Bar oil quality

[Sberry]

How much difference is there in the quality of bar oil?

 

[sandman2234]

I am sure that there are differences, but as a kid at the age of 12, we started cutting a lot of trees that were ringed by the previous owner. We made firewood out of them and the only oil we used was 30wt oil. Nowadays, the oils have "better" lubrication, and cohesion to stick to the bar. I knew an older guy who only used "used" motor oil on his bar, right out of his lawnmower after it came out of his pickup truck. He never had a lot of bar wear, so I guess any oil is better than none!
David from jax

 

[ArlyA]

Good question! I've wondered about that myself. Since chains run us the most cost of operating saws, we just use the Stihl stuff.

 

[Cycledude]

There are actually a few different blends of bar oil around here, winter, year round and summer, since I’m from Wisconsin where it can get very cold the only bar oil I will buy is supposedly designed for year round use.

 

[ArlyA]

We use summer and winter oils by Sthil. I looked at the 20-30 stuff and thought it was to thick!

 

[Fxfymn413]

I ran used motor oil in mine for years until friends gave me such a hard time for being so cheap that I switched to bar oil. I never noticed any difference between the two.

 

[Doughknob]

I ran used motor oil in mine for years until friends gave me such a hard time for being so cheap that I switched to bar oil. I never noticed any difference between the two.

I mix any bar oil with used motor oil. My Husky binds at the tip if i use straight bar oil.

I used motor oil in my old craftsman for years and did wear the bar so much that it would not cut straight.

 

[Captain Dirty]

Back in there day (c. 1960) my father had a McCullough I-43 that had a hand (thumb pushbutton) oiler. I had been told the chain should leave a stripe of thrown oil so I dutifully pumped gallons of a 50-50 mix of new SAE 30 and used crankcase oil with maybe a cup of kerosine thrown into the gallon jug during winter or when we had a lot of pine. No problems that could be attributed to lack of chain lube.

The chainsaws I have bought, Stihl and Husky, have auto-oilers that have never had the factory settings adjusted. I now run Stihl chain oil, but during an oil crisis my dealer sold me a pail of "rock drill oil" claiming it was the equivalent (and the only stuff available). The newer oils are more tacky than motor oil, and the stripe is nowhere near as prominent, but still no problems attributable to lack of chain lube.

 

[ericm979]

Some newer saws put out less oil than the old ones did. So they need better bar oil. Dedicated bar oil has tackifiers to make it stick to the bar better.

I've seen arguments that some of the bar oil gets sprayed out in fine droplets by the chain and the operator breathes some. That's one of the reasons for using vegetable oil. And a good reason to not run used motor oil with it's carcinogens. Also dirty used oil makes a mess of the saw.

Another advantage to vegetable oil is that is breaks down in the environment better than mineral based oils. If it wasn't for the problem of vegetable based oil gumming up the chain and oil system if it's left in the saw for too long I'd try it.

 

[PILOON]

I am sure that there are differences, but as a kid at the age of 12, we started cutting a lot of trees that were ringed by the previous owner. We made firewood out of them and the only oil we used was 30wt oil. Nowadays, the oils have "better" lubrication, and cohesion to stick to the bar. I knew an older guy who only used "used" motor oil on his bar, right out of his lawnmower after it came out of his pickup truck. He never had a lot of bar wear, so I guess any oil is better than none!
David from jax

A guy I knew ran a tool rental and supplied oil and gas mix with each rental.
Being a frugal type he bottled automatic tranny oil for the saws.
Never had issues that were caused by that used oil.

The main difference between 'chain oil' and other oils is that they seem to have added a component to make the oil CLING rather than fling.

 

[Rockbadchild]

How much difference is there in the quality of bar oil?

i always use the manufactures oil … and summer oil during the summer and winter one for the winter … you could use regular oil like 10/30 but i wouldn’t recommend used oil since it’s viscosity is already depleted

 

[deserteagle71]

Back in there day (c. 1960) my father had a McCullough I-43 that had a hand (thumb pushbutton) oiler.

Back in 1980 I bought a Homelite Professional chainsaw that had the same type of thumb pushbutton oiler. Used to cut a lot of firewood - dry, dead juniper - with that saw every year, using only old motor oil. Worked just fine - but the trick was to have the automatic oiler (this saw has both) turned up all the way and then in addition keep pumping the manual oiler the whole time while cutting dry dead wood. Kept the chain well lubed and the bar cool. Still have that chainsaw but it is big and heavy so I use it only when I have big (24"+diameter logs to cut). I have other smaller, lighter chainsaws for most other cutting but they do not have the manual oiler so I use only dedicated bar oil in them.

 

[wawajake]

I use my used hydraulic oil from my kubota tractor and RTV , no problems past 4 years.

 

[jeff9366]

The saw flow rate of bar oil is important.

If you will be cutting dirty wood fairly often, turn up the bar oil flow rate so dirt is more completely thrown off the chain with oil. Turning up the flow rate won't cost more than a few cents, relative to how quickly your chain will dull if dirt is carried around and around with a sparely lubed chain.

Instructions for turning of the bar oil flow rate are clear in Stihl operator's booklets.

 

[Captain Dirty]

. . . If you will be cutting dirty wood fairly often, turn up the bar oil flow rate so dirt is more completely thrown off the chain with oil. . .

My understanding is that the factory set rate is such that, starting with a full tank of fuel and a full tank of bar oil, the saw will run out of fuel before it runs out of bar oil. If you adjust the rate, be mindful of how much oil may be in the tank; cutting without oil could be calamitous.

 

[Sberry]

I was wonderi g if the Stihl was better than the loggers choice? I had a bud said they ran them side by side and big difference in wear.

 

[ArlyA]

We use summer and winter oils by Stihl. I looked at the 20-30 stuff and thought it was to thick!

The stihl bar oil sure are sticky and they get quite thick when the temps go down. I swear the summer oil wouldn't flow below 30! So sticky strings of it would go over a foot long when poured in. As someone else stated, its formulated to do that. So when we are still working on trails in the fall and/or winter, we switch to the lighter stuff in blue jugs. Like I stated earlier, bar oil doesn't cost much when compared to chains and we only use 1.5 gallons per year.

 

[RalphVa]

I really doubt that bar oil is nothing more than probably 30w lube base oil with nothing in it. It's almost exactly like the 30w oil that came off our dewaxing unit.

 

[AchingBack]

I really doubt that bar oil is nothing more than probably 30w lube base oil with nothing in it. It's almost exactly like the 30w oil that came off our dewaxing unit.

The last jug of bar oil I bought is labeled 30W with an additive for better adherence.

 

[s219]

I really doubt that bar oil is nothing more than probably 30w lube base oil with nothing in it. It's almost exactly like the 30w oil that came off our dewaxing unit.

Proper bar oil has additives to make it tacky. You should notice it is very "stringy" when pouring. When you lift the bottle away from the saw it should pull some long strings and be a bit messy. Certain gearcase oils and machine oils will show similar tacky behavior. It helps the oil stick to surfaces.