Richard J Kinch wrote:
larry moe 'n curly writes:


I have an unopened quart of NAPA #209500 mineral oil for old car air
conditioners that use Freon R-12. I can't find any information on it,
but is it OK to use in air tools?


It won't especially hurt them, but it is a little too viscous, and lacking
any plating or anti-corrosion additives that are good things to have in air
tool lubricant.

I agree - I wouldn't toss or recycle it, but I wouldn't put it in air
tools either. As one other poster said, a quart of air tool oil lasts
years for most folks and it's really cheap as well as designed for air
tools. What you have is designed for lubricating compressor parts. If
you want an alternative use for it, use it for compressor assemblies or
bearings or something similar.

I'd use it for soaking cruddy small parts that I want to take apart and
don't want to muscle too much like 50 year old brake cylinders or
something. You could also soak old wrenches & stuff in it to either
remove crud or, for example to loosen up frozen cresent wrenches. WD40
is also good for that, but rather than buy a gallon or quart of it, use
what you have as a soak instead of 'oil'.

My guess is that your first clue what to use it for is that it's a
mineral oil. Compare other mineral oils to it and come up with something
useful to do with it. I would also think it'd be a little thick for air
tools since it was originaly designed to be mixed with something a lot
lighter.

Cheers,
- Jeff G