I often work in tight places where removal of a clogged grease line can be time consuming. I have found that inserting stainless-steel wire through the clogged tube can open up a clogged grease tube quickly allowing the line to be purged with oil and then repurged with grease. (Brad Petitt, Service Technician, American Industrial Resources, Inc.)

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From the book "The Lubrication Engineers Manual":

Evaluating the most important properties of a premium hydraulic oil can be confusing. Fortunately, even if one chooses not to do extensive testing, hydraulic oil is easily rated for quality. Because certain organizations that sell hydraulic systems or hydraulically operated equipment have a vested interest in seeing that their customers use high-quality oils, they have developed their own specifications for hydraulic fluids, and they issue approvals for products developed to their specifications by the oil companies.

Purchasing products only from their approval lists provides reasonable assurance of quality. In the alternative, the end user may write a specification for hydraulic oil and ask the supplier to meet it, in which case the specification can be circulated among several oil companies to encourage competition.

After the oil has been purchased and placed in service, oil quality must be checked periodically. Representative tests might include:

• ISO contamination level

• additive level

• water

• wear metals

• ferrography

• viscosity

• neutralization number

Buying quality oil, then putting it into the system and ignoring it is foolish. Checking at regular intervals is a must.

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Question: Name the additive that is polar, envelopes soot, and keeps it finely divided.

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"I recently read that a laser pointer can be useful for identifying suspended solids and oil/water emulsions in sight glasses. How does this work?"

One of the things you are looking for is reflective light fragments indicating large solid particles suspended in the oil. You can observe this by experimenting with a new turbine oil, or other rather clear oil in a sample bottle.

With the laser passing horizontally through the oil, sprinkle table salt into the open mouth of the bottle. You will see something of a laser light show as the salt falls through the light beam. Without the use of the laser, the salt in the oil is completely invisible to the eye.

Another practice is to observe the laser light beam on a white piece of paper after it passes through the oil. Is the laser spot clear and distinct or is it blurred and diffused? Diffused light may indicate emulsions, oxides, color bodies, other contaminants or oil degradation products. The laser does not work with dark or opaque oils.

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