# Uses for old motor oil, etc



## tnborn (Mar 18, 2005)

I use my old motor oil to paint the inside and outside of the chicken house. It helps deter mites, lice an other nasty things that pray on my chickens. :clap: 
Also, I paint used trasmission fluid on my outbuildings to keep it from turning grey and deter termites.Sometimes, used oil depending what is available. I have sprayed oil for weeds just because it was handy and had lots of weeds.It killed them.99% of time I take it to the recycle place. Sometimes, I just need a touch up on some of my buildings.Any other uses for old oil?
tnborn


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## YuccaFlatsRanch (May 3, 2004)

can you spray it on ranch roads??


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## mamacags (May 29, 2004)

Fill a 5 gallon bucket with sand and pour in used oil. Then take your outdoor tools and stick them in there a could of times. It sands off rust and the oil prevents rust on them. The sand also sharpens the tools.


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## moopups (May 12, 2002)

Do not pour oil on the ground, 1 quart can contaminiate 180,000 gallons of ground water. Such action is criminial in my opinion. It is illegal to do such in Florida, hopefully every place where else also.


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## bachelorb (Oct 4, 2005)

I use old oil as chain saw bar oil. I've also used it to help get brush fires going


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## tnborn (Mar 18, 2005)

Hey Mitch, Are you saying that I am a criminal?  I sprayed it one time and I thought about the environmental after the thistles started dying.Good news. They completely died. So, I haven't sprayed anymore for weed killer.
tnborn


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## bretthunting (Sep 28, 2005)

put any old,uesd oil in an empty 55 gal.drum,put wood fence posts in on end that is going to be put in the ground on let them set for a few days and you will have "treated posts" at a lot less expense.


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## james dilley (Mar 21, 2004)

Pour it into stagnant water it kills the skeeters.


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## Jeff54321 (Jan 26, 2005)

james dilley said:


> Pour it into stagnant water it kills the skeeters.


..........and just about everything else that it comes in contact with. Pouring out USED oil anywhere on the land is poisoning your own backyard (and everyone else's). Also known as Shi**ing in your own mess kit. Used oil is one of the nastiest contaminants around. I was once a used oil spreader until I read up on the subject. That stopped me. Jeff


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

Where would you get Used motor oil. I just add and add. But it's blowan it all over. Maybe one day I'll have that problem.


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## james dilley (Mar 21, 2004)

The main thing that folks are not understanding is Oil does NOT wear out it gets Dirty. Therefore It can be,Cleaned and reused. Or you can get A tri-Atery burn furnace that will burn the oil with little pollution. But cleaning the oil is easy. You just bring it to A boil, And then add Lime , And stir, It will collect the impurities and they settle to the bottom and then you drain the oil into cans to use. I know I over simplified this but thats the basic way its done. The resulting slude is NOT burned but mixed with Asphalt for paviving. I used to have about 150 gallons of used Oil every year, The people around the house .Used it for there cars And to kill Mange on there pets. I would add Lucas oil additive to every oil change At the 15000 mile recomended intervals.. As recomended by Cat. Cummins And Detroit.


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## bgak47 (Sep 4, 2003)

I don't think it is a very good idea to use used motor oil in any way that it could get into the water table. I turn mine in to my local fire station for re-cycle.I used to use it to kill weeds along the fence lines, but I have changed my mind about that, & it has nothing to do with laws or regulations, & everything to do with my changing views about protecting the enviorment in small, but important ways. JMO. :grump:


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## jerzeygurl (Jan 21, 2005)

waste oil furnace, auto places will pay you to pick up their used oil even.


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## bgak47 (Sep 4, 2003)

My company has to Pay someone to pick up our used oil, but you can bet that there is a profit in it, or they wouldn't be doing it!


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## BaronsMom (May 22, 2005)

I can't believe people are admitting to pouring oil on the ground! 

Thank goodness some of us have "seen the light!" and are making better decisions!

At home, we save our oil in drums and then when the "recycle" oil wagon comes to town - we haul it down and empty into their tanks. The recycle wagon comes to town twice a year which is perfect, no muss - no fuss - no cost. 

Before the recycle wagon, several of the towns around us offer oil collection days - we just have to drive a little further - but still better than tainting my neighbor's water.

Check with your State's Environmental Protection Agency or local Extension office to see if there is a recycling program.


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## TNHermit (Jul 14, 2005)

james dilley said:


> T. The resulting slude is NOT burned but mixed with Asphalt for paviving.


