Waste motor oil as bar oil

[Backyard Lumberjack]

Sorry buddy I don't see the correlation here. Mystic is a well know oil supplier, of which I used on heavy equipment for years. If their bar oil is junk, so is the pennzoil you run in your truck. Engine oils have to meet API standards in the US. Bar oils are nearly all based off a 30 weight oil with a tackifier added in. I've seen zero evidence that a stihl labeled bottle protected a bar anybetter then a super tech brand. I'm not into paying for a name when it's getting drenched over the wood I'm cutting.

thanks for the tip! i do like STP... i could maybe add it to my diesel bar lube bottles....

lubricity is the key...

....... lubricity is the key

...................lubricity is the key!!!

 

[GeorgiaVol]

Curious if the need for "better" oil has anything to do with the faster chain speeds of today's saws. Old school saws had a hell of a lot more grunt, but ran a good bit slower.

 

[SimonHS]

The thing with used engine oil is it has many carcinogenic compounds and elements that have been produced by the combustion process & wear of the internal engine components, most try to avoid ingestion or contact that sort of thing. ^^^^^This! The cost is irrelevant compared to your health. Just shop around for the best bar oil deal you can find, and stock up when you see it on sale.

 

[sean donato]

Curious if the need for "better" oil has anything to do with the faster chain speeds of today's saws. Old school saws had a hell of a lot more grunt, but ran a good bit slower.

But are they all really faster? We've had high speeds for quite a long time. The 346xp has been a 14 to 15k rpm saw for years and even the bigger saws have been over the 10k mark for quite some time.

 

[GeorgiaVol]

Looking at pre 90s saws, the typical max RPM was sub 10k
Now the typical is 13,500.
Pretty big difference.

 

[Philbert]

Here is a question though:
Say you get up Sunday morning and are loading up for a half day of cutting up your neighbor's tree that fell over, but find out your bar oil bottle is empty, and you forgot to buy more. Is there another product you could use in a pinch to get you through the day?

Just drain it out, and flush through some dino oil when you are done. It can harden up / polymerize over time.

30 weight motor oil is the alternative that saw manufacturers used to recommend.

Philbert

 

[sean donato]

Looking at pre 90s saws, the typical max RPM was sub 10k
Now the typical is 13,500.
Pretty big difference.

Yeah I'm in agreement, just were talking 20ish years at these chain speeds now, surly by now there's either been optimization of the oil or the manufacturers have decided what they have out there is adequate for the job.

 

[OM617YOTA]

well, i subscribe to the case that... in general, some lube is better than none! except for engine oil pans, as some usually is about as worthless as none! i also subscribe to the case that... a chain saw is an extreme duty tool! and ranks right up there with FOD on the deck of an aircraft carrier! and tip wheels help, but many bars are sliders. i have tried a mix of TSC bar lube and gear oil... did fine. but i prefer the good stuff. however, if i made my living cutting wood with a saw, i prob would be influenced by what the other lumberjacks were using...

View attachment 923259

I'm a fan of the better stuff, when there's some ROI. I run Tru Fuel for a reason.

With bar oil, there isn't. The only difference is in my bank account, not for the bar and chain.

 

[GeorgiaVol]

Bar temps with various bar oils?
Sounds like a job for Project Farm.

 

[GeorgiaVol]

Bar temps with various bar oils?
Sounds like a job for Project Farm.

Nm.
Already did it. Lol
Edit: thought so, but it was just chains. Not chain SAWS

 

[sean donato]

Nm.
Already did it. Lol

I was just about to agree then saw your post

 

[Huskybill]

They do offer an extra oil tank for milling.

 

[GeorgiaVol]

I put in a request to ProjectFarm. Lol

 

[wcorey]

This thread begs the next question...
Can I run bar oil in my car...? ;^}
You know, in a pinch...
lol...

 

[GeorgiaVol]

This thread begs the next question...
Can I run bar oil in my car...? ;^}
You know, in a pinch...
lol...

Project Farm DID answer that question.

 

[GeorgiaVol]

 

[OM617YOTA]

I've burned bar oil as fuel in my Yotazilla. I keep my bar oil in a gas can, needed the can for something else suddenly and made do with what was available. Didn't want to burn much of it, no clue what the tackifier is and what it'll gum up. Half a gallon in a tank of diesel burned fine.

 

[maowwg]

That’s an interesting point about breathing the oil. I’m sure there’s all kinds of oil in the air when you run a bar and chain at speed Had not thought of that. And if half burned oil is unhealthy it might not be good to put it in the air.

But isn’t that what a 2 stroke does? Fill the air with burned and half burned oil?

Is the exhausted oil from a car engine worse than the exhaust oil from a 2 stroke?

Not trying to be a jerk. Serious question. Is car oil really that dirty/gross/dangerous?

Full disclosure so folks don’t think I’m just baiting the discussion. I gotta flush cut a bunch of stumps and I’ve rebuilt a $25 Poulan 2550 to take that beating. Don’t expect the chains or the bar to fare well at all. Saw may not survive either. There will be grit and dirt and mess. So I got to thinking that clean oil would not make much difference in all that dirt and then I got to wondering what difference it makes with really cheap bars and chains....hence the post.

 

[GeorgiaVol]

You are basically talking about $1-2 of bar oil.
Why not just use the correct fluids?

 

[Philbert]

I gotta flush cut a bunch of stumps and I’ve rebuilt a $25 Poulan 2550 to take that beating.

Let us know what you find out from your experiment.

Philbert