Hydraulic fluid question

On my new old jack, I put a pint of jack oil in it, and it worked up and down. It sputtered a couple of times, and kicked out some milky looking fluid from the filler hole. Aha, I suspected water. I drained all the oil, and it was a milky gray versus the light black of new oil.
My question: will this separate overnight, and can I then recover the oil and toss the water?
May just flush and add new oil, but flush with what?
Steve

  Quoted Text Here  
I had milky compressor oil once, in the old Quincy that I have.
I set it in a plastic jar on purpose to see if it would separate.
The short of it is that it did not separate after several weeks.
i
  Quoted Text Here  

Ignoramus9171 wrote:
  Quoted Text Here  
Compressor shop told me I need to run the compressor over an hour once in a while to boil off the water in the oil.

  Quoted Text Here  
I heard that, too. I will see if I need to. I did run my 7.5 HP Quincy for up to 40 minutes nonstop for that reason (and to test whether it had any problems).
i

  Quoted Text Here  
Put it in an old pot on the stovetop - heat to drive off the water - no warrantee / don't burn your house down / don't get caught by the missus etc.
I don't know if it works but it should - may cost more than new oil......

  Quoted Text Here  
Add a bit of acid and the water will separate. Then you have to neutralize the acid somehow.

  Quoted Text Here  
For $4, I'll just go get another quart of oil.

wrote:
  Quoted Text Here  
    No
Having had a steam heating pipe develop a pinhole leak into a tank containing 50,000 litres of lubricating oil being manufactured, the only way to remove the water is to heat the emulsion until the water evaporates. We had to heat the oil mix to 80C for about 3 days ( in another tank) until the oil was dry ( crackle test ). We guessed that there was about 200 litres of water mixed in the tank as it was almost overflowing through the dip hatch. That happened to about 6 tanks over a 6 month period in '92, not too bad as they were built in '65, 27 years of continuous use before failure of the heating coils.
  Quoted Text Here  
First flush with kero, then flush with new/dried oil, then heat jack to about 45C ( hot to hold ) and flush about 3 more times with new/dried oil then final fill with new oil.
    Alan

  Quoted Text Here  
Flush with kero and refill with fresh jack oil.

On Wed, 9 Sep 2009 21:25:57 -0600, the infamous "SteveB"
  Quoted Text Here  
Aw, shit. stryped, is that you hacking SteveB's account?
  Quoted Text Here  
Denatured alcohol. It'll absorb the moisture.
-- Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. --Ronald Reagan

On 7/1/2012 6:59 PM, Steve B wrote:
  Quoted Text Here  
Hydraulic what? There's a whole gamut of applications; how careful one need be depends mostly on that...

  Quoted Text Here  
The "hydraulic ram" I'm familiar with uses water (ram pump) but I suspect you mean a standard hydraulic cyl. Depending on the pump you can likely get away wit light engine oil, automatic transmission fluid, power steering fluid, or universal hydraulic fluid - which would be my choice and is likely the best price too - from a farm equipment dealer. Depends how much you need.

  Quoted Text Here  
Indeed.
Tractor hydraulics may be very carefree, or not depending on what the hydraulic fluid is doing. Universal Tractor Fluid (UTF) covers most specs at a (adjusted for the price of everything oily going sky-high) reasonable price - but some tractors that are not using it in the transmission can get away with a more boring fluid in the non-transmission hydrualics. Pushing cylinders in and out is less demanding than transmission work.
OTOH, UTF works just fine in boring hydraulics too, and means only one fluid to not get confused about which goes where. It usually does not cost that much more than a more boring fluid, unless you are buying New Holland or John Deere or whatever name-brand overpriced fluid rather than a generic that meets the same specs. Do make sure that any generic you buy meets the specs your equipment calls for, if you didn't build the equipment yourself.
For homebuilds, UTF or ATF or Power Steering Fluid are typical safe choices. If you just need to refill a jack, most anything oily works, but not for long if you don't fix the leak (since you should not have to refill a jack unless you drained it and tore it down.)

  Quoted Text Here  
Depends where the hydraulics are. Hydraulic brakes use brake fluid, except in aircraft where they use a special hydraulic oil. Hydraulic power steering can use transmission fluid, special power steering fluid, or universal hydraulic oil. So, in short, we need more information, and yes, there are significant differences in product, and in SOME cases there arealternative sources.

On 02/07/2012 01:18, snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote:
  Quoted Text Here  
+1 (I help people chose hydraulic fluids for nuclear power stations)

  Quoted Text Here  
    And there are thick hydraulic oils for lower pressure applications like most tractor/farm equipment hydraulics, and thinner ones for high pressure (the 10,000 PSI pumps and cylinders used by Enerpac and others.) My hydraulic crimpers (made by AMP for larger wire sizes -- up to 4/0 -- have (as one option) an electric pump, and that would be quite unhappy with the thick tractor/farm fluid. For that, I wanted to get the Enerpac fluid. As alternatives to that (which has a limit switch at 8600 PSI IIRC), there is a foot pumped one also from AMP (stops building pressure at about the same setting), and I can also use an Enerpac hand pump (which will go all the way to 10,000 PSI) -- it all depends on how many terminals you want to crimp -- and in how confined a space. :-)
    Good Luck,         DoN.

  Quoted Text Here  
Almost any petroleum oil will work as an hydraulic fluid.
Hydraulic fluids are chosen for their lubricity, viscosity, and anti- foaming properties. Most modern motor oils are chosen for much the same characteristics.
I have a large commercial "ZTR" lawn mower (Scag Turf Tiger-61") that has two hydraulic pumps, two hydraulic motors for the wheel drives, and a propensity to be terribly abused. Motors are reversed quickly; shock loads are high, pressures rise to the limits during reverses.
It uses ordinary 20W-50 motor oil as the hydraulic fluid, and the motors and pumps have, so far, lasted (since 1991) for 20+ years of heavy commercial mowing, with no regard for the longevity of the hydraulics. Something will fail some day, sure; but it won't be for the oil selection.
LLoyd

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" <lloydspinsidemindspring.com> fired this volley in
  Quoted Text Here  
I should add, if a device calls out a particular fluid, it was chosen for its characteristics (as before), and that's the oil you should use.
LLoyd

Clare,
Except in "extreme duty" applications, I wouldn't be afraid of using pretty much any oil lighter than 30W in any hydraulic application as an expedient substitute, until the right oil could be had. Of course, there are exceptions, and reasons to use lighter or heavier oils.
My shop and business is full of hydraulic devices. I've built some of them myself, and had to select the oil based upon performance, rather than pump or motor or cylinder manufacturers' recommendations.
I had a rapid-transit press that just would _not_ work fast enough until I replaced the 'standard' hydraulic oil with Type-F ATF. Then it would move at the appropriate slew rates without stalling the pump (viscosity, and all that). It's been in service for about ten years without any noticable problems.
LLoyd

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" <lloydspinsidemindspring.com> wrote in message
  Quoted Text Here  
#2 heating oil is probably about as cheap as it gets although it's anti-wear properties probably aren't anything to write home about.