[Coral-List] Drill Inquiry, veggie oil works well too

[Daniel Barshis]

Hi All,
    A quick addition to the thread that might be helpful for folks is that
for the pneumatic drills, vegetable oil (corn, safflower, etc.) works just
as well as diesel or specialty pneumatic tool oil for storage and rust
prevention. Veggie oil is hopefully less polluting than other lubricants,
cheap, and easily found in most remote field settings. I store the drill
fully submerged in a bucket of veggie oil, rinse with soap and freshwater
before each use, run underwater, run in a bucket of freshwater immediately
after the dive and plop back in the veggie oil. Following this religiously
i've gotten 2-3 field seasons out of a single $50 drill (500+ cores). I
have an old scuba reg I use just for running the tool and a custom long
(~6ft) hose and a high-flow connector, though you can get by with a regular
old air tool hose and some fittings to connect it to the regulator
threading.
    I do only use this setup for small (~2cm diameter, 3cm deep)
micro-cores into coral, however, not the larger/longer cores being
discussed here. Also, please do not attempt to run the tool off of your
breathing regulator! I carry a separate tool tank, side-mounted and set the
tool regulator intermediate pressure to ~90 psi which is the pressure of a
standard construction-style pneumatic compressor. Am happy to share links
and pointers off the list for anyone who is considering such a system.
Cheers,
dan

-- 

  Daniel Barshis, Ph.D.
  Assistant Professor
  Department of Biological Sciences
  Old Dominion University
  Mills Godwin Building 302J
  Norfolk, VA 23529
  Office: 757-683-3614
  Lab: 757-683-5755
  Web: www.odu.edu/~dbarshis