Use of mineral oil on hardware

el Ducko · Post by **el Ducko** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 15:33

To avoid both rust and oil spoilage, I use mineral oil.

After washing and drying thoroughly, pour a little on, then wipe off the excess. It's a whole lot cheaper than silicone spray, yet is food grade. Buy it at drug stores.

It's pretty versatile stuff. One other use is as an industrial heat transfer medium. I use it as such to boil my wort during beer brewing, to avoid hot spots and scorching. I use a flat pan, scatter six or eight cast-off Allen wrenches (left over from assembling cheap furniture) to hold the pot up off the bottom, then pour mineral oil in to fill the space between. This has improved the color of my beer significantly.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 17:22

Just remember that mineral oil is flammable. The flash point is pretty high.

el Ducko · Post by **el Ducko** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 18:53

ssorllih wrote:Just remember that mineral oil is flammable. The flash point is pretty high.

Actually, you have to get well over 600 deg F to ignite it. We used it in our chemical plants as a high temperature liquid heat transfer agent. It's sold by Monsanto as Therminol, and by Dow under the name DowTherm, among other producers. It should be used in closed systems to be entirely safe, but we always had leaks in our hot oil system and the stuff never would catch on fire until about 700 deg F.

The wort boiling application is at about 215 degrees against the pot, and on the fire side should not exceed about 300 degrees because of the huge heat sink (pot) a quarter of an inch above it.

So don't worry just yet- - the ol' duck has even spilled some into the gas burner on the RV stove where I brew. (Beloved Spouse won't let me brew in the house, due to the smell of hops.) Consequence: it puddled below the burner and I had to clean it up later.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 21:26

Dow-therm has a flame retardant in it. I use light mineral oil in my glass candles.

el Ducko · Post by **el Ducko** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 04:53

ssorllih wrote:Dow-therm has a flame retardant in it. I use light mineral oil in my glass candles.

We manufactured Therminol at Monsanto. ...no flame retardant added. DowTherm is the same way. I've used quite a bit in polymer processes over the years, especially at Celanese. (Yes, I've seen some fires in my time...! Mostly, though, it smokes.)

Here's an MSDS for the USP variety
http://www.online-msds.com/msds_warehou ... ?ID=147807
which quotes a closed-cup flash point of 379 deg F (so yeah, you could probably burn it in a "coal oil" lamp, but you'd be better off with a lighter grade), and a boiling range of 572 to 842 deg F.

It's a mixture, so you have a boiling range. The "IBP" of 572 is the important number, initial boiling point. The liquid system that we ran was a closed system, slightly pressurized, so we had our over-temp alarm set at 600 and trip at 620. The stuff was used for heat transfer fluid in all our bench scale lab equipment, too. Great stuff- - remains a liquid over a very wide range of temperatures.

There are quite a few varieties of mineral oil, so use the USP (food grade) variety found in drug stores to coat your equipment, not the oil lamp variety. ...especially if constipated!

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 05:38

Dowtherm "A" is a blend of biphenyl and biphenyl oxide from the Msds and Dowtherm sr-1 is basically ethylene glycol.

el Ducko · Post by **el Ducko** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 15:29

Please don't use Dowtherm A or SR-1 to coat your grinder plates! (I'm sure that's not what you intended to recommend.) In fact, don't use ANY of the other grades of Dowtherm or Therminol. None of them are registered as food grade.

There are many different types of these heat transfer fluids, all composed of different materials and formulated for different operating temperature ranges. The minimum purchase size is probably a 55 gallon drum (although you can obtain special samples). It's pricey, too!

Instead, use mineral oil (USP grade). You can buy it at drug stores in pint containers. My bottle label says "Mineral Oil USP, lubricant laxative." The United States Pharmacopoeia bit means that it is approved for medicinal use.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 19:01

El Ducko, We strayed off topic there with heat tranfer media and flammability. Whatever we use to inhibit rust we should be able to eat.

el Ducko · Post by **el Ducko** » Wed Feb 08, 2012 04:01

Yer right on both counts. My apologies to our readers out there in sausage land.

I made another batch of chorizo today, another batch of bratwurst, and had enough fixins left to make a test batch of hot Eye-tally-yun sausage. Will stuff tomorrow. WooHoo! WooHoo!

Blackriver · Post by **Blackriver** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 00:54

I just picked up some mineral oil from Walgreens for my grinder head, ginder plates, and knifes. I just want to make sure I got the right stuff, it says it is tasteless, odorless, and colorless. It also says it is a intestinal lubricant or laxative. Can someone let me know if I am right.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 01:24

That will serve. Also you can relax concerning any adverse effects, read the dosage recommendations.

Swallow · Post by **Swallow** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 01:21

I also use mineral oil, as a matter of fact I use it a lot. I use it on all of the wooden kitchen gear such as maple cutting boards, maple counter tops and walnut butcher blocks. The only thing that I do differently is I melt in 15% paraffin wax by heating the oil ALMOST to the smoking point, I then just dip the tools into the hot oil and then hang them up to drip dry. Mineral oil has been used to condition butcher blocks like forever and it gives the most wonderful waterproof finish.

Swallow

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 01:42

I use it for the oil filled glass candles. Baby oil is the same stuff but scented. Don't use that on food surfaces.