I don't advocate pouring oil all over but if the sludge and all that is added to asphalt (oil granola) How can it be that toxic. ?? There is like what a Brazillion gallons of it on the roads.


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## East Texas Pine Rooter (Oct 2, 2003)

I use a cotton mop ,and mop it on my 16-foot treated lumber utility trailer. It helps the wood from drying out, and it is not kept under a roof.


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## Jillis (Sep 11, 2005)

tnborn said:


> I use my old motor oil to paint the inside and outside of the chicken house. It helps deter mites, lice an other nasty things that pray on my chickens. :clap:


Questions: is there a smell of petroleum after you do this? Gas and oil fumes are toxic and carcinogenic...do you use it on the floor or just walls? Bleaching the henhouse works pretty good---Spring and Summer, clean it out, lock out the birds and wash with a bleach solution...also using fireplace ashes kills parasites as well, seems less toxic?


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Stuff works great to start stubborn wood fire from scratch when wood is wet, frozen, etc. Liquid kindling I call it. Half cup or so works. Doesnt flash like lighter weight petroleum products (thats a very good thing) so you need couple wads of dry newspaper to get it to burning.. Course some common sense, like dont throw it in an already hot stove which wouldnt need it anyway. I swear some people can make anything dangerous.


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## tnborn (Mar 18, 2005)

Jillis said:


> Questions: is there a smell of petroleum after you do this? Gas and oil fumes are toxic and carcinogenic...do you use it on the floor or just walls? Bleaching the henhouse works pretty good---Spring and Summer, clean it out, lock out the birds and wash with a bleach solution...also using fireplace ashes kills parasites as well, seems less toxic?


I use oil on the door outside. Also, I use it around the nesting boxes, the walls and the floor in spring when the chickens are out. I don't have fumes because I air the chicken house.
Bleach has fumes too and is also toxic.
tnborn


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## OD (May 25, 2004)

We use it on all exposed wood around the barn instead of paint. It makes plain wood last twice as long as commercially treated wood.


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## Highground (Jan 22, 2003)

*CLEANING USED ENGINE OIL * 

In hard times in the past, many people have cleaned their own engine oil so their internal combustion engines would not wear out from the use of old, dirty oil. Because it is a simple process to do, and may be necessary in the future, I will give you that information now. Once implanted in your mind you will never forget this process. 

Engine oil does not wear out. It becomes contaminated with grit and combustion residue, and the additives for detergent action and anti-foaming dissipate. Cleaned oil will also lack those additives, but if used at a ratio of 3 quarts of cleaned oil and one quart of new oil, sufficient additives will be present to work while also stretching your supply of new engine oil.

The concept of cleaning used engine oil is based on the capillary action of natural fibers and siphoning which is gravity assisted. A clean natural fiber rope (cotton, hemp, sisal, etc) contains hollow fibers. When oil passes through the cell walls of the fibers the contaminants are trapped in the cells, while the oil passes through readily. A half-inch thick cotton rope about 3 1/2 feet long is best: anything else will work, but slows the process considerably. The trick is to get the oil to go through the rope all by itself, and that is where we use both the capillary action of the fibers and gravity to our advantage.
The typical system is to use two 1-gallon glass containers, like used wine jugs (A visit to your local "waste disposal" or recycling site, a little pilfering, and a trip to confession usually does the trick.) One of the bottles holds the used oil -- the other one will receive the cleaned oil.

Now that you have the bottles you will know how tall they are, so a rack must be built. One side of the rack will have a shelf high enough so that the bottom of one bottle is at the same height as the top of the other one. Just about anything strong enough to hold the bottles securely will work, so this is not a complicated procedure. 

Then the bottle full of used oil is put on the top shelf, the empty one on the lower shelf, side by side, and the ends of the rope placed down to the bottom of each bottle. The rope must form a nice hoop from one bottle to the other, not touching the top of either bottle. If necessary, straight pins may be used to hold the rope in the middle of the bottle openings, but the rope must not be pinched. (It is less messy to get the length of rope and the exact placement of the bottles set before filling one with oil.)

The oil will climb up the rope by capillary action, through the loop, then start down toward the empty bottle. As the oil level passes the bottom of the upper bottle, gravity will begin to take effect and the oil will start flowing faster -- still slow, but faster. After a couple of weeks almost all of the oil will be in the lower bottle -- and clean!

Now for the "fly in the ointment." As this process takes several weeks at a minimum to complete, you need to keep dust from contaminating the oil. That means building a housing to cover the rack and bottles. This is easily accomplished using thin lath, for example, and covering the lath with clear plastic. The clear plastic sheeting will enable you to see what is happening, otherwise the suspense would drive you nuts.

