I'd certainly like to hear about other experiences with this stuff. If
our group can afford it on an ongoing basis I'd love to get away from
the petrochemicals as much as possible. Our shop always has that
grease smell, which is mainly coming from the rags that are hung to
dry. (And right now those rags are just going into general garbage
when they're done.)
That said, we use Liquid Wrench to unstick stuff, and while it's a tad
nasty-smelling it really does an excellent job of unsticking seized
cups, etc., especially if left to sit overnight or for a few days.
Finding a plant-based solution to that may be harder, though granted
we use very little LW compared to chain lube (we actually use winter-
weight chainsaw oil) and bearing grease.
Mark Rehder - Coordinator re-Cycles Community Bike Shop http://re-cycles.ca
On 4-May-11, at 10:13 PM, joshua muir wrote:
At the Bike Church, as Ann said earlier- we've used the bio-lube for
years- used to get it from Troy Boone who "invented it". We've
often speculated that it is similar to bio-diesel. It is much less
smelly, and works well. slight gumminess, but not bad. The stuff's
not cheap, and we've considered investigating further with the local
"green station" biodiesel producer to compare notes-josh
On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 5:59 PM, Beth & Josh Goran <crookedriverrecyclery@gmail.com
wrote:
Phil Bio-Lube and Pedro's ChainJ come to mind, if you've not tried
them already. Both are chain lubes. I wouldn't say that either of
them are the best chain lube I've ever used, but they do okay and
are both biodegradable, if memory serves.Certainly different plant-based oils have very different properties.
Flax (linseed) oil for example is known to be a highly polymerizing
oil, which is why it's used in paints and the like. Good to season a
cast-iron skillet, too, but such properties may be either helpful or
harmful for different uses.I'd be curious to see how butter. ghee (clarified butter, doesn't
need refrigeration [especially as a lube!] so wouldn't get so funky
as butter), or coconut oil might hold up as chain lube...the solid
oils don't oxidize and gum up in the same ways that something like
olive oil does, and therefore might work better. Refining oils can
also change things dramatically. For the worse in food, but might be
for the better in this case.Josh
Crooked River Recyclery Kent, O.
"All Bikes! All People!"