Bar & Chain Oil Source

[Blue99]

Interesting info contained in a link posted by Buster, on the main forum - one of the sources of base oils for bar & chain oil formulations is the rinse used to clean out lines of blending & packaging equipment.

Unlicensed Motor Oils - Lube Reports Article

The article is describing how some questionable quality, SA motor oils appear on the market:

quote:

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James Taglia, president of Nor-Lakes Services Midwest in Hugo, Minn., and currently president of the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association, Alexandria, Va., also pointed to the problem of “line wash.”

“We buy several hundred gallons of line wash every year, which we use for bar-and-chain applications, a legitimate usage,” Taglia said. “However, we understand some marketers are simply relabeling line wash as engine oil, which is not an ethical usage. Consumer education will not address this issue; it has to be addressed at the manufacturer level.”

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[The_Jeff]

quote:

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“To promote consumer education, API provides educational aids to improve understanding to the engine oils system,” Bachelder said. “For example, the engine oil shelf card explaining car model years covered by each API category is available free as a download from www.API.org.”

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Yet I've never seen this shelf card, and highly doubt it would be shown at places selling obsolete/subgrade oil. My cars have the oil weight on the cap and API grade on the dipstick. Pretty easy; though there's room for both on both places.

 

[Blue99]

but here, eljefino, is a Link to the API Shelf Card-Guide

What was interesting to me was the reference to "line wash" as a base for bar & chain oils.

I've often speculated that this is the same reason, a home for off-spec, rinse, or the left-overs from quality program samplings, that Amsoil carries a synthetic bar & chain oil in the catalog.

 

[The_Jeff]

Ok, I stand corrected, I have never seen that shelf guide outside of BITOG

I'm not the typical consumer you need to reach with that API info. I am glad they aren't wasting "flush" oil. Odd that 5w- and 10w- base oils are winding up in 30wt bar & chain oil but there's probably some other cheap industrial byproduct that they use to thicken it with.