Bar oil substitute?

[onegunsmith]

We got bears! The grizzly kind. The saw is working well, a bit heavy for clearing brush but helps to get your chain saw fix. The 5w30 seems to be working well. Thanks again for all the comments.

[7sleeper]

Come on guys be serious! Don't use engine oil in an environment where the residue is guaranteed to stay for the next millennium! Any el cheapo vegetable, cooking oil will do! A lot of pro loggers here only use canola or vegetable oil on bars up to 22 inch because it costs a lot less than bar oil. They have no problems whatsoever.

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[beenthere]

7sleeper

A lot of pro loggers here only use canola or vegetable oil on bars up to 22 inch because it costs a lot less than bar oil.

Where is "here" ??

[firefighterwolf]

gunsmith... Alaska... bears... bears fat is used as a lubricant... there must be a way...  ;)

[Terry Syd]

Cheap vegetable oil, who would have thought it was so versatile. A mate of mine went camping and forgot the chain oil, so he used his wife's cooking oil.

Another time out bush I was going to run out of diesel before I got to town, but there was a corner shop on the way where I got 4 litres of cheap vegetable oil and poured that in the tank - the engine (mechanical injection system) ran fine and actually felt a bit 'crisper' .

[7sleeper]

7sleeper

A lot of pro loggers here only use canola or vegetable oil on bars up to 22 inch because it costs a lot less than bar oil.

Where is "here" ??

Sorry my profil has been updated now. Some guys here know me from another forum which is having serious problems recently. I'm from Austria and there is a german(german speaking guys from around the world=> Japan till Southamerica) forum where, believe it or not, these questions are also discused.

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[beenthere]

Thanks for the update, and welcome to the Forestry Forum.  8)

I have great memories of travelling in Austria, spring of '79. A beautiful country without a doubt. Drove along the Danube to Wien, and then to Graz and then West to Salzburg. A couple weeks of beautiful flowers everywhere across the landscape and very gracious people.

[HolmenTree]

Yes the Austrians have a beautiful country and they take environment issues seriously. I almost got in a fist fight with one Austrian.
I was staying at a Salzburg bed and breakfast in 2002, and while cleaning up my breakfast plate and putting the garbage in the different recycling bins the owner came running over , grabbed my wrist and started yelling at me.
He was offended when I put my paper napkin in the food waste bin.

Yes I have been using Canola oil in my saws for almost 10 years now and have had no problems with it. Only gets solid below -20C.

[7sleeper]

That is true. The environment is a serious thing for us. Most of our lakes have drinking water quality!

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[onegunsmith]

The environment will be fine as we are buiding houses on the land we are clearing. Cooking oil is a great idea but there is nothing cheap about it in the village. Heck that stuff isn't cheap in town.

[bandmiller2]

In cold weather plain old ATF works fine, adjust the delivery system a little richer and don't look back.No oil hangs out on the bar and chain very long anyways. Frank C.

[Hillbilly Rick]

One logging co. I cut for used old engine oil, even in his brand new Husky. Never saw any problems. I've seen guys use cooking oil too.

[schmalts]

One logging co. I cut for used old engine oil, even in his brand new Husky. Never saw any problems. I've seen guys use cooking oil too.

I work with a lubrication specialist in my full time job.  It also so happens his father ran a logging and mill operation in NM for 40 years. I asked him about using drain oil from your car and truck and his response was this "bar oil is about the lowest grade oil you can buy. Engine oil you drain from your engine is still leaps and bounds ahead of bar oil as far as wear resistance and all you need to do is add a tackifier. Since drain oil is free, run your oilers wide open and you will be fine in cold temps. Add a tackifier  for warm temps and then you are even better than commercial bar oil"  He said for winter use you could mix bar oil 50-50 with drain oil and be just fine because the add pack in motor oil.  He said "would you trust running an engine on brand new bar oil? I't low grade junk, it just sticks better than motor oil"  He also gave me a bottle of tackifie from a lube manufacture that works wonders, but it isn't available to the public unless your in the lube business. He used it to formulate a sticky engine assembly lube.

[Al_Smith]

They have found used crankcase oil  to be sufficient enough to act as bar oil as has used hydraulic oil .I don't use and won't ,too much of a mess all over things .

I suppose if push came to shove you could also use recycled French frier oil if that's all you had .Adding another chapter to the great oil debates .

