Bar Oil, How often do you change yours?

I've heard of adding STP and other substances to used engine oil to make it sticky. I can only remember the STP, forget the other ones. I'll stick with bar oil bought on sale; I load up at sales.

 

I remember back in the day early 60's dad running 30 weight motor oil in the David Bradley chainsaw. There wasn't regular bar oil. He would buy the western auto brand. Here's the instructions from my 1963 Homelite manual.

 

So, Aside from what oil to use, and how often to change it, how do I go about clearing the "Maintenance Required" light on the dashboard of my chainsaws?

 

But it doesn’t say used, clapped out motor oil will be fine...
I used non-specific oil (specifically Mobil DTE) for milling once. I still have that bar but it’s currently unusable. I learnt the hard way. YMMV.

 

Turn the key to on/alt and back to off 9 times while hold the left directional to on.
That should clear it.

 

Yeah, but that’s on a husky. For us Stihl owners, it’s backwards so right signal and I thought it was only 7 times, and you gotta have the door open while resetting it or it will just show right back up.


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What I don’t see the point in is spending money on synthetic bar oil.
Its going to be on the bar for a milla second and get slung off.
Idk I just don’t see the advantage in it for the extra money.

 

Mobile DTE oils are used for pressure lubricated gearboxes with precision ball bearings, like the headstock of a metal lathe. Lacking in both viscosity and tackiness for bar oil. No wonder.

 

IDK. I use winter weight and summer weight in daws and air tools on sale it’s cheap enough.

 

Hindsight is always 20/20.
I use the tsc stuff and pick it up when on sale.

 

Yeah, where freedom was won.
Still 14 bux everywhere else

 

I seem to remember by father using used motor oil as bar oil in his saw. Don't know if it caused him any lasting problems, but I do remember intuitively thinking that it was the wrong decision. Particularly when I knew the source, that being used motor oil he got from the repair shop that was part of the motorcycle dealership he owned. Man, there would be some nasty oil coming out of machines people brought in for service. But, that another story.

I've always used the Husqvarna or Stihl bar oils, whichever was cheaper on a given day. Will have to try the Countryline brand at some time though.

 

This was always in the house when I was a kid. Not my photo but I still have the old cans.

 

So with all this discussion I have a question.

If the bar oil is in the saw so long that you need to change it, do you actually need a chainsaw ?

 

What else would there be to put on the shelf? Knick knacks??

 

What was the chain speed back then?

 

Max rpms was 6,500 on my Homelite C5. In comparison most of my Stihls are around 13,000.