Subscribing.

Nice thread.

Ok then AA Castor is the best and to always use it.

EDIT: Sorry about this off subject question but all the right people seem to be here to ask.

What about the synthetic oil? I heard that a good test is to put about an ounce of mixed fuel in tin can or something. Light it on fire, and that the fuel mixed with the good grade synthetic will burn blueish and you should have a perfectly clear clean oil remaining at the bottom when the fire goes out. BAD synthetic oil will leave a dark nasty residue that looks like burned coffee beans, and the fire will be yellowish.

Anyone ever try this?

Give Stan a call he has top grade oils. He can sell you the oils or make any custom mix you want.

http://www.splube.com/contact.htm

Sounds like BS to me. The color has more to do with how much light is in the room and how much air can get to the flame. Methanol will burn a hard to see bluish flame in bright light, but a bit orange in dim light. More air more blue, less more orange. Just like natural gas, a blue flame indicates proper mixture. I think the dye used in the oil would have more to do with this than the flame. Some are known to change color in bright sunlight, making the use think the fuel has gone bad. Most US synthetics are one of the UCON brand oil, a polypropolene gycol based synthetic. Note that it's clean burning, while castor oil only partially burns.

http://www.dow.com/polyglycols/ucon/products/2cycle.htm

Ok thats the color of the flame, maybe I should have not mentioned the color of the flame. What I was most going after is after the flame stops, the residue left. Good oil will leave a perfectly clear oil as opposed to nasty black kinda charcoaled oil at the bottom. I'm going to try it myself see what happens.

I lerned something about castor oil this weekend. I spoke with Klotz at Toledo. "Degummed" is a term they created. Degumming is a process that they put their castor oil through which reduces carbon buildup. He asked why people in the hobby industry are after "Bakers AA" casotr oil. He said "Bakers AA" is a trademark. Surely enough, googling Bakers AA brings nothing but hobby related hits. I did find that www.bakerbro.com is the old company, they aren't into castor oil anymore. And there is www.caschem.com which say they are related, but no information is available on the site.

Where do you buy your Baker's AA castor oil?

Hi Mike,

Yes

Sig Mfg.

-----Original Message-----
From: Xyzzy [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2007 7:40 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: SIGCO001

hi

just curious:

SIGCO001 - castor oil

is this made with bakers aa degummed castor oil?

thanks!

Rubbish, they're either lying or don't know what they're talking about. Degumming is part of the original process of refining castor oil after it's been pressed out of the castor bean. Virtually all castor originates in India and is then sold off to any company that wants it. Castrol in England were the first company to sell castor commercially as a lubricating oil (the name comes from CASToR OiL) and that was about 100 years ago and it was degummed of course.

The Gum in Castor oil is green. Bakers AA has none and Bakers A does. Bakers AA is the first pressing, that is the beans are pressed till their shell pops open and the oil drains out. The oil is drained away and pumped through filters into containers, this is Bakers AA. The press is then pressed harder to squese out the rest of the oil, which also presses some gum out of the shell and any stems. It has a greenish tint and is graded Bakers A. Drug store castor is Bakers AA which is tested to be sure it has no ricin toxin which is more likely to be in Bakers A. If the oil is truely degummed, then they have chemically treated Bakers A because there is no gum in Bakers AA. It is actually a marketing term. Degummed oil will congeal just as quickly as oil not marked degummed, but this has nothing to do with gum as the congealled oil also has no gum.

Baker is or was the main importer of castor oil in the US, likely the Klotz oil is Bakers Oil which is treated and packaged under their name.

http://www.groshea.com/caschem/produ...tandardtds.pdf

This is Baker's AA castor oil.

I have found that degumming reduces the phosphorus content in the oil.

http://www.wsu.edu/~gmhyde/433_web_p...stor-oil2.html

This is the process of production. I don't believe that first press doesn't have "gum". What the heck is "gum"?

And the jackpot!

http://www.groshea.com/caschem/produ...ricinn1tds.pdf

....it appears then, that all castor oil is de-gummed.

That's what I'm thinking. Most that have read about competitive fuels know about Lubricin as an additive, but who knew it was castor based? Maxima says they add something to their Castor 927 to reduce carbon buildup. This is probably it.

Think about where Sig's castor comes from. They sell Klotz Techniplate which they buy bulk from Klotz.

I think of the plant resins as gum. Some of these referances seems to call the congealed oil and varnish as gum. So I am not sure what they consider gum. Perhaps the degumming process only refers to the second pressing of the pulp. Notice the diagram has the first pressing going straight to the tank.