[HN Gopher] Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws
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Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws
Author : meristohm
Score : 29 points
Date : 2021-12-04 21:29 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.fs.fed.us)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.fs.fed.us)
| hahamrfunnyguy wrote:
| I've been lubricating my chainsaw with vegetable oil because one
| of its uses is chunking up wood for my smoker.
| capekwasright wrote:
| Tangentially related: Boston Dynamics' BigDog, which utilizes
| hydraulic actuators, would constantly leak hydraulic fluid while
| operating, be it through normal weepage or catastrophic leaks
| (e.g. burst hoses). Initially, they used petroleum-based
| hydraulic fluid, but as they began to operate out in the woods
| etc, this proved to be untenable, so they eventually switched to
| using a vegetable-based hydraulic fluid that would biodegrade
| within a month.
|
| Bonus: when catastrophic hydraulic leaks inevitably occurred and
| sprayed hot hydraulic fluid over the hot exhaust, you would be
| rewarded with the lovely smell of a deep fryer!
| buildsjets wrote:
| The hydraulic autopilot steering system in my boat uses a
| biodegradable soy-based hydraulic fluid, and it's at least 20
| years old. Similar non-marine products are readily available on
| amazon.
|
| https://www.pocomarine.com/shop/garmin-tr-1-biosoy-hydraulic...
| FredPret wrote:
| The more traditional kind of dog leaks all the time as well
| herendin2 wrote:
| They refer to 'thousands of gallons of chain-and-bar oil...
| carried into the forests' every year
|
| Is this quantity significant?
| [deleted]
| xhkkffbf wrote:
| Or does it matter that the petroleum came from the forests, the
| deserts and some underseas equivalents? Petroleum is a natural
| thing.
|
| There are no doubt problems with the refined versions of
| petroleum but natural oils have issues too.
|
| The right solution might still be to ban petroleum oils from
| this job. But it seems foolish to pretend they are any less
| natural than vegetable oils.
| sonofhans wrote:
| It's true that literally everything on Earth is natural by
| definition, either naturally-occurring or produced by natural
| forces like erosion or beavers or humans. But that's
| tautological, and not interesting.
|
| Refined petroleum does not occur naturally and is toxic to
| all life. Vegetable oils are produced by stepping on or
| chewing nuts or vegetables. There is no comparison.
| wyager wrote:
| > Vegetable oils are produced by stepping on or chewing
| nuts or vegetables.
|
| Not really. Rapeseed/Canola oil in particular involves
| extensive use of solvents, bleaches, etc.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfk2IXlZdbI
| sonofhans wrote:
| By "significant" I take you to mean, "causing enough harm to be
| noticeable." I don't know the answer to that.
|
| Consider that chainsaws are only one of many polluting tools
| that people use in forests, e.g., snowmobiles, generators, of
| course cars. There are many non-petroleum pollutants as well,
| like lead ammunition and trash. I believe it's a useful
| practice to reduce harm from each of these as much as possible.
| That reduction might come from banning them outright to small
| changes like using vegetable oil as chainsaw lube.
|
| The opposite approach is requiring harm to be demonstrated by
| each of these small things in order to encourage or require
| change. This has gotten us roughly to where we are now, with
| much wilderness in the country despoiled by human practices.
|
| All of us are better served by being conservative in this
| context: by intentionally doing the least harmful things
| possible, and looking for ways to improve.
| ralusek wrote:
| Being pedantic, any quantity >= 2000 would be "thousands",
| so...maybe?
| markdown wrote:
| The article talks about "canola based oils". Has anyone used just
| plain canola oil to do the job?
| lyjackal wrote:
| I've been using only canola oil for my chainsaw for the last 3
| years. No problems so far. I use it about every 2-4 months
| stopagephobia wrote:
| This does not jibe with my experiences or anybody I know's
| experiences, I think it needs more development. I've had friends
| who used vegetable oils then they dried out or worse turned
| rancid and gummed stuff up. Especially bad if a tool is left for
| a while, or in a hot place, though I guess this is not so much a
| problem in Europe. This doesn't seem like a significant enough
| problem to justify that anyway, "thousands of gallons" across a
| continent is not actually that much.
| sp332 wrote:
| The article says it's not straight vegetable oil, but
| lubricants "based" on vegetable oil, specifically with
| additives to address oxidation (going rancid).
| agumonkey wrote:
| Reminds me I used a drop on a ThinkPad x60 noisy CPU fan. It
| held long enough. Not that this anecdote means much.
