Chinese drip feed oilers

Window shopping for brass drip feed oilers, tempted to buy 3 - (I must wait until I have completed adding missing parts to my lathe)...

I did see some listed on AliExpress:

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20210710060450&SearchText=brass+drip+feed+oiler

Contrast this with RDG tools:

https://www.rdgtools.co.uk/acatalog/Drip_Feed_Oilers.html

I suppose you get what you pay for but still intrigued, has anyone bought a Chinese version, is it any good?

Which ever you buy, (They might be the same, just a different supplier. At least with RDG you have a somewhere to go for support if there is a problem).

Possibly some may require a little, fine tuning to work exactly satisfactorily.

You pays your money and takes your chance.

Howard

Hi Howard thanks for your reply,

yes of course you take a chance with Chinese products especially with the six weeks or thereabouts wait for them…

I was rather hoping for a reply from someone who has bought them so they can give him objective answer?

Amazon have some too .... presumably of Chinese origin.

The RDG and Amazon ones are almost guaranteed to be the same as the AliExpress ones, so will be the same or similar in performance and quality.

If you aren't happy with the possible risk, there's always the tried and trusted AdamsLube.

I bought some of these, several years ago so they may not represent current production. They were reasonably well made but very unwilling to drip - it was all or nothing - because the needle valve was not tapered finely enough, so a bit of modification was needed.

There was an article in ME or MEW, in about 2015 covering this, with calculations for the correct taper. Hope this helps, and sorry I have no further details.

Ah right, good call, thanks! I will need to research on that tweaking.... so, possibly £7 a pop rather than the £23 is worth the wait and the gamble.

It always is with the Chinese stuff - but I have often been impressed with the quality.

That could equally describe my ML7 originals

i bought a large one for my hendry ford first engine build, quality is ok for the price and drips ok on testing. gary

This is how forums help, thanks Gary... anyone want to say anything about 'debugging' or 'tweaking' these drip oilers? That would be good...

Frankly, I don't think they are worth the trouble on a small lathe in intermittent use. They are just a distraction from making things, and you have to remember to turn them off when you finish. I have had two plain-bearing lathes with simple oil cups with wick feeds, and it is no bother to top these up with an oilcan as required.

Few bits of brass and glass tube, sure I saw an article in ME a while ago on how to make them. Could have been MEW.

Regards Ian.

Of course, Old Muggin's here has a bag full of them

They need a bit of work in the throttle if you want it to shut off.

The top spring thing that uncovers the fill hole and holds the drip adjust wherever you left it, is a steel stamping with sharp edges so nothing about it is easy.

The screw thread at the bottom was not something I had in my collection of taps and dies.

What about those digital oilers with the interval and duration timers? Somebody stop me

Yes, connect the sensor in the oiler via Lora WAN and use AI to control lathe

Edited By James Tregaskis on 11/07/2021 12:05:44

or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6UDVE8nvbs

I ordered one from China, a 1/4 BSPP thread, it was an experiment to see if it would get stopped at customs for VAT etc. it only cost £4.39. rather strangely it arrived today from from Germany! however it's the wrong size, more like M14 so way too big for my lathe. Apart from that is appears very well made. I could make an adapter easily enough but for the price it seems very good.

Be aware that some of these oilers are made from steel pressings and brass plated,no problem with lathe lubricators as they are rarely polished when cleaning the lathe,though when used on stationary engines and polished regularly the brass plating soon disappears.

There is no brass plating on this one, what you see is what you get, I've already tried some oil in it and the drip adjustment seems to work fine. so for less than £5 it's very good.

I took a punt on one of these a week ago, it arrived today (from a uk supplier?) cost £9. It is listed as 14mm thread, no good for the Myford - too big, but I expected to make an adapter, easy enough as the pic shows BUT

here's the shock

I unscrewed the original fitting with the sight hole and same for the leaky myford one - sight plastic cracked - and to my great surprise the old Myford fitting screwed straight on to the new oiler

So refitted, all done and dusted in 10 mins and drips as needed

What a result

cw £30 ea from ykw

So I have immediately ordered a second one

Its not often something works out like this

hope this helps

OBTW  FYI

looking closely at the original myford oiler and its thread socket, i thought it was a bit small for 1/4 BSP and sure enough it turned out to be 3/8" BSP 28 tpi, quite a lot finer than 19tpi as above core 0.32 id and od 0.379 thats my old ML7. bit it didnt matter as i reused the old adapter

Edited By brian jones 11 on 07/08/2021 10:25:33

3/8 UNF is a common size for brake pipe fittings

here is a brass plug to make an adapter

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/132854435674?hash=item1eeebdcf5a:g:dAIAAOSwI~9b6rsc