In fact while the subject is being kicked around ,they even have some water based stuff which is said to be eco friendly .Most likely it's nothing but water with a jelling agent .Industrial strength KY jelly which BTW is exactly what some wire pulling lubricants are .I don't know maybe for the DIY group or "prepers" you might even be able to make your own from water and corn starch .This could cause some lively conversation . 8)

[HolmenTree]

Using waste engine oil in your saw and spraying it all over your work clothes and everything else would not be a good idea.
We all know how dirty and carcinogenic used engine oil is. Acids amongst other waste chemicals, metal filings.
One time I thought it was great idea to run used gear oil my logging partner drained out of his skidder for bar oil.
Ran it in my brand new Jonsereds 920, within 2 days the metal flings destroyed the saws oil pump. Plus the stink of the gear oil on my work clothes that couldn't be washed out :D

Here's a product that was quite poplar back in the 1970's.
This was touted to replace bar oil. Just turn off adjustable oil pump and don't add bar oil to saw.
One can would last 40 tanks of fuel. Spray on bar and chain every time saw is refueled .



 

[schmalts]

Using waste engine oil in your saw and spraying it all over your work clothes and everything else would not be a good idea.
We all know how dirty and carcinogenic used engine oil is. Acids amongst other waste chemicals, metal filings.
One time I thought it was great idea to run used gear oil my logging partner drained out of his skidder for bar oil.
Ran it in my brand new Jonsereds 920, within 2 days the metal flings destroyed the saws oil pump. Plus the stink of the gear oil on my work clothes that couldn't be washed out :D

Here's a product that was quite poplar back in the 1970's.
This was touted to replace bar oil. Just turn off adjustable oil pump and don't add bar oil to saw.
One can would last 40 tanks of fuel. Spray on bar and chain every time saw is refueled and one spray between refills
I used it in chainsaw speed cutting competitions.


 

Used gear lube is not the same as drain engine oil. One is constantly filtered,  one isnt. If you havw metal filings in your engine oil you have a lot more to worry about that your chainsaw. 

[HolmenTree]

Well my point was whether there's metal filings or not. Used engine oil after 5000 miles or more of use will be as black  as the ace of spades.

I sure in the heck wouldn't want that dirty stuff in my saw or on myself.

How about we try some nice blackened oil out of a screaming 353 Jimmy diesel :D   

[HolmenTree]

Here's a product that was quite poplar back in the 1970's.
This was touted to replace bar oil. Just turn off adjustable oil pump and don't add bar oil to saw.
One can would last 40 tanks of fuel. Spray on bar and chain every time saw is refueled.



 

Here's a further writeup about this TriFlon lubricant tested by loggers in Finland.


  

 

[Al_Smith]

Actually I was surprised that the oil really wasn't as black as it once was .2008 Mercury ,4.6 engine .It could be the tighter tolerances,better oil and better filters might have something to do with it.I'm still not going to use it for bar oil .

[HolmenTree]

I found this writeup in a 35 year old magazine, people even talked about this long before the internet :D


  

  

 

[Al_Smith]

Story time .I bought a big  old PNW classic from E-bay .Homelite 2100S ,redwood slayer .Evidently it had been used for a firewooder in it's later years because it had half a tank of black oil in it .How they ever got it started is beyond me because the decompression valve was inoperative.Fixed that, got it running,real good as a matter of fact and before I even put a bar on it I flushed the oiling system twice with kerosene .Luckily the system had not sustained any damage.That could have turned out badly  because parts for that saw are not that common .

[petefrom bearswamp]

Back in the dark ages, the late 50s and early 60s there was no such thing as bar oil, we just used 30 wt non detergent.
Bars were all hard nose not roller in them days.

[Caloren]

Back in 1971 my Father-in-law bought a Montgomery Wards [Remington] chainsaw and the manual said to use a 50/50 mix of kerosene and 30 wt motor oil for bar lube. No matter what brand he bought after that, Mac, Homelite, whatever, that 50/50 mix was all he used until he gave up using them in the late '90's. I don't believe he ever read another owners manual!

[Bob Rooker]

Folks, I need to tell you one thing for certain - DO NOT USE USED OIL!!  It is very carcinogenic!  Even horses will get skin cancer if they come in contact with it.  There is the infamous Bliss Oil Company case in Times Beach, Missouri where the entire town was ordered evacuated after Mr. Bliss had sprayed the horse arena and gravel streets with used motor oil and all the horses got skin cancer.  Their skin fell off like they had leprosy!  Every building was burned to the ground and the contaminated area was never inhabited, again.  Please don't use it!  :-[

[schmalts]

Do you eat bacon and ham?? I bet your odds of getting cancer are higher for that than if you used engine oil in your saw.