Yeah - I like to thin out my bar oil with about 1/3 ATF for milling. It helps keep the links oilier for the long round trip through the cut. If you're going to use an aux oiler, I'd use straight bar oil in there. But, you may find you don't need it if you thin out the oil.
Hmmm... I would have thought all 90 cc saws already had ho oilers. Also, I would have thought that thicker, undiluted oil would stay on the bar and chain longer. Hard to argue with real world experience.
When you're crosscutting, you're doing most of your cutting with the bottom of the bar; so a sticky oil helps to keep it from slinging off when it rounds the tip. When you're milling, the bar stays "buried" the entire time, dragging both sides of the chain through the cut. If the oil is "sticky" it gets rubbed off quicker. It's not my trick, I learned it from "Chainsaw Lumbermaking" by Will Malloff.
Ok, now I need to go start a thread titled "which ATF to use to thin my bar oil" and see how many pages of stupid responses I can get I lied, save me that trouble. Do I just use the cheapest stuff I can get? Dexos? DexronIII? Thank you!
Chainsaw milling is certainly fun, but it's definitely laborious and messy. One thing I've found that can make it a little easier is to lay a tarp on the ground on the discharge side (aka the powerhead side). Every two passes or so, pull the tarp and dump it somewhere. Makes for easier cleanup....
I've seen it cut with diesel and home heating oil, both cheaper than atf. Its like a winter bar oil but thinner. My band mill only turns 3800fps+- and I mix 50/50 bar oil and home heating fuel. Keeps costs down, best lube combo ive used yet. A good atf I'm sure has much better lubrication/shear qualities compared to kerosene diesel etc. but I doubt people use the 7-9$ a quart stuff anyway.
My buddy is a mechanic. He saved me a gallon from the last trans flush he did. Is used ATF ok to use Shawn Curry?
I've never tried that, but I'm not too picky about the ATF I use - I just get whatever's cheap or at the store when I need some. I imagine it would be fine, just dirtier. I suppose what precisely is in that dirtiness could be a concern. Suspended metal bits in the trace amount of oil left on the lumber, if not removed during surfacing, could rust under a finish. When I Googled it, I found a bunch of stuff about using as a diesel substitute, so I suppose it can't be that bad?
