On Wednesday, February 14, 2018 at 5:55:28 PM UTC-5, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"rangerssuck" wrote in message
...
On Wednesday, February 14, 2018 at 10:52:20 AM UTC-5, Larry Jaques
wrote:
On Tue, 13 Feb 2018 20:50:03 -0600, Ignoramus14057
wrote:

I bought a very large geat cutting machine for scrap. This machine
is
sitting in a pit full of oil. I spoke to the person who maintained
it
and he says that the oil is only lube oil and NOT cutting oil.

I have a oil fired furnace Clean Burn CB2800. I burn all my oil,
mostly used hydraulic oil, in it to save on natural gas costs. The
instruction to the furnace says "DO NOT USE CUTTING OIL". I am not
sure why exactly, either the furnace will be damaged or due to
environmental regulations.

Regulations or not, some oil additives or contaminants may end up
making nasty fumes that you may end up breathing. Lab tests for oils
are cheap - $28 from this place
https://www.blackstone-labs.com/standard-analysis.php I'm sure you
could find a place in the Chicago area to do it, and then you'll know
for sure what you have.

============================

According to this
https://www.blackstone-labs.com/spec...of-the-lab.php
they can test only for elements that correspond to fixed slit
positions (wavelengths) in the spectrum. The elements of interest in
engine oil come from the gears and bearings and aren't all the same as
in cutting oil. I would ask them if they know and can test for the
additives in cutting fluids, such as halogens.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emission_spectrum
"On a simple level, flame emission spectroscopy can be observed using
just a flame and samples of metal salts. This method of qualitative
analysis is called a flame test. For example, sodium salts placed in
the flame will glow yellow from sodium ions, while strontium (used in
road flares) ions color it red. Copper wire will create a blue colored
flame, however in the presence of chloride gives green (molecular
contribution by CuCl)."

I learned spectroscopy on an instrument built in the 1930's that
projected the spectrum from the sample onto a glass plate negative.
-jsw

Point taken, but that's just one lab. This place https://polarislabs.com/testing/oil-analysis/ can test for all sorts of things, including Sulfur in Oil.

Of course, rather than having a bunch of rcm folks speculating, the thing to do would be to call the heater manufacturer and ask them how to tell if the oil is OK for burning in their unit, and what the reasons are for not allowing cutting oil.

And Iggy, why haven't you scrounged a mass spectrometer for under fifty bucks? I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were junked regularly by schools, government labs, etc.