Has the price for Bar and Chain oil jumped in your area?

[newoodguy78]

Concrete guys are the ones to talk to , they are there first. All the one's around here are slower doing mostly smaller residential projects. Very slow in the new home and commercial department. Commercial being the biggest indicator. Service type trades aren't a good indicator, maintenance always has to happen and never wains off much. If you get a service type contractor to show up immediately it's one of three things. 1 it's an emergency 2 you got lucky or 3 they aren't any good and you probably don't want them anyway

[Tom K]

The peddle is still to the floor around here for commercial work. We've seen more demand for warehouse & production space than we have in a long time. Most of our sub's are still plenty busy also, but have more capacity then last year. I've been thinking for the last 2 years the wheels are bound to fall off but, it sure hasn't happened yet around here. Our main metal building supplier is starting to get busy again and pushing out production dates.

We are usually not very well insulated here being in a big tourist area. When money starts to run low people stop traveling, and that hasn't happened yet.

I don't usually pay mush attention to residential, but I do still see houses going up. Even with the high interest rates lumber prices have dropped enough to keep some people interested. Housing prices have eased a little but still haven't dropped much.

[EricR]

I have yet to do it but I have intentions to stop at a few tractor/equipment dealers to see if I could get a few buckets of used hydraulic fluid every so often.  I would use the stuff they get from the 50 hour break in service in pretty much anything I own

[nativewolf]

The peddle is still to the floor around here for commercial work. We've seen more demand for warehouse & production space than we have in a long time. Most of our sub's are still plenty busy also, but have more capacity then last year. I've been thinking for the last 2 years the wheels are bound to fall off but, it sure hasn't happened yet around here. Our main metal building supplier is starting to get busy again and pushing out production dates.

We are usually not very well insulated here being in a big tourist area. When money starts to run low people stop traveling, and that hasn't happened yet.

I don't usually pay mush attention to residential, but I do still see houses going up. Even with the high interest rates lumber prices have dropped enough to keep some people interested. Housing prices have eased a little but still haven't dropped much.

yeah I am not seeing it but then I didn't see it in Baton Rouge or Nashville either.  
What is the tourism related to Tom?  Housing here is still scarce ..new subdivisions eating farmland at an alarming rate.

[Southside]

45 minutes north of here the development is INSANE, both sub division residential and commercial. Drive by and it's "Starting at $385,000", but and this is a big but - then you see the sign that says "100% financing" right behind that.  Shades of 2007.  Things were burning just as hot then too and what was it two weeks to flatten the economy back then?  Winter is coming.  

[Tom K]

Nativewolf -

Recreation & amusement mainly, all require disposable income. Lake Erie & Erie Islands, Summit Raceway, Cedar Point, a couple water parks. Put in Bay can draw huge crowds on the weekends, the raceway can draw 30k people for their big events and Cedar Point can draw 30k daily.

Currently, only a small amount of our work is related to this sector.

[EricR]

45 minutes north of here the development is INSANE, both sub division residential and commercial. Drive by and it's "Starting at $385,000", but and this is a big but - then you see the sign that says "100% financing" right behind that.  Shades of 2007.  Things were burning just as hot then too and what was it two weeks to flatten the economy back then?  Winter is coming.  

That's cheap for around here. (Southeastern mass).sub division up the street, little under 2 acre bare lot $459,000. Packages over 1,000,000.  1200 sqft ranch built in the 70's $549,000. Been years since I have seen any new construction house go for under 800,000

[Southside]

Those were triple level town houses, or condos, or whatever you call it when one building has three different colors of vinyl siding on them stacked one after another after another, Stepford Style.  I have no idea how folks are affording any of this. Folks must make serious coin up your way. 

[nativewolf]

Nativewolf -

Recreation & amusement mainly, all require disposable income. Lake Erie & Erie Islands, Summit Raceway, Cedar Point, a couple water parks. Put in Bay can draw huge crowds on the weekends, the raceway can draw 30k people for their big events and Cedar Point can draw 30k daily.

Currently, only a small amount of our work is related to this sector.

Gotcha so closer to the lake than I was thinking.  

[nativewolf]

Those were triple level town houses, or condos, or whatever you call it when one building has three different colors of vinyl siding on them stacked one after another after another, Stepford Style.  I have no idea how folks are affording any of this. Folks must make serious coin up your way.

My best friend in Houston has seen housing just explode around them, inside city redevelopment so pretty humble homes getting demolished, lots split and homes with almost no yard (100sqft) going for $750-800.  Block after block.  That's Houston oil and chemicals money I guess and all the high powered white collar jobs that go with it.

[Cedarman]

Friend of mine owns a recreation business.  Says tours down  15% from a year ago.  Local disposable income seems to be down.  Easy to get seated in restaurants. Southern Indiana

[MrRastos]

No way I'd pay $20/gallon for bar oil. Like Corley, my Dyna firewood processor uses hydraulic oil out of the machines hydraulic system. The last hydraulic oil I bought was around $55 for 5 gallons.

