Tips/Techniques A tiny right angle ball oiler tip.

[Susquatch]

Here is my problem.

This ball oiler on my lathe has been impossible to use. I can't get a ball oiler tip in there to oil it.

I need to make a right angle adapter for one of my oil cans to fit it.

I have a really nice Reiling Oil can that would perfect for this job. In fact, even with the right angle adapter permanently installed, it would fit all my other ball oil fittings.

I'll apologize in advance. This thread will progress slowly. It will have to be done in baby steps as I'm not allowed to use my shop very often.

Edit - The tip is 4.5mm 0.75

Part of me wants to make a 90 deg adapter, and part of me wants to make a new 90 deg oiler tip.

Thoughts?

 

[RobinHood]

Here is a project for you to solve the problem of the “dribble”: relocate the oiler to the side (for example) and cross-drill a passage way to feed the original oil gallery. Close off the original oiler port with a plug.

Deckel engineers were/are huge fans of this system. Works very well and is super convenient for central oiling systems. Plugged off cross-drilled passages are all over the Deckel FP3L saddle. Very ingenious (and complicated)…

 

[Susquatch]

Here is a project for you to solve the problem of the “dribble”: relocate the oiler to the side (for example) and cross-drill a passage way to feed the original oil gallery. Close off the original oiler port with a plug.

Very nice. Lotta work, but very nice. Lemme think about it.

 

[PeterT]

Same design as mine. I missed my opportunity when the carriage was off the lathe to replace the 'never took a sip of oil' fitting with a right angle snorkel. Or maybe drill a new passage at an angle & hope you hit the existing vertical gallery hole.

 

[John Conroy]

Here's my take on the same problem with my lathe. It doesn't even have an in-accessible oil port, I guess it's supposed to be splash lubed from the sump in the apron. The shift lever action was getting sticky and there is a rubber access plug inline with the handle shaft. When I took out the rubber plug it was dry. I squirted a little oil in the bore but it wasn't much better, the shaft that meshes with the handle shaft is above and I couldn't get any oil up there. You can see the end of that shaft in your first picture. The end of mine is covered by a metal plate with shifting instructions on it. That plate is removed in the pic. After I removed the 4 screws holding the plate on I could lube the top shaft and the shifting action smoothed out. I don't want to have to removed that plate to lube the shifter.



I decided to drill an oil passage to intersect with the bore to the top shaft and install an oil cup. It looked easier to go in from the left side. I used a long 1/8" drill bit to drill the passage then followed with a letter R bit 1/2" deep for some 1/8"NPT threads.





I had to make a special socket to get the hand wheel off and out of the way.





I put the rubber plug back in with some Three-Bond sealer to keep it from drooling. Here's the finished product. It shifts perfectly now.

 

[Susquatch]

Here's the finished product. It shifts perfectly now.

Nice John. Very nice.

I have been thinking about mine ever since I read @RobinHood's suggestion. Seems like a few of us have this issue.

Rudy's idea won't work directly on mine because there is a screw in the way. I thought about removing the screw and drilling anyway in the hopes that oil would just flow around the screw shaft but it's a micky mouse solution. Then I turned my attention to the left side and had similar problems.

Right now, I'm investigating an extension of Rudy's idea picking up on his comments about internal Plugs. If I drill through the right screw hole with a small drill first, then a larger drill, I could put a plug in behind the screw shaft (or even just leave it unplugged), then drill vertically to intersect the horizontal screw hole, and then install a new ball oiler where it is accessible. A little extra oil dead ended in a screw hole won't hurt anything.

I think this is one of those problems that is gunna sit and simmer a while. Oiling my shifter shaft the way I have has worked for many years and it will work for many more. I am gunna sit and noodle it till the idea stops improving. Then I'll go do it. Hopefully by then my bride isn't following me around all day.

In the meantime, I may or may not make a new oiler tip to reach the current fitting.

 

[Darren]

what about something like this? (sorry I don't have @PeterT 's cad skills)

 

[Susquatch]

what about something like this? (sorry I don't have @PeterT 's cad skills)

Does anyone? I think @TorontoBuilder & @PeterT do it just to make the rest of us jealous. Your drawing is better than mine would have been.

I like the idea A LOT! I wouldn't have to remove the saddle and do any disassembly to clean out drilling chips. Lemme go look as soon as SWMBO goes to town again. It will be a few days though. We are getting an ice storm here and it's getting worse by the minute.

 

[DPittman]

Does anyone? I think @TorontoBuilder & @PeterT do it just to make the rest of us jealous. Your drawing is better than mine would have been.

I like the idea A LOT! I wouldn't have to remove the saddle and do any disassembly to clean out drilling chips. Lemme go look as soon as SWMBO goes to town again. It will be a few days though. We are getting an ice storm here and it's getting worse by the minute.

View attachment 31088

Close up of your frosty eye brows?

 

[Susquatch]

As you wish. A few years back.

 

[Janger]

What about a small flexible tube replacing the ball oiler. With a plug in the end to keep dirt out. Remove plug and squirt oil in the tube. It would be as functional as it is ugly.

 

[Janger]

View attachment 31083
what about something like this? (sorry I don't have @PeterT 's cad skills)

3D print it.

 

[Janger]

Does anyone? I think @TorontoBuilder & @PeterT do it just to make the rest of us jealous. Your drawing is better than mine would have been.

I like the idea A LOT! I wouldn't have to remove the saddle and do any disassembly to clean out drilling chips. Lemme go look as soon as SWMBO goes to town again. It will be a few days though. We are getting an ice storm here and it's getting worse by the minute.

