On Thursday, February 15, 2018 at 7:21:11 AM UTC-5, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"rangerssuck" wrote in message
...
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.

I know how to use electronic, chemical and mechanical test instruments
and grab whatever I see for sale, but except for oscilloscopes they
are -very- rare. I searched for an RF spectrum analyzer for many
years, then after finding one spent a couple more years looking for a
tracking generator to use it as a scalar network analyzer.

For some of them you need training and equipment to keep them
calibrated and prepare the test samples, too.

I learned this at a part-time laboratory job while in high school.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensile_testing

-jsw

I'm not trivializing the skill it takes to run this sort of test. I'm just pointing out that stuff like this often ends up in the garbage (rather than at an auction house) because either someone is too lazy or the institution doesn't have a mechanism for selling or donating excess equipment, but destroying it is easy.

That you have had a hard time finding the equipment that you're looking for is due, in some part, to the fact that you're not Iggy. He seems to have a real knack for this. After all, we're talking about a ton or so of oil that's merely incidental to a scrap metal purchase.