# Wicks for Craftsman 12" oil cups



## roadie33 (Jan 30, 2017)

Anyone know where to find the Wicks used in the 12" Craftsman Commercial headstock oil cups?
I was cleaning the other day and after washing down the gears and scrapping the buildup of gunk inside the headstock, I was using the vacuum to suck out everything and accidentally sucked up the wicks. 
I couldn't find them in all the other debris in the tank.


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## wa5cab (Jan 30, 2017)

You can still buy them new from Clausing.  Shipping will cost more than two of the parts.  So before you call, check whether you need anything else, like saddle oilers and wipers, which they also still have.  The oilers often turn up on eBay as there is one other company who make and sell them, with or without way oil.  I don't know whether or not they ever stared making the oil cup wicks.

You can also buy a sheet of medium density felt and make them.  But the sheet and the arch punch will probably cost more than two from Clausing.  And to make the wipers you need a thinner sheat.  Plus the screw hole isn't easy to cut properly.

Clausing's toll free numbers are 800-323-0972 and 800-535-6553.  Ask for old Atlas parts.

I'll add that anyone with a 10" or older 12" who hasn't already done it would be well advised to add the felts to their spindle bearing oil cups.


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## Randall Marx (Jan 31, 2017)

Interesting. I wonder if they still stock the cups as well. Guess I'll have to call them and find out.


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## roadie33 (Jan 31, 2017)

Would wicks for a oil lamp be the same material?
If so, they would be a whole lot cheaper than what Clausing wants.


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## Round in circles (Feb 1, 2017)

Self adhesive stick on felt buttons for chair legs are a good substitute & for a couple of dollars ...well worth getting a small pack from a DIY ironmongery area .  Slice them down to the correct thickness with a box cutter .

 I've had success making a whole range of plugs & washers in felt , leather , plastic & rubber strips making  on my lathe .

 Getting them shaped in rounds is easy , if you turn up a cup to the desired diameter an inch deep in an inch of round bar  turn the major diameter down give it a 1/ 4 shank & put a cutting edge on it using a fine hand file . Now use a  vice to squeeze the  " punch "  on to the felt whilst you have a soft wood backing strip behind the felt .  Once it is pushed through take it out the vice . T turn it in the lathe & using a fine file take off any straggly edges . Then part the tube of the punch about 1/16 further back than the felt will be down the tube .. Now press the felt out the thin ring with the blunt end of an appropriately sized twist drill or turn up a small mandrel  for it  . 

 Another  way is to make the punch up as before put it in a dead tail stock chuck  
 Put a block / rod  of close grained wood cut at 90 % , grain along the bed in the chuck  & stick the pad of felt on the block . Start the lathe at a slow speed & advance the punch onto the felt it will soon cut out a plug , if you are careful you can usually take the tailstock back leaving the plug still attached to the bit of felt  . Cut a square of the felt off  the button so it contains the partly cut through plug  .  & then slice the square bit containing the round plug to the desired thickness . 

 The last set of  plugs I made was from 1/4" thick unvulcanized rubber 
 I bored the plug diameter right through a 1.5 inch length of stainless 19 mm steel rod . turned  1/3 of its length to 1.5 mm bigger than the plug hole I'd drilled out & again gave it a cutting edge with a fine file . Then gingerly used the angle grinder to take out a fraction of just over half the thin body diameter  so as to make an ejection slot for the rubber plugs I was cutting  . I then proceeded to put the punch in the tail stock chuck , stapled the rubber sheet strip on a 2x2 " block of wood in the 4 jaw & as then above took the tailstock feed on the the rubber  . It worked well especially after I'd spent a little more time cleaning up the burs from where I'd used the grinder ....to give a really smooth surface & I'd  given the tube inside & out surfaces the slightest smear of silicon grease to help lube the rubber& punch . 

 Cutting the bed wipers was a doddle ,  after washing one out  in a tiny metal cap full of  electronic circuit board  spirit based cleaner / de-greaser & letting it dry of a few days I drew round one as it was pressed down on top of a 3x3 self adhesive label 
 I then stuck the label on a strip of 5 mm aluminium which I'd drilled & screwed to the end of some 2x 2 " batten with 2 x 20 mm x N o6 counter sunk screws wood , & cut it to a smidgeon ovesize size with a thin bladed angle grinder . 

The next step was to put a sticky felt pad on some smooth planed board . put the aluminium mask on it , added a faced up 12 mm  x 50 mm  long steel bolt  the top , then used a big " G clamp "  to set it all tight to the steel  bench top &  used a new blade in the box cutter to carefully cut the new felts to the aluminium mask


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## roadie33 (Feb 1, 2017)

I have no problem making the holes in the felt for the wipers. I just use my leather hole punch. It has the rotating punch head with 6 different sized holes and has no trouble going thru felt or plastic.


I am mainly wanting the wick material that goes in the head-stock oiler cups.


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## willthedancer (Feb 2, 2017)

Wool felt. Buy it at the fabric store. 

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk


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## yendor (Feb 2, 2017)

It may sound really Hill Billy bad but in a pinch I have used 5/16 Brass Tubing from a Hobby Shop to DRILL Holes in a stack of paper too big to fit into a punch.
Cut to about 3" long and grind a slight edge on one end Chucked up in my drill press with a backer board.

It makes a throw away one time use tool.

You could do the same thing for FELT and probably makes 100 felt plugs for the oil cups before it completely failed.


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## JPMacG (Feb 5, 2017)

What is the purpose of the wicks?   I'm guessing that they act as filters to keep debris from falling into the oil path when we open the flapper to drip in oil.  If that is the case, then almost anything porous that fills the hole should work.


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## wa5cab (Feb 5, 2017)

The purpose of the felt wicks or plugs is to meter oil delivery to the bearings.  Depending upon how much of the bottom of the hole that the cup is pressed into is not blocked at the bottom, the oil delivery rate from the bare cup can vary widely.  From descriptions, is would seem that most of the 10" and pre-1958 12" machine empty the cups in a few minutes to a few hours.  By the next day, the majority of the oil put into the cup the previous day is in the drip pan or dripping from the bottom of the headstock casting.  With the felt plugs, you probably won't hurt the spindle bearings if you run the machine a week after the last time that you actually oiled the felts.  Of course, most of the rest of the machine isn't that forgiving.  

The felt plugs would in fact prevent dust and shavings from getting through to the bearings if the caps were open or missing but you shouldn't be oiling the bearings with the machine running and damaged cups should be replaced before using the machine.

You would NOT want to use most other materials of similar porosity.  Steel and brass wool and fiberglass pad material would all serve to retard the flow of oil through the cups but they aren't very absorbent and you wouldn't like the results of some of the pad material going down the holes.  Longer strands that couldn't or didn't get all the way through would tend to block the hole and strands that did get through would damage the bearings and/or make them run rough.


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## JPMacG (Feb 5, 2017)

Ahhh.... I see.   Then having the proper wick material is important.  Too high a density would provide inadequate oil flow and too low a density would pass the oil too quickly.


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## wa5cab (Feb 5, 2017)

Yes.  Too low a density and you would still need to oil them at least every day.  Too high a density and you'll damage the bearings.  Back before I knew that I could still get some parts from Clausing and other sources, I bought some felt rod material in about the right diameter from McMaster.  I cut off two pieces of about the right length and because the things were too hard to just shove into the cups dry, I luckily decided to oil them before shoving them into the cups.  I squirted some on one end, and it just sat there.  Several hours later, it still wasn't even close to soaking through to the other end.


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