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[Allen]

I have a 14" Lortone slab saw that is used 5/6 days a week for at least 1 hour a day.

Material cut is mostly Agate, Jasper, Chert and Thunder Eggs all from my beloved Agate Creek, North Queensland.

I have been using a Castrol white oil but recently added about a gallon (approx 4L) of used gearbox oil.

Oil consumption seems to have dropped and best of all the mud is dropping out and forming on the saw base.

I bag the residue in paper lunch bags and in a week all usable oil has drained, the residue is then hard and ready to dispose.

There are more experienced cutters than me, what is the best saw lubricant/cooler? 

 

[Ranger_Dave]

I am by no means an expert.... What weight/viscosity was the gearbox oil? From what I've seen is that saw oil seems to be on the thin side. I have seen many experts recommend food grade mineral oil. I just looked, and from what I could find that mineral oil is about a 70 viscosity. Seems kind of thick to me.

[Allen]

Dave the base oil used is food grade.

The problem is the residue just accumulates in the oil and its difficult to separate.

The addition of the heavy grade gear box oil hasn't seemed to change the overall viscosity to any extent.

[Ranger_Dave]

I wonder how adding the heavy gear box oil changed how the particles are suspended? Maybe it's some kind of detergents or other additives in the gear box oil?

[Back]

Hi Allen

If you know the kind of gearbox oil that you put in it would help a lot. I should be able to figure out some thing at work. I work in industrial maintenance and i talk to oil experts on a semi regular basis.

Bless
Shawn

[Allen]

The oil is ex automotive workshop, a friend gave me a 20 L container, so plenty left.

Shaun it may be a mix of brands but all vehicle gear box maybe dif. I expect it is full of elements to settle any metal shavings that does occur as gears wear. Works a treat on mud.

[peruano]

But . . .  what does it smell like, and how hard is it to remove from your specimens?  Mineral oil is so nice because it has no oil odor, it is actually good for my skin, is nontoxic, soaks off 95% in oil dry clay and the rest washes off with no residue.  I can't think of any automotive oils gear box or crankcase that would do any of these as well as the mineral oil.  My rock residue sinks out with a few hours of tranquility until it is just so heavily charged that it forms mud.  I can't imagine gear oil doing better.  BTW the mineral oil that most folks seem to use is horse laxative (since we are dealing with a continental separation - me in North America and you in Australia - I decided we need to go to basic English and forget regional technical terms).  I do know that the human mineral oil that I buy at Walmart has a higher viscosity than the horse laxative from the vet or ag store.  Maybe horses are more sensitive.  I hope this helps and hope I'm not covering ground that has been covered too many times for you. Cultures separated by a common language. Tom 

[Slabbercabber]

When I ran my first slab saw outdoors I used 30 weight engine oil and wore gloves.  It worked just fine but made a mess around the saw and sludge did not settle out well.  I attribute that to detergent used in engine oil.  Transmission oil may not have detergent.  Gear oil does not have any.  It is essentially the same same thing as Bardahl smoke out or STP - just thick oil.  It will be a bit harder to wash off but not so much as to be a problem.  As long as your oil remains thin enough to cool the grit interface I think you are fine.

[Phishisgroovin]

only thing i use is horse laxative mineral oil.
But its expensive lol

[Stonemon]

This is all I use. Non-toxic, no smell, cleans up easy and reasonably priced.   http://www.scahealth.com/mineral-oil-light.html
I always order 4 or more gallons and it shows up in a few days, free shipping.   
Bill
(I run it in my 24" Frantom and my 12" Lortone slab saws)

[Back]

Gear oil is a lubricant made specifically for transmissions, transfer cases, and differentials in automobiles, trucks, and other machinery. It is of a higher viscosity to better protect the gears and usually is associated with a strong sulfur smell. The high viscosity ensures transfer of lubricant throughout the gear train. This is necessary since the devices needing this heavy oil do not have pumps for transferring the oil with only a portion of the lowermost gears bathed in an oil sump. This heavy oil can create viscous drag leading to inefficiencies in vehicle operation. Some modern automatic transaxles (integrated transmission and differential) do not use a heavy oil at all but lubricate with the lower viscosity hydraulic fluid, which is available at pressure within the automatic transmission.

