my saws for many years and have had no excessive wear on my bars or chains. This is drain oil out of Heidelberg printing presses, really clean stuff. I like using thinner oils in my 820wards saw especially during cold day operations. This saw has a manual oiler so I can oil more frequently as I'm sawing.

The refrigerant oil that I want to use is about the same viscosity as the Mobil DTE oil. I'm looking at a pressurized system to force oil the bar at both ends since I will not be using a traditional chainsaw that has a built in oiler.

jerry-

 

[lazermule]

+1 on STP

I had a surplus of lighter oil for awhile and I did just what Woodshop suggested and that is to add STP oil treatment to it to make it more tacky. At the time, I actually used a paint viscosity tester (cheap at a paint store) and kept adding the oil treatment until the surplus oil had near the same viscosity as the standard B&C oil I had. The STP oil treatment is about $1.79 /pt where I am at, but can be had a bit cheaper if you look for it on sale. Gunk brand also makes a similar product that normally retails for about $1 /pint as well.

Additionally, I have used the STP oil treatment in its intended use in a couple of my vehicles with good results. They were aging vehicles that were showing some minor oil consumption and the addition of the STP at the oil change significantly decreased oil consumption and noteably increased the fuel ecomomy of the vehicle. Also, when in college I did a bar wear test using "Slick 50", Mobile 1, STP, and some other over priced oil additives, and STP actually came out the best in the test, and actually reduced the wear of the Mobile 1 test by 50% when mixed 10:1 with it. Not bad being that STP was the lowest price lubricant in the test.

LAZER