Reclaim Cutting Oil
To reclaim cutting oil, put it in a milk carton, add a small amount of
water, let the sludge settle for a few days, then put it in the freezer.
The water will freeze and the oil will rise to the top. Then, all you have
to do is pour the oil off.
(Please forgive the editor for not remembering the source of this
interesting, little article.)
Paul Cinnamon and Max Burkhalter were asked if they had heard of
this reclaiming method.
Paul said, "Yes, I have heard about that process, but I have never used
it. I'm certain it would work fine with small saws.
"I use a process that calls for a 5 gal. plastic bucket and two brown
paper grocery bags, one inside the other. Place a large flower pot
up-side-down on the inside bottom of the bucket. Place the doubled
brown paper bags on top of the flower pot and pour the used oil into
the inner bag. After a few days, only the sludge will be in the paper
bags, and the oil will be almost as clean as it was when new. Dispose
of the bags.
"One reason I use this process is that it requires about 55 gals. of oil
to fill all of my saws. My 24" saw alone holds about 32 gals.
Whenever the oil in one of my small saws gets dirty, I usually pour it
through the bags and dump the reclaimed oil into one of the big saws,
then refill the small saw with new oil.
"I usually try to clean one of my big saws once a year, but, for no
more cutting than I do, they can usually go several years before they
get full of sludge. Cleaning one of the big ones is usually at least a
half-day job, and pretty messy."
Max said, "I haven't had to clean one for a long time, since I haven't
been doing any sawing, as of late, but I used to let the sludge settle
down to the bottom, dip the oil off the top, then scrape the sludge off
the bottom and discard."
Paul said, "I have used that method, but I believe you will have a
higher percentage of oil recovery, plus cleaner oil, by using the paper
bag method. I sometimes use the siphoning method to skim the oil off
of the top, if I haven't run the saw for a couple of weeks. The oil on
top will be pretty clean after the sludge has had a couple of weeks to
settle out. But you are going to get quite a bit of sludge, if you dip or
siphon down to the surface of it, and you are still going to leave some
reusable oil trapped within it. That way is fine, especially, if you don't
have the room for a 5 gal. bucket to sit around for a couple of weeks,
to give the oil time to filter through the bags."