Having trouble with oilers

Wondering if anyone can help. I'm having trouble with the oilers wicks. I can't seem to get the oil to flow though the tube in the oilers. I have now taken out the tube in the oiler and the oil does come though, is that the way to go in all of them? I have only taken the tubes out of the valve eccentric and the slide bars on the piston. The ones in the crankshaft bearings are even smaller, so I can't get any wool in there to start with.
Can anyone tell me how they have gotten on with them.

Charlie

Ive had similar issues, but my wife managed to thread some very thin wool into all of them. They are all passing oil. I know a couple of guys with full size and 3 inch, say they dont use wicks at all. Although as you have said on your previous posts that you intend doing table display, maybe as its static, it could be used without wicks as you can top up more easily. Maybe someone on here has some ideas.
     Mike

Reduce the strand count. Make sure the tail goes below the level of the cup otherwise it takes a long time to siphon.

I take it your wool is worsted. As processed wool will not work as wicks.
Try with a thin motor oil to get things going.

What is worsted wool and where do I get it from. I am just using normal wool my wife has for knitting.

Normal wool has worked well for me. As Lynn suggested, reduce the strands.
  Mike

I have tried always to get the wool in the tubes, as fast as I push it in it just comes straight back out! The bearing tubes are the worse as they are so small to start with

I drilled the small tubs out slightly. After I threaded the wool, i left a couple of mm out of the bottom.
Mike

I drilled the small tubes out slightly. After I threaded the wool, i left a couple of mm out of the bottom.
  Mike

I'll have to try that too and try again to get some wool in them.
Thanks for your help

Are you using thin copper wire as a dolly threader?

These are how I do it. You will need thinner copper wire.

That look all well and good but the oilers on the 2" are so small you can't get anything in them. I have tried using very thin garden twin, I have taken the plastic coating off to just leave the thin wire, you can't really wrap any wool round the wire as when you push it in the tub the wool doesn't go in.
With your 6" engine that would work as you have shown in the pics as the oilers are so much bigger

The engine is 4"

I have done the same on oil pots for model boats and used fine copper strand. These had one ply of wool and the hole is only about 1mm

When you say thin copper wire, how thin is thin? The oilers on the bearings is smaller than 1mm

Tease out the strands so you can get at them individually. Then remove most so that the remaining strands form a point. Smear the point with glue (CA or similar) and work it so that it forms a hard thin point. Push into the oiler tube, pull from the other side to whatever length you need and cut away all the glue. Voila! It worked for me.

That is very clever idea. I'll try that, thanks

chas12154 wrote:When you say thin copper wire, how thin is thin? The oilers on the bearings is smaller than 1mm

Grab some standard 0.75mm 2 core flex



Then strip it back and you can easily get some really small bits of copper wire from one of the cores, from that you can replicate Lynnr's pictures using an individual strands of wool.
I use worsted like others but I've heard standard works as well. I've got bucket loads of the stuff as like many bought a kit from Heritage Steam which is fine if you're wicking up a full size but for us model folks I'll have enough till the day I die
If you are able to get to any of the shows I listed on the south then you are more than welcome to have a few mtrs to play around with.

Thanks Livesteam, I'll try that with the thin copper wire.
Had a few good ideas of what to do, so now I can give them a go and see how I get on

if you have any old type fuse wire the 5 amp is ideal