Worsted wool trimmings for oilers

Hi All,

My engine is very near completion and so i am setting my sights in preparing it to run on air and then steam. I am just wondering where people go their worsted wool from for the wick feed oilers.]

Many thanks

Hi,

I got mine from Heritage Steam Supplies https://www.heritagesteamsupplies.co.uk/.

the box will last me for the next millennium

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Elwood

elwood-59 wrote:Hi,

I got mine from Heritage Steam Supplies https://www.heritagesteamsupplies.co.uk/.

the box will last me for the next millennium

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Elwood

Yeah I think we all made that mistake, I'm sure the amount they supply a full size would get through but for us miniatures we could do with about 100th of what they supply. My wife even thought about knitting me a jumper out of it

Brilliant thank you very much.

as the oilers on these are very small how have people found the best way to make their wicks. i have made some and put oil in to see if they work in the morning however please could i see how other people make them.

many thanks

Hi,

the kit comes with two sizes of wool and a very good explanation/instruction. I use the thinner one with copper strand taken from a flexible cable. the copper wire that comes with the kit seems to big to me. Made a sample just as you did and checked if the oil dripping out of the bottom of the oiler pot - it does.

First I tried „normal“ wool, but that seems not to work due to some chemical processing between sheep and ball of wool, so I went to the kit.

Cheers

Elwood

Thunderbolt wrote:Brilliant thank you very much.

as the oilers on these are very small how have people found the best way to make their wicks. i have made some and put oil in to see if they work in the morning however please could i see how other people make them.

many thanks

https://www.heritagesteamsupplies.co.uk/lubricators-accessories/worsted-wool/worsted-wool-instructions.html

I tend to use a strand of copper out regular house flex as as the oilers are just so small, I use just a single strand of wool in the Plug trimming option. I've found over the years if you put too much wool in the oiler it takes an age to fill the dam thing so I find I just pop a small amount say 1".
After a while you get a feel whats right for you, although even now I can have one oiler using more oil than another for no apparent reason as they appear identical but suspect it depends where the bearing stops, the clearance of the bearing etc

I also have worsted wool simply because it's been used for decades.

But some engine manufacturers didn't use wool but J shaped hooks of copper wire, long side to the bearing and short side to the pot. There is a guy on Youtube that has experimented with this too.

I have also done some timed experiments and the delivery is just as good as wool, much simpler to make and I can carry spares or remove the wicks very easily. But I haven't tried it on a working engine as yet though.

I used 1.5mmsq lighting conductors which are a little thick but it's the capillary action that makes it work, fascinating to watch.

Richard.

Hi Richard,

just out of curiosity: do you have a link to the youtube video you mentioned?

Cheers

Elwood

Hi,

I hope this works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycHtWXcaahQ

Or The Little Known Wire Wick Lathe Oil Cup.

I started to use it on my lathe as i got fed up of my Needle drip feed oilers leaking empty and then converted to Lister oil cups with a wool wick. The wool wicks would leak out overnight so I removed them then spent a blinking frustrating time putting them back in. My savior was the YouTube idea.

Worth a look, but copper wire as there is no fear of it scoring any moving parts.

Richard

Hi Richard,

thanks for the link, will give it a try. And yes, copper is definitely the way to go to avoid damaging the part to be oiled.

Cheers

Elwood

T140 wrote:

Or The Little Known Wire Wick Lathe Oil Cup.

Now that is interesting, not sure how it would cope the a shaking traction engine, me thinks I need to try this, nice find.