View attachment 31088

In Calgary we had 15” of snow and it’s now minus 24. Last night I was trying to fix the heater fan in my truck. Five minutes under the dash and 30 back inside to thaw out. Why don’t I work on it in the garage ? Stupid metal work hobby.

 

[Susquatch]

Downright scary here right now. It's dark and the ice is accumulating. There is old growth forest on both sides of the house. There is a more or less constant loud cracking and crashing sound of breaking branches and trees filling the night air. I shudder to think what the forest will look like tomorrow.

 

[Darren]

Downright scary here right now. It's dark and the ice is accumulating. There is old growth forest on both sides of the house. There is a more or less constant loud cracking and crashing sound of breaking branches and trees filling the night air. I shudder to think what the forest will look like tomorrow.

We had that here a few months ago. Lost quite a few trees and lots of limbs. I can now see lights from a neighbors house through the bush and from cars on the road that I never could before

 

[PeterT]

Your sketch is pretty much exactly what I had in mind. Most offshore machines have pressed in ball oilers like these. The only tricky bit is safely extracting them without creating issues, which means clear line of sight without the dial or whatever in the way. You don't want to push the oiler into the port hole & some are actually a straight hole without no counterbore ledge. Worse, you also don't want to inadvertently drive the steel ball out the bottom & now its stuck somewhere in the gallery 3" into the casting. On one of mine I bent the lip up all around the periphery. The ball came out topside and (most of) the spring. Then I had some brass cage material to grip with pliers. I've also heard others use a tap to thread an ID grip & tug.

Anyways you could make the horizontal section that @Darren shows 'new oil port' so it also captured an oiler body if you needed to feed it from the side. I like those 1-shot oiler tubes you see on mills but I believe they are all threaded fittings. Probably a bit unsightly on a typical lathe but might be another way to get lubrication into hard to reach 'afterthoght' areas.

 

[140mower]

Downright scary here right now. It's dark and the ice is accumulating. There is old growth forest on both sides of the house. There is a more or less constant loud cracking and crashing sound of breaking branches and trees filling the night air. I shudder to think what the forest will look like tomorrow.

Keep your head down my friend..... Hopefully you and everyone else in the region comes out of this safe and unharmed.... How many times in the past few years have I said "natural disasters are good for the local economy"...... You would think things would be more prosperous....

 

[curmudgeon]

Most offshore machines have pressed in ball oilers like these. The only tricky bit is safely extracting them without creating issues, which means clear line of sight without the dial or whatever in the way. You don't want to push the oiler into the port hole & some are actually a straight hole without no counterbore ledge. Worse, you also don't want to inadvertently drive the steel ball out the bottom & now its stuck somewhere in the gallery 3" into the casting. On one of mine I bent the lip up all around the periphery. The ball came out topside and (most of) the spring. Then I had some brass cage material to grip with pliers. I've also heard others use a tap to thread an ID grip & tug.
View attachment 31112

I just replaced a couple of these; one on the cross slide, and one on the tailstock. In both cases the spring and ball had been pushed through the bottom of the oiler sleeve. Fortunately I was able to find both springs and balls. The brass cages came out pretty easily by screwing a short #8 woodscrew in and then leveraging it up using the centre hole on one of those small stainless prybar/scrapers. To my dismay, the replacement oilers from Ali have smaller balls that don't work as well with my oiler.

 

[John Conroy]

Nice John. Very nice.

I have been thinking about mine ever since I read @RobinHood's suggestion. Seems like a few of us have this issue.

Rudy's idea won't work directly on mine because there is a screw in the way. I thought about removing the screw and drilling anyway in the hopes that oil would just flow around the screw shaft but it's a micky mouse solution. Then I turned my attention to the left side and had similar problems.

Right now, I'm investigating an extension of Rudy's idea picking up on his comments about internal Plugs. If I drill through the right screw hole with a small drill first, then a larger drill, I could put a plug in behind the screw shaft (or even just leave it unplugged), then drill vertically to intersect the horizontal screw hole, and then install a new ball oiler where it is accessible. A little extra oil dead ended in a screw hole won't hurt anything.

I think this is one of those problems that is gunna sit and simmer a while. Oiling my shifter shaft the way I have has worked for many years and it will work for many more. I am gunna sit and noodle it till the idea stops improving. Then I'll go do it. Hopefully by then my bride isn't following me around all day.

In the meantime, I may or may not make a new oiler tip to reach the current fitting.

Could you just leave the current oil port in place and drill a new passage, from either side just under the screw? It would intersect the same shaft bore as the original. In your first pic, is that the end of the shaft that is bare metal color or is it a plug pressed into the bore?

 

[Susquatch]

Could you just leave the current oil port in place and drill a new passage, from either side just under the screw? It would intersect the same shaft bore as the original. In your first pic, is that the end of the shaft that is bare metal color or is it a plug pressed into the bore?

Yes, I prolly could. If I go that route, I'll prolly try to lube around the screw shaft using the screw hole as part of the oil galley. Depending on the clearance, I might have to open the screw hole a bit so the oil can flow around the screw shaft.

I'm not sure which one you mean John. But it doesn't matter. Either one gets the same answer. One is a mounting screw and the other is the shift fork shaft. The shift fork shaft is splined and is moved in and out by the shifter handle. There are no plugs in that whole area.

My very clear preference at this point is to make a right angle ball oiler adapter sort of like what @Darren suggested but much smaller. It doesn't need to be long at all. It just needs right angle access. I'm also thinking of a cap instead of a ball oiler to avoid putting undue stress on the cap while oiling.