Refrigeration mineral oil -- OK for what else?

[larry moe 'n curly]

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?

[Richard J Kinch]

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.

[Lawrence Glickman]

I would toss it ( recycle ). What does air tool oil cost? Pennies. Is it worth putting this

*stuff* into your tools to save a dollar? Only you can decide. I wouldn't. I would throw it away and buy air-tool oil, which I have. A little goes a long way. A quart will last years.

Lg

[TURTLE]

This is Turtle.

You can use it to oil up freezer blower motors in refrigerators and freezer to keep the motor from freezing up inside bearing of the motor. Regular motor oil can freeze up and slow or stop the blower motors on a freezer blower motor.

TURTLE

[Bubba Kahuna (only 1 'J' in my]

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

[larry moe 'n curly]

That's more than my air tool costs.

[Bruce Chang]

However, that's not more than replacement air tools cost unless you're in the habit of getting things for free, in that case, sell an air tool and buy yourself some oil.

[Billy Bad Assr©]

certainly won't hurt!

BBA

[Stormin Mormon]

Refrigeration mineral oil needs to be used in a sealed system wtih no air or moisture. It absorbs moisture, and won't be good for your air tools. Likely to cause corrosion.

The quart of oil, it's been awhile since I bought any. Five bucks or so. Maybe you can find a shop that can use it, still some R-12 air conditioners on the road. I know... I drive one every day.

[Stormin Mormon]

Unless the oil absorbs a bunch of moisture. Then it might hurt.

[Matt]

It's very tasty on salad.

[Steve]

R-12 MINERAL oil does not absorb moisture. POE R-12 compatible oil (aka 'Ester oil') does. So does PAG oil for R-134a systems.

Still, air-tool oils have properties (anti corrosion, surface tension, seal compatibility etc.) that R-12 mineral oil isn't optimized for. I wouldn't use it in any air tool I cared about.