Most lubricants for manual gearboxes and differentials contain extreme pressure (EP) additives and antiwear additives to cope with the sliding action of hypoid bevel gears.


Gear oil being added to the final reduction gears in a scooter.
EP additives which contain phosphorus/sulfur compounds are corrosive to yellow metals such as the copper and/or brass used in bushings and synchronizers; the GL1 class of gear oils does not contain any EP additives and thus finds use in applications which contain parts made of yellow metals.

GL-5 is not necessarily backward-compatible in synchro-mesh transmissions which are designed for a GL-4 oil: GL-5 has a lower coefficient of friction due to the higher concentration of EP additives over GL-4, and thus synchros can not engage as effectively. Also, transmissions which explicitly call for GL-4 oil may have been designed around this lower concentration of EP additives and thus may contain yellow metal parts which GL-5 will corrode. [1]

API ratings[edit]
Gear oils are classified by the American Petroleum Institute using GL ratings. For example, most modern gearboxes require a GL-4 oil, and separate differentials (where fitted) require a GL-5 oil. It is important that purchasers check the oil against the vehicle manufacturer's specification to ensure it does not contain any aggressive chemicals that may attack yellow metal gear components, such as phosphor bronze.

API viscosity ratings for gear oils are not directly comparable with those for motor oil, and they are thinner than the figures suggest. For example, many modern gearboxes use a 75W90 gear oil, which is actually of equivalent viscosity to a 10W40 motor oil. Multigrade gear oils are becoming more common; while gear oil does not reach the temperatures of motor oil, it does warm up appreciably as the car is driven, due mostly to shear friction (with a small amount of heat conduction through the bellhousing from the engine block).

Hope that helps.
Bless
Shawn

[Jhon P]

Shawn that's a lot of info. What about the flash rating? Some oil will become volatile when you get misting in the saw. some of the old timers used diesel and had some fires. I have heard of people using automatic transmission fluid. And I think that it's flash rating is too high. I know a person that uses anti freeze. I would worry about the toxic vapors or having Pets around. That is why I stick with mineral oil specific rock cutting oil. I have used livestock laxative mineral oil when I run out in an emergency.
 I have been ordering rock cutting oil in a 55 gal drum and splitting it with a friend. That way we get the best price

[Allen]

That is some info you supplied there Shaun. My background includes industrial mechanical maintenance so its understandable.

The base oil I use is a human medicinal grade that comes in 20 L containers.

The addition of gear oil hasn't introduced any unwanted smells. It is a little harder to clean off slabs but marginal.

Looks like I need to keep watch on the wear of my blade as its sintered (yellow metal) any excess gear oil may have an affect.

[irockhound]

I was using Diala AX but wanted to move away from that.  My friend turned me on to Baby Oil which is a mineral oil and It works okay - but - it has 2 issues.
1st) is that it is so thin that the cuttings don't drop out of the oil and the sump looks dirty real quick.
2nd) it mists and I mean REALLY mists.  I can turn off the saw wait 2 hours and open the lid and it is like opening the top of a steamer.  And the fog just hangs in the shop.  Now the oil might be okay for your skin but lungs weren't meant to breathe it.  I walked in one night and the saw was running and a light was on, on the other side of the saw and I could see the fumes rising from the sides of the saw lid (18" Highland Park <- Chinese knock off from the new Highland Park which is not the original Highland Park.  I hated wearing a respirator just to go in the garage or change a cut so I added a bottle of STP oil treatment and now it doesn't mist but it stinks.

The good benefits of the oil is that it smelled great, slabs cleaned easy and when I filtered the oil though the brown grocery bags I got back about 50% of my oil.

I am wondering if the others using the Animal laxative Mineral oil have the mist issues.

[Jhon P]

I run out oil one time and needed to top off the saw. Run over to wall mart and had to buy enough small bottles of baby oil to get six quarts. Got some funny looks from a few people.  I gave them a goofy grin. The oil smelled great for a while