Recipe of the day: DIYSwede's microbrewed ISO 68-ish Way Oil

[DIYSwede]

Some of the manufacturers, sellers or users (on different sites) swear by Vactra ISO 68 for their lathe's bed & way use.
An excellent product, sure - but neither easily nor cheaply obtainable in a quart or litre bottle for an average Johan.
-Litre/ Quart bottles of this at your gas station? Forget it.

Companies buy them by the barrels, drums or 25 L canisters.
So how did I do it- particularly as I don't have any domesticized farmers or elevator service guys
in my small and diminishing social network?
Well, brew my own at home, of course. -Yup - You read the title, and now you want the goodies?
First some line of thought and facts!

Given that I've found an entire drum of clean, unused (but 40 years old) Shell Tellus hydraulic oil at work,
for most of my lube needs there,I thought along "putting some sort of thickening, adhesive additive into it"
to raise the viscosity from the original's ISO 32 to abt 68-ish,
but also to make it a lot less runny and much more "clingy" oil...
-So what additive would that be, then?
(Drum roll inserted here): Saw Chain Oil of course! Easily and cheaply optained just about everywhere -
thick, gooey and clinging to a saw chain whizzing thru logs and mothers-in-law fast enuff to get a speeding ticket.
I guess not many of you guys know the viscosity of that either? So I checked: Around ISO 125-ish, give or take 5.
So: Mixing the two parts together - what ratio should I have for reaching ISO 68? -Just wait - we'll come to that, eventually.

The vegans/ vegetarians/ sensitives or Algerians might want to flame me for this, but I don't particularly need any more biodegradable stuff (apart from myself) disintegrating, smelling or gumming up on or near my lathe: so I went for the cheap, crude fossil variant by relapsing: totally tripping out on a Spreadsheet OD:



Mystery solved (for my intended purpose and ingredients) - take 6 parts of Tellus and add 4 parts Cheap Saw Chain oil!
Tip if you're Really Cheap and Sneaky: Mix only 3 parts Tellus to 2 parts Chain oil, instead!
So - if you have vast amounts of thin oil and want to thicken that - take a few minutes and set up a spreadsheet like the one above and "get cooking":

There you had it - no fancy stuff - this time either! But then again - YMMV!

Thoughts, comments, corrections welcome.

Johan/ DIYSwede. Motto:"-Quick, dirty, cheap and operational!"

[Tuomas]

I would give extra thanks for the funny text if it would be possible.

[mklotz]

We don't need no steenkin' spread sheets. Let R be the percentage of Tellus required. Then (1 - R) is the percentage of chain saw required. With ISO 68 as the desired goal, this leads to an equation that looks like this...

32 * R + 125 * (1 - R) = 68

which, when solved, leads to R = 0.61 and, of course, 1 - R = 0.39

[NeiljohnUK]

Worth putting some aside in a sealed jar and checking for separation or congealing over a few months or years, some of the additives may also behave unpredictably when mixed, but if it works it works.

As an aside I use chain saw chain oil in my motorcycle scottoiler, why pay through the nose for the same stuff relabelled 1/2 to 1/10 the price! I also use miscible cutting fluid mix in place of their expensive FS 365, having found one that matches it colour smell and 'protection' wise from one of my commercial suppliers actual called ultracut 370 that cuts the cost to ~ 1/20 of the FS.

[DIYSwede]

Thanks, you guys!
@ Tuomas: "Eventual humor, irony or sarcasm found herein is entirely unintentional and purely incidental,
or can only be attributed to the reader's own wild imagination and/ or projections."

@ Marv: -Thanks for your brilliant equation! That said, at least I need spredsheets for whipping out the goodies
from a known set of facts real fast, as for me going thru the same math will take me much longer, & give a more unreliable answer.
Remember my motto above.
Math just isn't one of my few skills, and I guess I can count on you straighting me out when I stumble in the future?