| nkurz wrote:
| When you say they used "vegetable oils", do you mean they used
| a vegetable oil bought from the grocery store, or that they
| used one of the blended biodegradable oils specifically made
| for chainsaws?
|
| I've used both the Stihl Bioplus
| (https://www.stihlusa.com/products/oils--lubricants-and-
| fuels...) and Husqvarna XGuard
| (https://www.baileysonline.com/husqvarna-x-guard-bar-chain-
| oi...) for a couple years now, and have no complaints other
| than the price. I do occasionally switch to back to mineral oil
| when I run out, so perhaps this has helped me to avoid
| problems.
| galago wrote:
| Christmas tree farms. They plant tiny forests and cut down
| every tree, running saws for many hours. I grew up near
| Christmas tree farms in Western Oregon, and its an odd but
| significant agricultural activity in certain areas. Over
| multiple plantings the amount of oil sprayed around could cause
| issues. In the area where I lived some farms have converted to
| wineries, so that somewhat marginal land does get converted
| back to food production.
| JohnJamesRambo wrote:
| If you read the article it isn't just the thousands of gallons,
| it is also breathing petroleum aerosols, etc.
|
| These foresters seem to have good experiences with it-
|
| https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=90186.0
| dwighttk wrote:
| Have any studies been done on breathing vegetable oil
| aerosols?
| stopagephobia wrote:
| We'll probably get some solid observational data, due to
| the rise of vaping, but that will take a few years.
| userbinator wrote:
| If you look at history you'll find that animal and plant oils
| were used as lubricants for a long time, but were replaced by
| petroleum specifically because of those problems you noted.
| analog31 wrote:
| Indeed, gas engines probably drip or exhaust more oil.
| Certainly 2 stroke chainsaws.
|
| There's a rumor among cyclists that "3 in 1 oil" is bad for
| bikes because it contains vegetable oil that gums up. But
| cyclists will debate about oil for days.
| dehrmann wrote:
| Same with guitar players and fingerboard oils. Use mineral
| oil because it's food-safe and won't go rancid. Same reason I
| use it on my cutting board.
| sva_ wrote:
| Wait a moment. Mineral oils are food-safe?
|
| Don't they accumulate in the body and act as endocrine
| disruptors?
| stopagephobia wrote:
| To my knowledge it can absorb a little through the skin
| but not through the intestines though more than a little
| will give you the shits something bad.
| buildsjets wrote:
| Mineral oil is commonly used to coat/maintain butcher
| block cutting boards, and as a storage coating on high
| carbon knives. It is recognized as safe by the FDA when
| produced according to food safety guidelines and quality
| control.
|
| https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/
| cfr...
| buildsjets wrote:
| Cyclists debate about oil for days. Cycle mechanics just use
| WD40.
| robbrown451 wrote:
| Using some Mazola on my chainsaw because I can't find or didn't
| buy proper oils sounds like a typical thing I'd do (that people
| will shame me for but I don't care)
|
| Admittedly my chainsaw is a small cheap electric one, but still.
| Unsurprising to me that it turns out it is ok to use what I have
| on hand.
| JohnJamesRambo wrote:
| This is absolutely fascinating. Never thought of using this.
| These are the kinds of stories I come to HN for.
| qbasic_forever wrote:
| Could you engineer a chainsaw that doesn't need lubrication?
| Maybe a dynamic tensioner that pulls the chain taught instead of
| riding on a frame? Or what about rethinking the design entirely
| and using a long screw with cutting teeth all along it (no metal
| on metal moving parts)?
| nradov wrote:
| Some of my scuba diving friends go ice diving in Canadian lakes.
| They use chainsaws to cut access holes through the ice, and
| always lubricate those chainsaws with vegetable oil so as not to
| contaminate the water with petrochemicals.
| wyager wrote:
| Didn't even know that was a thing! Will have to look into
| getting the cert.
| sowbug wrote:
| My paper shredder's user manual recommends* periodically
| shredding a paper with oil drizzled on it for lubrication. It
| says vegetable oil is fine.
|
| *At least, it did until I shredded it.
| dehrmann wrote:
| This surprises me; vegetable oil gets sticky as it oxidizes. I
| would have expected something like mineral oil.
| dubyah wrote:
| I don't know about other manufacturers, but Fellowes brand
| shredder oil is just expensive canola oil.
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