When the process is complete, the oil soaked rope can be burned. In the old days, the oil soaked rope was wrapped around the base of gate or corner fence posts, and the slowly seeping oil would kill any termites, thus prolonging the life of important posts considerably. Now, however, the EPA would probably have you shot on sight for exposing the soil to the nasty oil soaked rope.


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## Esteban29304 (Apr 29, 2003)

Although I have not tried this, I don't see why it would not work. In many 3rd world countries, the old oil is strained WELL , & diluted with regular diesel/heating oil at a rate of about 1/2 gallon oil to 10 gallons fresh diesel.I would try this in a heater, or old diesel before trying it in one of the newer diesels.


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## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

I knew a fellow who collected used motor oil, and what he didn't burn in his foundry or to heat the shop, he put in a couple of 250 gallon tanks to allow the water and dirt to settle out, then siphoned off the cleaner oil, filtered it, and used it to run his diesel engine powered generator to charge his batteries when it wasn't windy.


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

i imagine that if you have to treat any wood surface more than once, the oil is washing away. and where do you think it ends up? i cannot believe people still do this sort of thing in a time when we know so much more about the danger of polluting the water sheds. oil can be recycled and reused in so many other ways, it shouldn't be painted on wood as a preservative. my uncle does this. sure it works if you keep up with it every year. so would natural animal fats or vegatable oils. 

find someone with a furnace that can burn the old motor oil or turn it in for recycling.

unfortunately we need roads and the asphalt and oils that come with them. sure they leech away and poison the environment. that is not a justification for dumping oil willy-nilly. there is no need to spread it around when it can be contained. 
i imagine there are not too many homesteader-oils spreaders in the chesapeke bay region to tell storys of pollution. i imagine most of the oil dumpers are at the top of some hill and do not see the accumulation of oil runoff.


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## michiganfarmer (Oct 15, 2005)

Ive seen it poured on the top of fence posts to keep the rain out of them


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## TNHermit (Jul 14, 2005)

MELOC said:


> i imagine that if you have to treat any wood surface more than once, the oil is washing away. and where do you think it ends up? i cannot believe people still do this sort of thing in a time when we know so much more about the danger of polluting the water sheds. oil can be recycled and reused in so many other ways, it shouldn't be painted on wood as a preservative. my uncle does this. sure it works if you keep up with it every year. so would natural animal fats or vegatable oils.
> 
> find someone with a furnace that can burn the old motor oil or turn it in for recycling.
> 
> ...



I agree with you to a point. But how many people here know that out around Santa Barbara and a few other places along CA coast line the oil just comes running out of the ground 24-7-7 and right into the ocean. Been doing it for way longer than we been around. things seem to work out all right there


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## Qwispea (Jul 6, 2005)

save your empty cough syrup bottles..fill them up with used motor oil..then give to your in-laws when they have a cold.


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

i wonder how much wildlife there is along that run from the tar pits. if there is any it probably resembles some of the three eyed fish we have just downstream from three mile island! :rock:


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## MississippiSlim (Aug 21, 2005)

Yes, familiar with Santa Barbara....Peoplesee it and think the oil companies are polluting. Ignorance! Also around home we have "seeps" in creeks and streams where the water will havea rainbow sheen on it from where oil is seeping up through the ground. Funny it doesn't seem to affect the fish! Or the water quality??? Weird! I think alot of folks jump the gun to get in hysterics over enviromental issues when if they looked deeper they would find are baseless. Am I going to dump my waste oil in a creek? Of course not! But the nearest creek to me is several miles away. My fence posts contaminating my ground water? I doubt it since my well is 150' deep and people have been using oil and creosote as preservatives for many years still no effects. Have you ever noticed grass and even mushrooms cracking blacktop roads and growing in them? Hmmmm, shoots the petroleum poisoning the earth theory to heck just a little doesn't it? Cows are polluting our air with methane constantly maybe we should ban them. Sometimes I think that some folks with misguided enviromentalism are restricting our lives nearly as much as the same government they hate so much. Just my dos pennies.


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## MississippiSlim (Aug 21, 2005)

> i wonder how much wildlife there is along that run from the tar pits. if there is any it probably resembles some of the three eyed fish we have just downstream from three mile island!


Actually from what some fishermen I know from that area tell me the fishing is topnotch around the Santa Barbara field. Dang, there goes another theory.....


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

OD said:


> We use it on all exposed wood around the barn instead of paint. It makes plain wood last twice as long as commercially treated wood.