When I ran forwarder, I would collect as much of the hydraulic oil as I could when changing hoses and stuff. I made sure to keep it clean, and I would use that for bar oil. I worked great, I don't think I bought any bar oil at all for about 3 years😁 You guys can buy all the ultra-premium bar oil you want😊

I tried running clean hydraulic oil in my saws. The bars and chains seemed to run a lot hotter and stretch and wear quicker. I came to the conclusion that at the prices they charge for bars and chains it isn't worth skimping on proper chain oil. That's my take on it anyways. 

[Firewoodjoe]

When I was hand cutting full time I'd run 2-4 chains a week and one tip on average per week. Bars I grind and reuse. Many many many times. I think I still have every bar I've ever bought unless it bent. 2-4 chains is from sharpening them 6-10 times a day. So you're buying them no matter what oil you use. A tip use to be about 10-20 bucks depending on brand. Even if that's doubled let's say $40. A good gallon of bar oil is what? $15 now a days. I'd use two gallons a day. That's $150 a week just in oil. I'll buy extra tips before I sped that in oil. When I can use cheap or free oil and save the $150. Even with the harvester. Chains are $67, bars are $380. Tips are $84. I've bought 7 bars in two years. I'm still running them all. A chain will last a month or more depending on abuse a tip is about the same. Again using two gallons a day. The math don't add up to buy high dollar oil. A home owner will most like never even smoke a tip anyways. Good oil is definitely worth it in the right situation but not on a saw chain. IMO 

[barbender]

I could see the tackifier possibly having some benefit on long bars. Tackifier is the only thing I see setting a bar oil apart. If the benefit was there for me, I'd spend the extra money but I just don't see it🤷

[Firewoodjoe]

You can't believe anything anyways. Which one is better? They all say they're the best. I'd like to switch to a hydraulic oil I knew would be better but I want to see the specs on them all. Astm is supposed to tell you. Well most oils aren't even listed. Unfortunately today it's all lies and gimmicks and only your own time and experience will tell you the truth. Ultimately only thing that matters is what works for each person in their own scenario. 

[thecfarm]

 today it's all lies and gimmicks and only your own time and experience will tell you the truth.  

I find that is the truth with almost anything I buy.

[SwampDonkey]

Yep! I just discovered that on my Fiskars scissors, what is suppose to be a rubber on the inside of the grips, is actually some kind of gum. You can take a finger nail and puncture it and scrape it off. I was noticing some type of gummy stuff on my work table. It was that mess of Chinese fakery. :D

And yes I have stopped buying saw brand oils a couple years back. The saws don't perform any less. The mix oil is sometimes made locally at the Irving refinery, the next jug you get 6 months from now might say USA on it. :D It's sold by Canadian Tire. One thing we have to contend with up here is carbon tax and tax on refineries to reduce their carbon footprint. The government of NB slapped us with another 8% tax, where other provinces only charged 4%. The closer you are to the refinery the more you pay instead of the other way around. :D The consumer always pays the bills. Name me one thing they don't compensate the manufacturer for, it's always passed on. :D

[DMcCoy]

The cost of bar oil didn't go up - the value of your money went down, mostly.
I'm running $5.99 bar oil from many years ago.  Currently the same oil is $17.99 on sale.
It's time to move $ into physical assets, this will not get better.

[Kodiakmac]

The local BMR hardware store has 'medium' weight bar oil on sale at $10.97 CDN per US gallon.  Regular price is $12.48.

[barbender]

I just picked up some farm store brand, 2 gallon jug for $15.99.

[BargeMonkey]

Running has it for 14 something, 2 gal. I'm seeing prices all over. Starting to see places overstocked and sales. 

[GRANITEstateMP]

got a gallon of TSC brand oil at there store the other day for $13.99, Husky stuff was $20.99

[SwampDonkey]

Big difference here in hardware store pricing. One carries their own store brand, the other is some USA brand (it's in 3.8 L jugs or 946 ml bottles). One is $10 bucks cheaper for $4 litres of 2 cycle when you do the math. One store charges $16 for them bottles of 2 cycle, the other $6.20. One store is $6 cheaper on the summer chain oil in the gallon jug. I only buy the summer stuff because I don't cut in the freezing cold. It's odd buying in USA units as in them bottles (1 quart=946 litres), 20 l jug of gas takes 400 ml of oil, so after two fills, you have this odd fraction of oil, instead of 200 ml left.  It's even decimal fractions when mixing gallons with ounces of oil. You end up with a fraction of an ounce, too complicated to keep track of. :D

[stavebuyer]

Picked up a couple jugs at our local Farm & Fleet yesterday for $7.99 a gallon jug. Two gal jugs were priced at $14. Thankfully, I had enough on hand pre-covid that I was able to stay on the sidelines during the price gouging.

Probably should pick up a couple cases before the next manufactured crisis hits.

[chep]

I bought a case of 4 gal the other day for 11$ a gal. Brand is April? Canadian I believe. There's a store called Dad's4x
locally carries it.