possible scent to add to lamp oil

[Three Valves]

Any chance this scented oil could double as smoke in my Lionel Choo=choo??

[DonShirer]

I've moved on from lamp oil, but remembering from when I used it, any added scent would seem strange.
Although now that I think of it, maybe pepperoni?

[MikeW]

new car smell...

Not what I would choose, but I do know a British car-detailer who buys this scent in pint (half litre ?) bottles, for use in his fog machine. Your local detailer would probably have some...

Someone in this thread mentioned "kerosene" as a possible valve lubricant: This word doesn't occur in British English, but my Australian relatives assure me that "kerosene" is a poorly refined heating oil, which usually "stinks like a wombat's armpit". If the American usage is similar, I would tend to avoid kerosene (ditto rancid bear grease).

The trick with lamp oil seems to be to get smokeless oil (not just unscented) and thicken it as needed with a few drops of medicinal-grade mineral oil; if you sniff the vapour direct from the oiler, it only has a slight smell (which is entirely obliterated by the horrible stench of artificial oil coming from one particular instrument a few seats away in the trumpet section).

For use in valve oil you would need fat-soluble scents: there is an earlier thread on a related topic that recommends checking out the wax soluble colors and scents sold for making candles - there is a good chance these may be (?) non toxic.

For me, I think I could live with a pianissimo version of the scent they use in Febreze furniture deodorant.

For fans of industrial smells, a very light coat of WD40 on a re-conditioned machine or office furniture often seems to please prospective buyers - many people seem to find the smell acceptable. Maybe you could add a squirt or so to your valve oil ?

For outdoor gigs, do the sweet or fruity smells attract ants or wasps ?

[Donn]

Someone in this thread mentioned "kerosene" as a possible valve lubricant: This word doesn't occur in British English, but my Australian relatives assure me that "kerosene" is a poorly refined heating oil, which usually "stinks like a wombat's armpit". If the American usage is similar, I would tend to avoid kerosene (ditto rancid bear grease).

In British English, it's called "parrafin" - which is what the label says on our lamp oil. That may illustrate the lack of a precise well understood definition - our lamp oil is odorless, is your parrafin? My recollection of kerosene is that it certainly is not odorless, though I am not acquainted with wombat odors.

[MikeW]

Someone in this thread mentioned "kerosene" as a possible valve lubricant: This word doesn't occur in British English, but my Australian relatives assure me that "kerosene" is a poorly refined heating oil, which usually "stinks like a wombat's armpit". If the American usage is similar, I would tend to avoid kerosene (ditto rancid bear grease).

In British English, it's called "parrafin"

That was certainly true when I emigrated from Britain, some decades ago. What was sold as "paraffin" in those days was a heating oil, usually died pink or blue, and very smelly: not easily recognisable as a relative of smokeless lamp oil, but it would burn reasonably cleanly if the wick was carefully cleaned and trimmed.

I seem to recall that a year or more ago this topic got an airing on TN, and someone mentioned that "paraffins" (both oils and waxes) constitute a class of organic chemicals, and the purer they are, the less they stink. I think it was mentioned that the best quality smokeless oils were synthetic parrafin with a consistent molecular chain-length of about 15 (what difference this makes, and how you make synthetic parrafin, are both beyond me.)

Maybe the lighter fraction evaporates, leaving a heavier, smellier, fraction behind ?

[Donn]

On a little closer reading, the word paraffin is just used for different things. One of them is kerosene, another is mineral oil (and third, a petroleum wax.)

Kerosene is a grab bag of whatever hydrocarbons come off from petroleum distillation at certain range of temperatures, including some that are cyclic. It's going to smell, because some of that stuff is chemically reactive.

Mineral oil is "alkane", acyclic saturated hydrocarbons. No smell, they aren't reactive at all (lighter alkanes like propane, butane etc. are mixed with reduced sulfur gases to make them smelly.)

[Donn]

It's a mish-mash, copied from wikipedia or similar. Unfortunately, the wikipedia article on "mineral oil" isn't all that great - alkanes and cycloalkanes are different, am I right?

"So, I think both are important in their specific field." OK, buddy.

Can you make out from that, what's in your ultrapure lamp oil bottle?

My theory for the moment is that it's closer to "mineral oil", in the sense of lighter weight alkanes. Not kerosene, because that means crude distillate with various kinds of hydrocarbons. "Paraffin" is never going to tell us anything, because it gets dragged back and forth between various meanings until it's just tatters.

[Three Valves]

Remember making a small cannon with soda cans, duct tape, a tennis ball and lighter fluid??

How about old tuba/home brew valve oil and a volley ball??

[Three Valves]

You'll shoot yer eye out, kid!!