IMO, vegetable oil is a marginal idea at best. By
unfortunate experience, I have learned that it does
several things that are quite unpleasant:
1) Once the vapors are ignited, it seems to alter the
rest of the container of oil in such a way that the
flash point is dramatically reduced. In college, my
girlfriend and I experienced something which was later
called "the popcorn incident". We popped the fluffy
stuff on the stove at too hot a temperature. As the
popping slowed, we lifted the lid to take a peak and
"FOOM!!" we had two foot flames. We crammed the lid
back on and moved the pot off the hot burner onto a
cold one. I figured it'd run out of oxygen and
extinguish, but an hour later, I lifted the lid and it
re-ignited. So, the lid went back on and the whole
pot got stuffed outside in the Michigan winter snow.
Next morning, I gingerly touched the pot, and it was,
indeed, cold. Lifted the lid and "FOOM!!" fire again.
I think it had continued to smolder very slowly
overnight. We just let the thing sit out there for a
week, and finally it was out for good, the oil having
been burned to a hard black shell.
2) With time, it seems to degrade and exhibit a dipole
moment - in other words, it gets conductive. I don't
know if it's absorbing impurities from the air, or
whether heating it does this. I have read a
nutritional book on oils that claims that the poly-
and mono-unsaturated oils do go through a molecular
change when they are heated. I used the stuff to cool
a load for a DC power supply and learned this; the
power supply was effectively being tested with a
higher and higher load current drawn from it.
Mineral oil is cheap if you get it at a farm and feed
store. My next door neighor owns four horses, and she
boards them, particularly when a mare is about to
foal. A horse's digestive system is very sensitive
and they can die from surprisingly frequent events
(look up "horse colic" on Wikipedia for more info).
When they use mineral oil, the dosage is in gallons.
She's told me I can snag a few gallons from her any
time I want - her cost is around a buck a gallon. I
can purchase a five gallon bucket at our local
equestrian supply house for $30. It's sometimes sold
also as a horticultural spray; a non-toxic way to rid
plants of insects.
You don't have to change the oil in a load, so the
price of the oil isn't a repeating expense.
Dave W8NF
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