Chainsaw oil

[Darren]

Does anyone use vegetable oil instead of chainsaw oil to lubricate the chain? are there any disadvantages of doing so?

[davetb]

Hi,

I use veg. oil ( cheapest from supermarket ) in both my chainsaws. ( Husqvarna 357xp / Stihl ms192 )

I only trained in May but my trainer ( John Wingfield ) said he'd done this for many years with no problems.

He changed after seeing a report about how much oil a professional forester ingests in a year.

I can't remember the exact amount but it was about a pint.

I obviously haven't used it for long enough to give you a definitive long term view but had no problems so far.

The chain is always well lubricated and it lasts for longer than the fuel - when both tanks are full.

As far as I can see any potential disadvantages would relate to wear on chain, bar and sprocket - which should be picked up before it got too serious and at worst case can all be replaced.

The benefits to my health, the contamination of the woodland,having to carry around one less bottle and the price far outweigh the disadvantages.

Cheers, Dave

[Justyh]

Hi,

I can't comment on the ingestion aspect of things but I wouldn’t like to drink a pint of any of them. I have used cleaned old vegetable oil for over a year with no drawbacks and also had experience with Oregon BioPlus and Greenleaf Vegetable chain oils, which are both very good oils. Normal vegetable seems to flick a bit more than the branded versions but if you turn your oiler pump up then you shouldn’t have an problems.

I currently use the cleaned old vegetable oil for all my cutting including ripping which is very demanding on your bar, and all seems OK at the mow. As davet states if you should pick up on any potential problems during your regular checks before they become issues.

Cheers

Justyh

[Darren]

"He changed after seeing a report about how much oil a professional forester ingests in a year.

I can't remember the exact amount but it was about a pint."

Maybe we should use Omega 3 oil or Olive oil instead then? ;)

Thanks for your views I'll start using it as soon as I has ran out of regular chainsaw oil.

[mikepepler]

I've been using the branded bio-oil (stihl + oregon), which as I understand it is just veg oil, but perhaps blended from different types to give the right consistency and lubrication?

[greyman]

Chain oil 'fling' is a good reason for using the correct chain oil. Take a look at the link below for tech info:

http://www.gb-lubricants-fuels.co.uk/PDF/UNIBIO%20CHAINSAW%20OIL.PDF

Ordinary veg oil will 'fling' off the end of the bar during the cut - if you've ever seen the damage to a bar when there's poor oil supply to the pressure area under the bar you'll realise it's better to pay up for a good oil. While we're all thinking of the environment you might like to think of all the little bits of metal flaking off the bar when the surface breaks down and burrs form on the sides. You can also end up with wear in the grove making the chain tend to make curved cuts in the worst cases. I have done the 'use what you can find cheap' stuff during the 80's and 90's and had to pay up for ruined bars for my sins.

My word what a boring little man I've become......

[tracy]

Good training courses teach you maintenance of the bar, checking it for burrs, damage and bent bits. All this makes sawing so much safer and easier (and cheaper as you won't have to replace so many bars!)

I will continue my crusade to pursuade SWOG members take chainsaw training courses ;-)

Not boring to all Greyman.... strange what topics interest us these days! lol

[The Sawyer]

Hi every one as a proffessional woodland worker I would say that using branded oils i probay a better bet in the long term for the saw. as mentioned proper chain oil has and anti fling elemtent in it not sure what it is but this mean that the whole chain gets the benifit of the oil reducing wear on the saw and bar and chain, although as Tracy says proper training will teach you to maintain the saw and make for a much safer operator.

as far as the make of the oil is conserned I would suggest sthil although it is more expencive I have had experance of other makes nameley origon and the sthil oil geves less trouble over all. the main problem with origon oil is that if left on the saw can sieze up your chain (and if its a 24inch bar thats not fun).

others may have there own opinion on this which I await with anticipation.

ttfn

[mikepepler]

The other thing to make a bar last longer is to turn it over every time you maintain it, so it wears evenly on both sides. Of course this assumes the bar is symmetrical, but I think most are.

Mike