Bar & Chain oil

[Michael]

Two things always go past my mind on these bar oil discussions;
1. Guys don't trust the used car oil to work in their $200 saw with a $20 oil pump when they have just taken it from a $15,000 car with a $200 oil pump. Anyone that thinks the tollerance in a saw oil pump is tighter than a vehicle oil pump is just plain wrong.
2. I bet half of you that say " I don't want that suspended metal from used motor oil in on my bar/chain", file your chain on the bar. Talk about metal filings!

[lmbeachy]

Michael; you do shed some new light on the discussion.

[jjmk98k]

Picked up four  1 gallon jugs of Husqvarna "low temp" bar and chain oil at a local flea market this past saturday for $4.00 a gallon.

[maple flats]

You know, it never dawned on me that i was hurting the bar or chain by filing the chain on the bar. It sure sems valed. BUT I get great life from my bars and I have always filed on the saw. I must say that I sometimes wear a chain faster that i think it should, this might be the filing in place causing that. But I likely will continue because the time saved more than pays for the chain I need to replace. I may be looking at it wrong but that is how i see it. As far as bar oil I have always used the heavy weight low price bar oli and if it need thinning for real cold temps I use a little kerosene or deisel if I don't have kero. I have always found that the biggest wear factor IMHO was hitting dirt or cutting into a rotten log, which dulles the teeth instantly and also seems to wear the chain linkage at the rivets, likely the bar too but bars have not been a problem for me. I do file bars, regularly clean the groove and use a rail closer when needed and as soon as needed.

[inspectorwoody]

How else are you to file a saw chain with a round file if not mounted on the bar attached to the power head? Obviously you are going to take it off if you are using a bench grinder but how are you suppose to sharpen your chain in the middle of the timber during a harvest? I can't believe they would market a stump vise just because.

[jokers]

Two things always go past my mind on these bar oil discussions;
1. Guys don't trust the used car oil to work in their $200 saw with a $20 oil pump when they have just taken it from a $15,000 car with a $200 oil pump. Anyone that thinks the tollerance in a saw oil pump is tighter than a vehicle oil pump is just plain wrong.
2. I bet half of you that say " I don't want that suspended metal from used motor oil in on my bar/chain", file your chain on the bar. Talk about metal filings!

Hi Mike,

I generally value your experience and opinion but I see the problem as being the suspended carbon and possible chemically corrosive stuff in used motor oil as being the real culprits that make the use of used motor oil false economy. Another factor is that the lubricity of the oil is generally diminished by the time it is removed from service and used motor oil is a known carcinogen so I can`t really understand vaporizing it on my bar & chain and introducing it to the air I`m breathing. Just one of my two cents.

As to filing on the bar, sure there are a ton of metal filings that could wear the bar and chain but obviously they don`t go backward into the oil pump. I also believe that those metal filings are mostly thrown or scrubbed off with the first rotation of the chain and that the particle size is too big for them to take a reverse path into the oil clearances on a bar or chain while the saw is in use. Neither will filing on the bar cause a concentration of sulfur in the oil tank. Food for thought  eh? On the other hand, I suppose that $200 dollar saws probably have chemically inert plastic oil tanks?  ;)

[Nikko]

We experimented a bit last year, using petroleum based oils and vegetable based oils for milling (home made Alaskan style). We'll run through 1/2 gallon a day with no trouble and started to feel a bit guilty about flinging the petroleum stuff everywhere, thus the investigation to the vegetable stuff.

We found a product by these guys Green bar lube and put it to the test.

Without a doubt the bar/chain ran cooler with this product, and not just by a little bit. It took some fiddling to get the flow rate from the aux oiler and when all was said and done, we used a bit more veggy oil when compared to the petroleum based stuff.

But our bar required far less attention over time, as did the chain. We didn't fling the stuff everywhere as we'd initially thought we would and felt a LOT better about the odd inevitable puddle we left behind. 

You pay more for this stuff, but I just bought a 5 gallon pail as it's so hard to come by - the local shop keeps selling out and the factory is having a tough time keeping up.

Not affiliated (at all) etc. etc. etc...
Nikko

[arojay]

Re-used motor oil?  I hear this quite often, mostly from guys who are running an old homelite with manual oiler, cut about 3 cords of firewood a year and are still using the chain they got with the saw back in '75.  What I always wonder is, if this used motor oil is so good, why not just put it back in the engine it came from?  Another couple of cents.

[oldsaw]

Bought 3 gallons of Husky oil from my local hardware emporium/Husky dealer who went out of business.  I'd have bought more, but it was only slightly less (only had quarts) than what I pay per gallon for Quaker State.  Still not much of a deal.  Back up to 8 or 9 gallons, and I gave one to Dad.

I guess I never paid attention to the color of the Poulan oil.  I just noticed that the stuff in the short gallon bottles was much thinner than the stuff in the older tall gallons.  Don't like it nearly as much as the old stuff. 

Mark

[sawguy21]

It usually is more expensive in the smaller containers. We can only get Stihl medium in 1 litre containers, everything else comes in 4 litre jugs.

[jjmk98k]

lots-o-milage out of this post

[dundee]

Interesting topic, mills downunder are using Canola oil for their band blades, comments are: less change of blades per shift, the blade lasts longer and less build up of resin on the teeth and gullets , I have never been game to use Canola in my chainsaw though

[sawguy21]

Hunters here use it in the saws for quartering moose. I really don't think I want to try that. ;)

[MrJim]

no, oil is not oil. 

Too thin and it will not flow to the bar, as it will find a crack and leak out on its way to the bar.

Stihl does have bio-degradeable oil, tho I have not tried it.

Now in semi warm weather is Stihl worth the difference between them and poluan?  Not sure.

Now oil is one thing Stihl does not make,  but if it is too cheap, it might be worth what you paid.

Why couldn't someone just use vegetable oil - kinda like using biodiesel in a truck?  Oil is oil for bar lube, right?