Non-petro chainsaw products?

[rmihalek]

Pure castor bean oil has been mixed with gasoline for a long time to make pre-mix. Smells great when it burns. Just keep track of carbon build-up in the muffler and top end.

So, you can have veggie oil in the oil tank and bean oil mixed with gasoline in the mix tank.

 

[Pilsnaman]

tried it

I tried the veg oil thing for my bar over a year. While I didn't notice any additional wear the oil is thinner then petro, had to slow down the flow considerably. Also, it did seem to be more difficult to clean, creating a sticky film of oil and dust. Don't know if I just needed to clean more often.

 

[Tree Machine]

I think you get a sticky film of oil and dust no matter what oil you use. Try cleaning the saw when the saw is warm. I find that helps. I appreciate you having tried the veggie, Pisna. The environment is a bit better for it, as well as the inside of your home and laundry area.

I ran out of veggie the other day, Nick refilled my bar oil tank with bar oil, which was already partially filled with veggie. It did OK.

While petro oil changes viscosity from cold weather to warm, veggie does not. The flow characteristics don't change noticibly until well below sub-freezing when vegetable oil changes from liquid to a semi-liquid that still flows, but it looks different. Once in a warm saw, however, it's liquid as usual.

Speaking of this last point, Clearance mentions about veggie, "when it is hot it is not thick enough, not enough tack." In having used both bar and veggie, each for a number of years through all the seasons, I seriously question whether you need 'thick'. I even more greatly question the need for tack. What you NEED is a continuous flow of lubricant, creating a very thin film between two smooth metal surfaces. With or without tackifiers, the oil spins off the bar. That's really hard to dispute. Tackifiers are important in a great number of industrial applications, but on a bar and chain, at the high speeds we run, I think the idea of tack is more valid than the tack itself.

You can order a sample of tackifier designed for use in bar oil for chain saws (as I've done) and add it to regular veggie oil to create tackified veggie oil (as I have done). Guess what? The bar and chain stayed lubricated. Does that mean tack is necessary? Using straight veggie oil, no tackifier, the bar and chain also stayed lubricated. Does that mean tack is not necessary? I guess mebbe it boils down to whether you like your oil sticky and slippery (and trust me, tackified veggie oil is more expensive), or off the grocer's shelf and just slippery. I really don't think it matters much to the saw. All it cares is that the oiler mechanism works and is pumping lubricant when the chain is spinning.

 

[clearance]

I tried the veg oil thing for my bar over a year. While I didn't notice any additional wear the oil is thinner then petro, had to slow down the flow considerably. Also, it did seem to be more difficult to clean, creating a sticky film of oil and dust. Don't know if I just needed to clean more often.

TM-I guess whatever works, I don't want to turn down my oiler, want the gas to run out first as well. I'll just stick with the good old Husky or Stihl oil for now. Winter oil, summer oil, winter tires, summer tires, sweaters, t-shirts no big thing.

 

[ShoerFast]

These fine folk have some Canola based bar oil.
http://www.familyforests.org/goods-services/eco-supplies.shtml

Very Fine folk indeed.

Check there mark-up on there "care" for the envorment!

Non-Petroleum Bar and Chain Oil
"VFF stocks one-half gallon jugs ($8.00), one-gallon jugs ($15), and five-gallon ($60) containers of the bar and chain oil."

At nearly twice the price of convintional, there trying to hurt more then help.

Kevin

 

[Mr_Brushcutter]

We run 2 vans on Bio diesel using 50% veg oil 50% diesel in the winter and 75% veg oil 25% diesel in the summer. Its about a 50% cheaper to fill a Ford Transit up with the stuff.

We compost all the rubbish or cut it for for logs for sustainable fuel. We use bio-degradeable (vegtable) oil in the saws. Haven't found a subsitute for petrol yet you can't mix vegtable oil with it yet. We also use E-Tech where ever possable! Also try to stick to buying Husqvarana products because they publish a lot more enviornmental policy than STIHL.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Blue Ridge-do they not sell summer and winter oil where you are?.

Nope. Local Stihl dealer doesn't even know it exists. In fact, they sort of let me know what an idiot I was for questioning them. They're a sorry bunch at that place.

I'm sure somebody around here has it, but not the 3 nearest Stihl dealers.

 

[Tree Machine]

TM-I guess whatever works, I don't want to turn down my oiler, want the gas to run out first as well.

I appreciate you bringing that up, Clearance. I've heard a couple others mention that.

I have never adjusted my oiler up or down, ever. Summer, Winter, no change from the factory settings. Gas always runs out before the oil.

Like I said, I appreciate you bringing that up as a concern, though if you had actually tried it, you would see that it's really a non-issue.