Hmm...

I've been reading in this thread about how used oil is great to start resistant or wet wood on fire, and then I read about how people are using it to "paint" wood on their structures.

This suggests to me that the oil may actually make a wooden structure more flammable.

Or am I missing something? (Wouldn't be the first time, eh?)

Pony!


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## MississippiSlim (Aug 21, 2005)

That it would. If an y of you are familiar with "litered" or fat pine. The old houses built out of pine burnt QUICK!


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## Jillis (Sep 11, 2005)

tnborn said:


> I use oil on the door outside. Also, I use it around the nesting boxes, the walls and the floor in spring when the chickens are out. I don't have fumes because I air the chicken house.
> Bleach has fumes too and is also toxic.
> tnborn


It just seems like the petroleum, whether the fumes are overwhelming or not, is emitting fumes that are carcinogenic...you rinse the bleach away and it's gone, though. Not trying to argue, just bringng up a point. Bleach also deactivates many pesticides---I learned this when I was a certified pesticide applicator for my husband's business for many years.


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## Jillis (Sep 11, 2005)

james dilley said:


> Pour it into stagnant water it kills the skeeters.


Any kind of oil will do that---


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## Jillis (Sep 11, 2005)

MississippiSlim said:


> My fence posts contaminating my ground water? I doubt it since my well is 150' deep and people have been using oil and creosote as preservatives for many years still no effects. Sometimes I think that some folks with misguided enviromentalism are restricting our lives nearly as much as the same government they hate so much.


I don't think you would get a significant amount of pollutants from fence posts. But in most places it is illegal, and with good reason, to dump petroleum products on the ground or in water. Especially in highly populated areas where many people depend on the water table, and they also have way too many people for all of them to dump safely. On the East End of Long Island, underground gas flumes from aging underground gas tanks have ruined wells for miles around and spiked cancer and other health issues. Our neighbor, when we lived there, had a tiny leak from her outdoor oil tank. I started noticing the smell of oil and it drove me nuts. When she had it replaced, the EPA demanded that the ground under it be removed to a certain depth and replaced with clean soil. For a tiny leak.

I really don't know about the situation in Santa Barbara, but even if the fishing is good, that doesn't mean the flesh of the fish is not storing toxins. It is not misguided environmentalism to want to know all the facts so that you can be a responsible citizen of planet earth. I know that there are wacky extremists out there, but let's not throw out the baby with the bath water.

How many people, after polluting their own bodies with cigarette smoke, have said, "I've been smoking for (fill in the blank) years, and there's nothing wrong with me!" Yet it is a fact that cigarettes are responsible for immense amounts of pain, suffering, sickness, death and financial loss.

Let's find acceptable alternatives instead of insulting folks who have reservations about dumping pollutants into the environment we all have to share and will hopefull pass on to another generation...


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## Jillis (Sep 11, 2005)

We also had some renters who ruined the rented house they were living in by putting used motor oil in the furnace---ruined the furnace and caused so much smoke damage that the house was unlivable...


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## oberhaslikid (May 13, 2002)

Jillis said:


> Questions: is there a smell of petroleum after you do this? Gas and oil fumes are toxic and carcinogenic...do you use it on the floor or just walls? Bleaching the henhouse works pretty good---Spring and Summer, clean it out, lock out the birds and wash with a bleach solution...also using fireplace ashes kills parasites as well, seems less toxic?



I built a small chicken house out of pallet boards and decided to oil them for the same reasons as above .I have never had so many chronic respritory problems in chicken as I have after doing so.They all came from this chicken house.Not doing this any more! Maybe the outside but not inside.Whitewash is better.Mix up white wash put in bug sprayer and coat walls.MEO


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## sue currin (Aug 28, 2004)

It will cure mange on a dog.


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

if you are seeing a rainbow sheen from the oil i can guarentee you it is accumulating somewhere. maybe the stream you see moves rather fast, at least at the place you are talking about. but how about the areas where wetlands begin. is there an area with tall reeds and grasses and birds and such. or is it all asphalt by now. maybe the grass and reeds got covered by condos and a hotdog stand.

i do not live my life like an environmental extremist by any means. when i grow fruit, for example, i use toxic spray. i don't want to but it is the only way to achieve my goal. if there is a better, less invassive and more practical way of doing things, i try to listen to that little voice of reason. there is nothing wrong with using whitewash. it is environmentally safe. it builds up over time and actually petrifies the wood it is preserving. if you can burn or recycle your oil, then why not use a better method of preserving your wood.


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