HELP———Wrong Oil

[DavidR8]

Now for another oil/waste question. Our township takes oil on hazardous waste days, but only if it is in its original container. When I clean out my lathe today, I am going to end up with an oil/kerosene mix.
In the army, we used to just get hazardous waste picked up in mass bulk by a company, but how do I, a lowly civilian, get rid of small quantities of mixed waste?

Find a source for empty plastic oil containers, like a oil change business and put the old oil in one of their containers.

A question: if they only take oil in the original container, what do you do when you do an oil change on your car?

I put the old oil in the container the new oil came in. Any excess new oil goes in containers I get from my local oil change business.

 

[Susquatch]

Does the detergent aspect have any effect on metal particles (and are they many metal particles?) ? I'd have thought it was more for the carbon and whatever crude comes from combustion?? (just a guess, don't really know).

Well, I am not an expert myself, but one of the guys I worked with was. He tried hard to teach me about such things.

So the straight skinny is that engine oil prolly should not be used in shop machines. But it would be infinitely better than no oil.

Engine oils are formulated for many purposes. Lubrication is just one of them.

Detergents in engine oil are mostly alkaline substances that neutralize acidic by-products formed during combustion and oil oxidation - neither of which take place in a machine. This helps protect engine parts from corrosion. Other than the potential to impact metals like Copper and brass, these substances prolly won't hurt a machine.

Like household detergent, detergents in engine oil also help loosen and distribute contaminants such as soot, carbon, and oxidation residue by distributing them through the oil and suspending them in the oil, and preventing sludge and varnish from accumulating where they don't belong. This is an important difference. Engines have oil pumps and filters designed to capture this crud. Most machines don't. In a machine, it's probably better to let this stuff settle than try to keep it suspended or distributed everywhere.

I don't recommend that oil with detergents in it be used in a hobby shop machine unless the manufacturer specifically recommends it.