Thread: Drip or wick oilers?

Does the oil pot have a type of moat set up,if so run a pipe cleaner through the centre port to the bearing,
bend the other end of pipe cleaner to touch the bottom of the resivoir.

Pipeclay, yes they are the moat type. But the caps are all gone and they are a bit sad and bent. But I will give the pipecleaner thing a go. Thanks for the tip. I am using SAE 30 weight oil on the main bearing spindle in the headstock. Tips?

regards

Old Hutcho

Hi,
I bought some of the drip types from the U.K for my shaper and lathes. They are o.k, the best thing is you can turn them off but they still can use up the oil in them pretty quickly. Phil (Steamwhisperer) posted some pics of ones he was going to make here https://www.woodworkforums.com/f65/al...ml#post1489674 I think this is a great idea, and you can just pull the wick out when you are finished using the lathe. You wouldn't even need to thread the lid, just a nice fit would do.

Gees, that reminds me...

Phil

Do you know what clearance there is in your bearings,30 maybe a little heavy,might be better suited to a 46 if clearance isnt great.
If you get drip oilers try and get the best you can afford,the cheaper ones sort of work as designed but leave a lot to be desired.

Like Pipeclay said, with the drip feeders, definitely get the best you can afford. The cheaper ones are just not worth it. There is a bloke here in Ballarat that has programmed his CNC lathe to make the wick feeders and they have turned out really quite well. If you like I can ask how much he wants to sell them for. I have some good info on how to make the wicks for different flow rates etc. At work we have about 30 wick feeders that need to be filled and about 20 drip feeders. All the drip feeders are serious quality except two of them and those two are painful. The wick feeders will feed out the oil until the reservoir is completely empty and if you pull the wicks out they stop feeding completely. (unlike a cheap quality drip feeder) Let me know if you would like any more info.

Phil

Pipeclay. Mate you are a genius. I got some pipecleaners and bingo. Oil stopped running everywhere and it looks just about right. The cap on the remaining whole oiler has the word "GITS" pressed on to it. I reckon I would give making some of my own wick oilers a go using the pipecleaners now.

The oil I am using is SAE30. My headstock bearings are probably 60 years old so I am guessing they have seen better days. I will stick with these oilers and watch the headstock and drive shaft bearings to see they are getting enough oil and go from there.


regards

Old Hutcho

Here is a link to the GITS catalogue - you might find your oilers still in production

GITS

Michael