Of Machine Oilers And Oil

Rangemaster1 said:
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I really get tired of trying to get a sufficient amount of oil into the little spring loaded oilers on my machines. My oiler is an older pump type that works perfectly until I try to use it on the oil hole caps. The Plews oiler has very small groves in the tip which are supposed to allow the oil past the ball. Not so much. I end up wiping up more oil than I get into the machine.

One day I was using a small needle oiler on some other parts and stuck it into the oil cap and bingo, oil went where I wanted and I wiped up very little. The light came on over my head. Why not insert a needle into the end of my pump oiler?

I found that a # 19 syringe needle fit the end of the oiler almost perfectly. I cut the pointy end off with my belt sander so I wouldn't inject myself with lubricant. Then I removed most of the plastic from the other end with a wire stripper to avoid damaging the needle and trimmed it to fit into the oiler tip. Screwed the tip back on with the needle in it and now lubing the machines is easy with little waste.

The Plews oilers are all over eBay and cheap. The older ones are best ( USA made ).

Now regarding the oil. When it comes lubrication, most of us have our preferences. Manufacturers usually suggest a particular kind of lubricant for the various parts of their machines. That, however, is merely a recommendation and certainly not cast in stone, often paid for by the company making the lube.

Quite a few years ago, and after a lot of research, I began using synthetic lubricants in all my vehicles. The reasons were many, but primarily to squeeze as many MPG’s out of them as I could. Also because of the longer drain intervals.

One day I needed to lube the ways on my lathe but had no more way oil so I used some synthetic engine oil I had. Everything moved easier. When I would wipe swarf off the ways, the oil tended to stay put unless I wiped real hard, and even then it was still there. I now use only synthetic engine oil for all my equipment.

Why not? It has a very high lubricity factor. It clings tenaciously to metal. It has exceptional shear strength. It's a designer oil made for the most extreme conditions. It prevenst rust. It doesn't dry out or evaporate. It won't gum up in extremely cold weather. It withstands extreme heat without break down. For what you get it's not expensive. A quart will last a long time. And,for what it's worth, it makes a great gun oil for a lot less money. For what you would pay for four ounces of gun oil you can buy a quart of synthetic motor oil. No one said you could only use it in an engine. I use 0-20 AMSOIL because it's not heavy, but other synthetics work just as well.

I hope this helps someone searching for a better lubricant.
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Thank you rangemaster1 for answering a question that has been on my mind. I am referring to the needle idea but I will try synthetic oil also.
roy c
 
For lubing the ball oilers I get some clear Tygon (or generic) aquarium air pump size plastic tubing (1/8"?). Cut about a 2" piece of it, nice and square and neat on the ball oiler business end, then push the other end over the spout of your oil gun. It will fit most oil guns. Then push the open end of the tubing onto the ball oiler firmly with your fingers and pump away. The tubing seals at the top of the oiler so no oil goes anywhere except into the oiler. You can see the oil start flowing into the oilers. After a couple years the tubing gets stiff from the oil and won't work correctly. Simply cut a new piece of tubing and replace the old one. A foot of tubing will last 10 years or more. The oiler is also completely usable in the usual way for oiling other stuff. The soft tubing also does not scratch delicate or highly polished parts.
 
Bob Korves said:
For lubing the ball oilers I get some clear Tygon (or generic) aquarium air pump size plastic tubing (1/8"?). Cut about a 2" piece of it, nice and square and neat on the ball oiler business end, then push the other end over the spout of your oil gun. It will fit most oil guns. Then push the open end of the tubing onto the ball oiler firmly with your fingers and pump away. The tubing seals at the top of the oiler so no oil goes anywhere except into the oiler. You can see the oil start flowing into the oilers. After a couple years the tubing gets stiff from the oil and won't work correctly. Simply cut a new piece of tubing and replace the old one. A foot of tubing will last 10 years or more. The oiler is also completely usable in the usual way for oiling other stuff. The soft tubing also does not scratch delicate or highly polished parts.
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One more thing. Don't push the ball down into the oiler very far or it can get stuck down there. I did that while using a oil can where the tip was tapered to a small point and I could never get the ball to come back up again, even fishing around through the hole with wires and stuff. I finally had to replace the oiler, and bought a couple spares while I was at it. You will not have that problem using the Tygon tubing.
 
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned it yet...

Additives.
Older lathes with bronze/brass/copper components don't like 'em, a lot of the modern oils will leach out the copper, leaving severely degraded bearing surfaces.
Any lathe without a fine filter in its lubrication system doesn't want the modern detergent additives found in synthetic oils, they keep the crud in suspension passing around your gears and bearings instead of letting it settle in the bottom of a casing.
"sticky " additives will hold crud on bearing surfaces, even if you try to wipe it away.

I'll stick with straight mineral-based non-foaming hydraulic fluid, supplemented with commercial way oil where needed (my lathe pumps oil from the apron to the carriage ways, no need there, so just the tailstock...)
 
British Steel said:
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned it yet...

Additives.
Older lathes with bronze/brass/copper components don't like 'em, a lot of the modern oils will leach out the copper, leaving severely degraded bearing surfaces.
Any lathe without a fine filter in its lubrication system doesn't want the modern detergent additives found in synthetic oils, they keep the crud in suspension passing around your gears and bearings instead of letting it settle in the bottom of a casing.
"sticky " additives will hold crud on bearing surfaces, even if you try to wipe it away.

I'll stick with straight mineral-based non-foaming hydraulic fluid, supplemented with commercial way oil where needed (my lathe pumps oil from the apron to the carriage ways, no need there, so just the tailstock...)
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Probably because we didn't know that. I didn't know anything about the additives attacking brass.
 
The cross hatch marks were still in the cylinders because I didn't break it in long enough.
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This doesn't have anything to do with "break in". It has to do with fit, finish, ring coating, wall finish and maintenance. The 351C in my wife's Mustang drag car was apart after 2000 passes, still had visible crosshatch. The 302 I'm running now in my car I built in 1996 - refreshed in 2010, still cross hatch visible. None of those engines run synthetic - because of cost and because should the worst happen, its a hell of a lot easier to clean conventional oil off a drag strip than synthetic LOL. Everything else (except the mower) runs synthetic.
 
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