What do you guys use to get oil in Chinese machinery ball oilers?

[kd4gij]

Would this work,I don't know if there is a difference between china/american ball but maybe this will work http://www.icai-online.com/push-n-lube-oiler.html I think they are called push and lube oiler.Google it and see if something will work for you---kroll

I have one simerler to that that has a ball tip for ball oil ports. It seals on the out side and pressure opens the port. works quite well


A turkey injector would work quit well also with a little mod of the needle.

 

[JimDawson]

Here is what I have done. I have a small grease gun similar to the picture below. I just built a new tip for it that fits the profile of the ball oiler. (Sorry, no pictures of it.) You could also adapt a rubber tip from an air blow gun, that way you have a conformal tip that fits anything. We are machinists, we can build anything.:whistle:

These handle oil just as well as grease.

 

[drs23]

I have one simerler to that that has a ball tip for ball oil ports. It seals on the out side and pressure opens the port. works quite well


A turkey injector would work quit well also with a little mod of the needle.

That's what I did. I used the needle as it came for a while and though it worked it was messy because of the exit ports being on both sides of the needle. I cut it off at about a 45* angle with a fine dremmel cut off wheel and deburred it. It works great and beats the heck out of every other approach I've tried. I ended up with a few good oil cans that don't leak (darkzero is right about the Golden Rods). I haven't looked back.

 

[Jim Dobson]

Thanks for all the replies, I try a few of the suggestions and see how I go.

 

[Tozguy]

I don't see anything different about Chinese ball oilers than the others.
A pump style oil can never worked well for me. The tip of the spout pushes the ball down too far before sealing around the hole (if it sealed at all). Also, both of the two pump oilers I tried leaked like crazy and made a mess. I dreaded when the time came to oil the lathe.
For a while now I have been using a nose spray bottle filled with ISO 32 oil. Since my approach is to oil the lathe a little but often, the nose spray bottle is quick to use and I don’t have to worry about damaging the delicate ball mechanism. The nozzle is plastic and pushes the ball down just enough to admit oil when in contact with the rim of the hole. With a bit of practise I was able to oil most of the balls without getting oil where it isn’t wanted.
It only takes 2-3 drops of oil to keep things wet. Too much oil just runs down into the drip pan. The nose spray bottle is relatively small but goes far enough between fillings.

 

[epanzella]

I removed all my ball oilers and threaded the holes for 1/4 x 20 setscrews. Yeah, it's slower, but I know exactly how much oil is going into the hole.

 

[Stonebriar]

I use a smaller Goldenrod oiler like DarkZero's on my 1236. It works fine, don't push the ball all the way to the bottom. The goldenrod does ooozze oil from around the bottom of the flexible spout.

Rick

 

[Bishop]

Three Goldenrod oilers in my shop that work great and a pile of leaky plastic and metal oilers I rarely use.

 

[higgite]

My Goldenrod oiler with a flexible spout leaked at the base of the spout from day 2. My Goldenrod oiler with the straight spout works like a champ, no leaks.

Tom

 

[DoogieB]

I think those flexible spouts just like to leak.

I have an old oiler that used to leak like a sieve from the flex spout. I actually took it out of service for a bit because it was just wasting oil and making a mess, but then I hit upon the idea of using a piece heat-shrink tubing on the flex hose, from one end to the other and shrink.

Now it doesn't leak at all and it's my favorite oiler because it doesn't lose it's prime. It's perfect for topping-off Gits oilers for the spindle bearings on my SB.