"Mineral Oil for air tools?" Topic

This really isn't "home improvement" so much as a tools issue. I work in a metal fabrication shop and have some air tools that I don't use every day. The problem I have is that the 7 laser cells that we have running vent to the INSIDE of the building among other issues. (I'll need to tell you about the "Apollo 1 incident" that we had when one of the Torit dust collectors decided to burn this past spring someday.)

I don't use the die grinder, orbital sander or mini angle grinder as frequently as other folks do with the shop tools. So my question is this: would a "lighter" weight oil like mineral oil be a bad thing to use in my air tools for the "daily" startup and use of some of my gear and hit them with the heavy duty stuff once a week or so in their use cycle? Many thanks in advance.

Not my area of expertise, I use some air tools and compressors but not on a daily basis. At the mine, the jackleg drills run a heavy oil.

However a google search indicates that there are differing weights available. I presume it would depend on how heavy your standard oil is. My impression from the quick search is that some of the synthetics are lighter.

Apparently all of the air tool oils are either mineral or synthetic (or a mix). Petroleum based oils will eat up o-rings and seals.

At any rate, at Grainger the two viscosity/weights that show up are 10w and 20w. Many of the products don't specify.

link

Hope that helps.

Do not use mineral oil. Use the pneumatic tool oil!!!!!
Regular mineral is way too thin IIRC.