karaffa - 5-5-2004 at 08:52
Hey what kind of oil do you guys use for your oilbaths ?
Tacho - 5-5-2004 at 10:57
Nothing beats a heating mantle. You can built one using a fiberglass tube and a NiCr coil. See here:
Otherwise, silicone oil.
Organikum - 5-5-2004 at 11:18
Cooking oil - cheapest. I always add some granular potassium chloride so I can put a RBF in without fixation.
axehandle - 5-5-2004 at 17:01
I agree. When melting sugar based rocket fuels, I've always used cooking oil -- corn oil to be precise.
peanut oil....
Hermes_Trismegistus - 6-5-2004 at 01:11
is what I'd started using because I'd heard a rumor that it had the highest smoke point of any of the common oils.
I do know that the residue seems to clean up easier than that of the heavier corn oil.
But I never actually bothered checking until now....here's a link for the various smoke points of the different oils.
But all the major labs use silicone oil.
http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/home/143
For my money, I would skip the messy oil business and go right to the new enviornmentally friendly zinc shot.
It is cleaner than any of the oils, and it comes in an easy pouring canister.
Availibility would depend on where you live.
[Edited on 6-5-2004 by Hermes_Trismegistus]
Organikum - 6-5-2004 at 04:54
For what is zinc-shot used?
axehandle - 6-5-2004 at 06:03
As a replacement for lead shot in shotguns, it's supposedly more environmentally friendly (which is FUD, lead in pure form isn't really
harmful to nature).
unionised - 8-5-2004 at 07:47
Are you sure about that?
Have you checked, for example, with any of the waterfowl in the area?
http://www.trumpeterswansociety.org/washington/lead.htm
When it comes down to it, just about any oil would work fairly well, the only problem is the fact that some of them get a bit flammable when they are
hot. I have heard of people using molten metal baths but a lot of the alloys seem rather toxic.
[Edited on 8-5-2004 by unionised]
axehandle - 9-5-2004 at 13:49
Ok, I was probably wrong. Or perhaps, felt threatened, since I do a fair bit of target practice shooting myself, on an outdoors firing range.
Admittedly with a .22 competition pistol and not a shotgun, but that's no excuse.
Poor swans.
eck!
Hermes_Trismegistus - 10-5-2004 at 13:01
P.S. I didn't know this but after looking in that list of lead alternative's I noticed Zinc Shot conspicuously absent..
Apparently, it isn't approved in some states, and perhaps not in europe too.
It has fantastic ballistic performance in comparison to steel but according to this website (trying to sell bismuth shot) may be somewhat toxic to the
ducks.
http://www.eleyhawkltd.com/Bismuth1.htm
axehandle - 10-5-2004 at 13:06
There are difficulties involved in all lead substitute ammunition: The propellant has to be adjusted, the casting technique modified.. etc... all
leading to a very hefty price increasement in ammo. Personally, I wouldn't mind. E.g. tungsten projectiles would be great, but they would need a
much higher propellant charge. All ballistics have to be recalculated as well.. but nevermind.
unionised - 16-5-2004 at 13:25
OK, zinc is rather toxic to use as amunition and (just to cause abject panic among environmentalists) bismuth is radioactive.
Given that "lard" would have been a reasonable answer to the original question,(and silicone oil is good if you can afford it) is this
thread getting anywhere?
axehandle - 16-5-2004 at 13:30
I think not, unfortunately. I've already shared all my oil experience.
Organikum - 16-5-2004 at 14:00
Yes, the thread got to the point that bismuth is told to be radioactive what I doubt to be true. It is usually founf together with radioactive ores or
gases but itself is not.
At least I thought this being true.
The oil - yep cooking oil and dont try to use braking fluid - this stuff starts to evaporate like hell at much lower temperatures and will coat you
lab all over.
(But it works well as radiation scavenger in microwaves!)