Machine oiling ?

[Jim F]

How do you guys oil a machine with ball oilers ?
I have oil going everywhere, but where I want it .

 

[Aukai]

You have to have the right tip, at the right angle, and a lot of patients.....

 

[cathead]

And be a doctor, otherwise it would be patience.

 

[addertooth]

...or, get frustrated and install a one-shot oiler.

 

[graham-xrf]

There are lots of good videos on YT about replacing ball or cap oilers with drip feed oilers, and some one-shot systems.

I think it may part depend on what the machine is. Getting oil to all the right places on a mill tends to make building in the pipework to do a one-shot worthwhile and tempting. Gravity drip reservoir, some with wick drip, capillary, or other improvements, can better suit lathes.

Nice oilers are quite easy to make. I saw one that has a little manifold block with both ball entry and drip oiler on it. It really pays to gather the experience of the guys doing oiler mod upgrades. They have figured out how to make things better, and predictable. A perfectly adjusted oiler on one day can rapidly leak away all the oil on another (day). The good designs overcome such problems.

My 1940's South Bend, having underneath drive, has oiler places that are just that bit inconvenient to get at. I might just use a plastic-tubed one-shot from manifold for that. I was very tempted by a video of a row of nice gravity drip oilers mounted on a panel behind the lathe, with clipped down plastic (pneumatic-type) tubes going the routes to the oiler points. I lost the link to that video, but I hope to come across it again.

 

[ThinWoodsman]

I use one of these on my Logan lathe: goldenrod oiler. I tried one with a pointed/conical tip from the local h/w store, and while it did a better job of pushing in the ball bearing on the oiler, it only made a mess on ball oilers in a vertical surface. The one I linked to works pretty well, once you learn the trick of pushing the ball in with the lip of the spout. Plus the spout is screwed on, so you can turn a new one if this doesn't work well enough.

 

[Jim F]

I use one of these on my Logan lathe: goldenrod oiler. I tried one with a pointed/conical tip from the local h/w store, and while it did a better job of pushing in the ball bearing on the oiler, it only made a mess on ball oilers in a vertical surface. The one I linked to works pretty well, once you learn the trick of pushing the ball in with the lip of the spout. Plus the spout is screwed on, so you can turn a new one if this doesn't work well enough.

That is one of the oilers I have,

 

[vecair]

How do you guys oil a machine with ball oilers ?
I have oil going everywhere, but where I want it .

Machine a small step on the tip of any cheap oil dispenser and put a small o-ring to seal against the ball oiler. Leave enough for the tip to protude beyond the o-ring to push in the ball. Or buy one of those $70 oilers Cheap and easy,which I am.

 

[mickri]

Get a needle oiler. You can get them all over the place. Often in the sewing section as they are used to oil sewing machines among other things.
https://www.mcmaster.com/needle-oilers/ https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-...e-bottles/needle-oiler-bottles-prod44434.aspx https://www.walmart.com/ip/2-Needle...=sem&msclkid=e2193fb4151216325afc60057753b96e

 

[SLK001]

I use a 5cc syringe filled with oil with a large needle. I depress the ball, then inject the oil into the cavity until full. The ball oilers I have are on my carriage, so there aren't many and they aren't hard to get to to oil.