Vegetable oil?

[Rich]

I was wondering if anyone has tried this on their flex shaft? I did some searching only to find one or two mentions of it. I am making an auto oiler for my next project but I want to keep my lake somewhat clean. Any thoughts/ input?

[m4a1usr]

Cant fault you for using the ole brain pan. It may be possible for Vegetable oil to provide sufficient lubricity without common additives known to be in petroleum products. I had an old web site saved that had done some rockwell standard tests for durability but its now dead. Too bad as it was a good reference for most commercial products. What the heck. Try it out. You should know pretty fast. And I applaude your interest in caring for our water ways.

John

[dana]

ive used vaseline lol

[Rich]

Thanks John! I live in an area where we get many many offshore boats with twin motors here in the summer, plus I love to fish so I would like to do what I can to keep it clean. I'll give it a shot and see, hopefully someone has tried out and can give me some feed back. I know Steven has mentioned using it before on a Thread.

Dana, which vaseline did you use? And did it work?

[dana]

Just some store brand petroleum jelly. It did work... Or let's say, it didn't fail lol

[pescador]

Castor oil is supposed to be good for oilers and environmentally friendly, there was a thread about it here or on IW but I haven't found it yet. :)

[Snowride]

I work in hydraulics and it is a requirement to use eco friendly (biodegradable) oil when we work over or near waterways. Guess what this magic very expensive eco stuff is. Vegetable oil!! Sure they have added a few additives but for shaft lube on a RC boat, any store bought vege oil will suffice.

[siberianhusky]

The only negative I can see is in increased maintenance. Over time vegetable oils will oxidize and gum up, you'd want to make sure you cleaned it out after running.
Most people won't remember the castor oil based nitro fuels, if you left some fuel in the tank or corners of your model over time it would turn into a rubbery glob, or worse if you didn't run your engine dry it would collect in the bearings.
Personally if there were already full sized boat traffic at your running spot I wouldn't bother, one 2 stoke outboard starting up will dump more oil in the water than your rc boat all summer! PLus the lovely under water exhaust pumping all that unburned 2 stroke oil right into the water. Not to mention absolutely no pollution control on the full size boats.

[martin]

I know some use chainsaw bar oil which is quite sticky obviously so it dosnt get flung off the cutting blades, they also do a biodegradable version. I have the non bio one which works quote well & is reasonably priced for a litre & easy obtainable.

[LuckyDuc]

Caster oil is enviro safe and a well documented lube. I buy SIG brand caster.

[Rich]

I work in hydraulics and it is a requirement to use eco friendly (biodegradable) oil when we work over or near waterways. Guess what this magic very expensive eco stuff is. Vegetable oil!! Sure they have added a few additives but for shaft lube on a RC boat, any store bought vege oil will suffice.

Thanks for the post! I think Ill give it a try at first and see how it goes, Ill let you guys know what happens.

Castor oil is supposed to be good for oilers and environmentally friendly, there was a thread about it here or on IW but I haven't found it yet. :)

If you can find the thread about it that would be great! I am just looking for options and will see what works best.

Siberian, I thought about that and I agree with you, my little boat would be nothing compared to what others put in the lake, but hey, veg oil is cheaper plus any gas station prob has it on their shelf. I also use it for fishing on occation so it will be handy anyway. Thanks for the reality lol.

[runzwithsizorz]

?Someone?, ?Somewhere?, on these forums did set one up, and stated he was only losing a few drops of oil per run. IIRC, he was using gear oil of aprox. 60, or 80 weight. I like the idea of vegetable oils, and the like, and am curious as to what
the comparable weight would be? Seems if it were too thin it would tend to run out the shaft a lot faster. As to Siberians' comment on oxidizing, and gumming up, I personally, have always thought it a good idea to thoroughly clean my shafts every
fifth run or so. I have purchased, and am about to install an auto oiler on one of my boats that has rails. Weather it works or not, I'll at least have a good looking, adjustable shaft support, (the cup, unscrews).

http://vaportrailsrc.com/R-C-Boat-CNC-Anodized-T-Bar5-16-tube1-4-cable-ast5.htm

[Jeff Wohlt]

Chainsaw Bar Lube works great. Used it for some time and so does the cheap Dollar general Brand Motor Lube Honey....very slick stuff. Bar Oil stands up well to high rpm but you can imagine why.

[martin]

The prob i think you could get with veg oil if theirs any temperature on the drive line as some get ecspecially if you dont have a teflon liner is the heat thins the oil. With chainsaw bar oil its designed to work at high temps & still remain sticky. Re castor this is the main oil we use in the UK for lubing the strut bearings in tethered ic hydros.

[domwilson]

With just thin oil, wouldn't there be some water leakage up the flex tube?