Thread: How do inline oilers work on your airline?

The way I see it is that in an industrial application an oiler is used at the pneumatic machine that requires it, in other words ether mounted on the machine or maybe where the air line for the machine is tee'd off the main air supply line.

shed

Originally Posted by ventureoverland

Looking at pictures of them on ebay Im now left wondering how they work. They appear to be a brass body (which I could make) with a plastic outer housing that holds the tool oil. How does the oil get into the airline in a controlled manner and do they leak oil everywhere over time?

Jon.

As far as I'm aware its a Venturi in them that draws the oil up as the air passes across the top. The adjustable flow ones are just a needle valve to limit the oil draw up. Some of the better ones have a little dome window where you can see the oil droplets, before it enters the air flow.

You dont want to lubricate your entire supply circuit. Heaven help it when you reach for a paint spray gun. Just the tools that require it. Do I recall you buying a decent orbital sander. What does the instructions say about lube?

They don't leak if mounted vertical. One tool that always used them where those pencil / die grinders, They always had an inline oiler, I'd suspect that was to lubricate the bearings as many of them were 60k rpm.

Couple of Pneu tools I've bought in recent years have a little bottle of oil with them. That would suggest a few drops now and then into the air connection, is all that's required. Other wise they would come with a warning to run oil/air.

Regards Phil.

It depends a lot on your circumstances.

A - If your compressor is an "oilfree" type, then there is to begin with no oil at all in your air system, not even in the receiver vessel.
B - If your compressor is a conventional one with an oil sump, then your air system is by default already contaminated with some oil (an emulsion of water and oil).

In the case of B, it would be typical to add a "coagolation" air filter to the compressor output. This two stage filter aims at removing some water and some oil. There are also charcoal filters, that would remove most of the oil mist. Without any such filters, your air piping would have to be considered heavily contaminated with oil, probably enough oil to keep your non high speed air tools lubricated. Your air would however not be suitable for things like spray painting.

In the case of A, or B with filters, you may consider splitting the air outlet. One outlet for "clean" air requirements. The other outlet fitted with an inline oiler for air tools. You may additionally lube high speed air tools manually, or if you use them a lot add another inline oiler for such tools.

What I do personally, I have two oil type compressors. I do use air a lot for cleaning, but I do not use my air tools frequently. I choose to use several filters to keep my air lines reasonably oill free, If I use a high speed air grinder for more than just say half an hour, I attach a very small inline oiler right to the airline to the tool. Else a few drops oil directly into the tool's air inlet seem to be all it needs.

G'day Jon,
Unless you use your air tools continuously for long periods day in day out I wouldn't bother with in line oilers.
Just a few drops of machine oil into the tools air inlet each time you connect it should be sufficient.
If you are using it for long stints just add a few drops every now an then.
That's all I've done for years with my air tools which include good SP and Endeavour as well as povo Super Cheap and Aldi ones and they all still work as good as new.
A mate of mine uses two of those Jamec spiral hoses, one fitted with a little inline oiler for tools and a clean one for painting and blowing etc which is another option.
Of course always read the instructions for your tool as well as there might be specific recommendations for oiling that need to be followed.
Cheers,
Greg.

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

My compressor is a Peerless PV25, soil oil sump type.

I think I'll stick with the couple of drops at the start end end of use. Seems most practical for the amount of use they get.

As for the comment re what the manual for the tool says... I have an IR die-grinder and orbital sander, both MAX models. The manuals are rubbish and give very little detail. I'm going to send them an email and see if they can advise more detail.


Thx
Jon