@ NeiljohnUK: -Back in the eighties, for my TT bicycle, I used to lube my chain by oven-baking the cleaned chain in Saw chain oil @ 80 deg C,
let it cool in said bath (as to really impregnate its innards), let hang to drip dry for a day or two, then finally wipe dry and remount on bike.
Worked a treat for me, getting the oil IN THERE, rather than on the outside where it'll only smear and collect dust.
So I guess it should be just excellent for an MC with higher speeds, temperatures & link pressures than a bicycle will reach?
Haven't noticed any mixing problems whatsoever in room temperature or cold stored for at least two years.
Just you wait for some of these experiences from another of my concoctions in an upcoming post...

Next week will reveal another recipe from DIYSwede's Walk-in Closet Workshop Cookbook:
"DIY Thread-cutting lube from kitchen stove leftovers & some really old stuff found in the garage".
I'll probably take some researchers/ scientists as involuntary hostages, just to prove I'm not entirely full of BS.
Any smart-a$$ guesses from any whiz kid (of any age) reader will NOT be answered beforehand. So there.

[Scotsman Hosie]

We don't need no steenkin' spread sheets. Let R be the percentage of Tellus required. Then (1 - R) is the percentage of chain saw required. With ISO 68 as the desired goal, this leads to an equation that looks like this...

32 * R + 125 * (1 - R) = 68

which, when solved, leads to R = 0.61 and, of course, 1 - R = 0.39

What is that you are saying?

[mklotz]

What is that you are saying?

I don't understand your question. Do you not understand how the equation arises? Please clarify.

[benkeller3]

Since I do not have a drum of Shell Tellus hydraulic oil ... Wonder what would be a good substitute for it. Would any iso 32 oil work? Have lots of Stihl bar oil in the shed.

[DIYSwede]

@ benkeller3:
This whole "project" started from a leftover drum of just Tellus, really a thin hydraulic and spindle oil.
Fact is - it was the lathe (at my workplace) manufacturer's own recommendation as its way oil back in the seventies,
but most of it just seeps thru instead of staying to do its job on the ways.
Couldn't dig that, too messy - and as a benefit: the new, thicker stuff tightened up the worn ways/ screws a bit.

AFAIK, any light machine oil could be used, not only of ISO 32 grade - you just have to alter the proportions accordingly.
If you borrow Marv's excellent formula from the post above, for instance:
32 * R + 125 * (1 - R) = 68,
and just swap the first "32" therein for the viscosity of your chosen oil, I'd guess you'd be alright.

Math shouldn't be in the way of our enterprises - just an instrumental aid. Just get it in the ball park.
Perhaps you want it stickier? - Do a "freehand mix" and try it - add one or the other 'til you're fine.
Oil viscosity isn't brain surgery - temperature affects it directly and widely.
Is your workshop heated all year? Perhaps make a "Summer" mix and a "Winter" version?

Personally I wouldn't use motor oil, or just "any oil", that could gum up or otherwise be problematic.
Neither would I mix regular single grade with synthetic or "bio-degradable" oils.
"Environmental friendly" chain oil (or such saw fuels) seems to cause problems to some users, when left in their saws during off-season.
I don't want to risk gluing my lathe together, neither organically nor "bio-degradably", so I just stick to the old stuff.
The model engines of my childhood used castor oil - it certainly set. Linseed oil for wood decks & artist paint sets.

If you have vast amounts of saw chain oil, and want to dilute that as cheap as possible,
then you're probably better off than I would be in finding your local supplies of thin oil.

It's a great idea to check the MSDS of both your components, regarding your personal health also.

Remember- given my use of it, the 2 gallon supply of the stuff I made will last my entire statistical lifetime.

Good luck!
Johan//DIYSwede

[mklotz]

AFAIK, any light machine oil could be used, not only of ISO 32 grade - you just have to alter the proportions accordingly.
If you borrow Marv's excellent formula from the post above, for instance:
32 * R + 125 * (1 - R) = 68,
and just swap the first "32" therein for the viscosity of your chosen oil, I'd guess you'd be alright.

It might help if I generalize the equation and show how to solve it.

A*R + B*(1 - R) = 68

where A and B are constants representing the viscosities of the two oils being mixed.

A*R + B - B*R = 68

R*(A - B) = 68 - B

R*(B - A) = B - 68

R = (B - 68) / (B - A)

As a check, plug in the values of A (32) and B (125) from the original problem...

R = (125 - 68) / (125 - 32) = 57 / 93 = 0.619 = 62%