Vegetable oil as machine lubricant?

[DDoug]

Clarified Butter all the way.....

 

[john.k]

To comply with conditions of various government contracts now,you have to use vegetable oils in hydraulic systems......one time on a local council job that had 'waterways and wetlands specs' ,I blew a hose and the council engineer was on site .......he says" I assume thats the correct oil" ,needless to say ,I said yes.

 

[asdf]

Can one treat vegetable oil to prolong oxidation and deter living organisms, prevent going rancid? All that without making it toxic as well?

ns

 

[Joe Gwinn]

There are a number of commercial cutting oils that are purely vegetable oil based, but not necessarily edible (being cheaper than edible oils). Disposal is also cheaper than for mineral based cutting oils In tropical countries such as India, such oils are cheap and easily sourced, so there is much interest in their possible use. Neem and Karanja oils are the main contenders in what I've read.

 

[Joe Gwinn]

Funny You should say that. I had a colleague, an older guy, a toolmaker, that swore on using boiled animal (mostly lamb) fat as tapping lube. Once he had to make a new batch of the thing, and the process of cooking was totally awful and smelly, but once he packaged it into small containers, it didn't smell at all, nor did it smell during use at all, I was surprised. One small 20ml container lasted a long time and it did "better" job then some really expensive tapping lubes.

That's interesting. Rendered lamb fat is very thick, more so than lard, and I can easily see lamb tallow being useful for tapping.

I imagine that the old machinist's processing step consisted of melting the tallow is boiling water, so all the non-oil parts (like proteins and carbohydrates) dissolve in the water, which is discarded. There is a similar process lard. Like wise turning butter into ghee. Removal of all the non-oil parts makes the result shelf stable.

I'll have to try this next time we have lamb - there is always a bunch of lamb fat to discard.

One can also make one's own tallow. I would guess that Duck fat would also work.

 

[Scruffy887]

Clarified Butter all the way.....

Clarified butter is also Ghee. Great for cooking as the solids that make the smoke are gone. Higher cooking tenp without smoke.

 

[Fizzy]

I use veg oil as chain lube for chainsaws. Works very well - very cheap and good for the environment as well. The only drawback is that if you leave the chainsaw for a while it becomes gummed up. The chain won't budge. You then have to spray the chain in WD40 and pull it around with a gloved hand to free it back up again. Last thing you would want on a lathe or mill.

 

[Scruffy887]

Get the veggie oil in bulk and run it so often it does not gum up. But run it through only once to a holding tank for your diesel trucks.

 

[triumph406]

I use slabs of bacon as way wipers on my lathes.

US or Canadian bacon?

 

[triumph406]

dries out more quickly then mineral or synthetic oils.

Mineral and Synthetic oils dry out?? Learn a new thing everyday

 

[asdf]

Mineral and Synthetic oils dry out?? Learn a new thing everyday

Ok, what's your point?

ns

 

[TedinNorfolk]

Funny You should say that. I had a colleague, an older guy, a toolmaker, that swore on using boiled animal (mostly lamb) fat as tapping lube. Once he had to make a new batch of the thing, and the process of cooking was totally awful and smelly, but once he packaged it into small containers, it didn't smell at all, nor did it smell during use at all, I was surprised. One small 20ml container lasted a long time and it did "better" job then some really expensive tapping lubes.

regards,
ns

We quite often have roast lamb-must collect some of the fat and try it for tapping

 

[GregSY]

If we don't remove petroluem base oils from our machine tools, our precious planet Earth will cease to be inhabitable within the next 3 years. This is a real problem. Now....where's my $15M grant so's I can study this further?

Toxicity? lol. The MAJORITY of medicines you eat are pettroleum based. And many, many foods also contain petroleum. The finest skin care products are petroleum based.

The issue is the toxicity of modern-think wherein people are being trained on how and what to think. Imagine...grown adults believing 'organic' products are superior to anything non-organic.

 

[Lewie]

Grandpa used to use Crisco for tapping. Worked really well and didn't stain aluminum.

About 70 years ago (early to mid 50s) the shop foreman at the place I worked told me that very thing. I haven't seen a can of Crisco in many years. Is it still around. :-)
...lew...

 

[Lewie]

Can one treat vegetable oil to prolong oxidation and deter living organisms, prevent going rancid? All that without making it toxic as well?

ns

:-) If it'll kill bugs , just how healthy for a human can it be? :-)
...lew...

 

[projectnut]

Back in the 1960's I worked as a painter in a Fisher Body plant while going to school. They had dedicated compressors to provide breathable air to masks or hoods worn in the paint booths. The compressors were multi hundred hp piston types in their own building. They were lubricated with some type of vegetable oil to keep the painters from inhaling petroleum mist should there be some blowby. It was almost mandatory to take a shower after your shift unless you didn't mind smelling like a French fry on the ride home.

They had multiple compressors that were rotated out for maintenance. As I recall the mechanics hated to work on them because they were difficult to clean and needed more than twice the maintenance of the compressors lubricated with petroleum-based oils.

 

[SteveEx30]

I use slabs of bacon as way wipers on my lathes.

I just spit my coffee out. Thanks for the laugh!

 

[EmGo]

I haven't seen a can of Crisco in many years. Is it still around. :-)

Ha ! Now we know you buy your pie crust ready-made !

Yes. At least Safeway and the ironically-named Cost Cutter still carry it.

 

[Thunderjet]

Clarified butter is also Ghee. Great for cooking as the solids that make the smoke are gone. Higher cooking tenp without smoke.

I have ghee in the fridge always.
I just used it Wednesday to make a curry for some friends.
It's very handy to have around the kitchen.

 

[FamilyTradition]

I once worked in a shop that had a tool grinding machine that used rapeseed oil as a cutting oil. I'm sure it had additives and detergents in it to reduce polymerization of the oil on every surface of the machine, as I don't recall too many problems with the oil getting caked on everything.

If you've ever worked in a restaurant, especially one that serves lots of fried food, you know how much veggie oil can cover every surface imaginable, and then some.

The folks that run their old diesels on veggie oil sometimes have problems, I've not experienced it myself, but I've heard horror stories of fuel lines and filters plugged solid from poorly executed/maintained veggie oil conversions.