Oil can (again)

The oil can supplied with my Amadeal is utter rubbish, I've adjusted the seal several times and its impossible to stop oil coming out through the trigger pin.

I have had more oil on my hand, the bench and floor than the in machine and it's only through bare necessity that I haven't thrown it out the door.

Would purchase one of the £8-10 cans on the bay-of-evils ..there are many sellers to choose from but having purchased various items feel quality can be bit of a lottery.

I've searched the threads and Reilang appears to be a popular choice, are they 'that' good?

Are there various tips available? the cross-slide DRO scale covers the saddles r/h/s s ball oilers and I would really need a short 90 degree bend at the tip.

Guess the answer would be adapt or make one ?

I've initially overcome the can and access issue buy using a 20ml syringe and blunt #10 - cheap as chips and effective but longer term (if not a suitable can & tip) would be some low profile 90* nipples.

Why am I not surprised of that!

Choice is between a can or gun. I use both. A Wesco type as the can and a good quality gun are among my lubrication armoury. Cheap tat is just that - cheap and tatty. Lost oil will soon outweigh the extra cost of a good quality oiler. I also keep a range of syringes for dispensing anything that is important or expensive.

Poor design if important things are covered up. I installed a DRO with it spaced away from the table, to allow access to the gibs, for instance.

The man who invents a cheap reliable oil-can will make his fortune. Leaky oil-cans have been criticised throughout the entire history of model engineering. All mine leak a bit and spending more money may not be the answer. My least leaky oil-can is the cheapest, and it might be better because it's made of plastic and the threads squish. I don't know - the designs are all similar. Oil being slippery stuff makes it difficult to contain in a can operated at all sorts of odd angles.

Reilang have a good reputation, but even they've been criticised. I've got better things to spend money on, but be warned! My workshop isn't the clean sparkly type and a leaky oil-can doesn't make the mess look any worse. I just swipe spillages over my machines with a pair of old underpants and pretend it prevents rust...

Dave

I've never seen, let alone used, an oil-can or grease gun that didn't have at least a smear of its contents all over it.

All the good ones do better is force more of the lubricant into wherever you've aimed it.

Oil by its very nature is made to penetrate incredibly small and tight clearances to function as a lubricant, you will never stop it finding its way out of threaded items such as oil cans or guns, all threads have some degree of clearance hence oil leaking out. I just use a cheapo oil can and wipe up the dribbles and store any containers with oil in them on drip trays. Like Dave’s mine also isn’t a clean sparkly workshop, it’s lived in, just put up with oil dribbles, you will never get rid of them. Dave W

In my experience, the normal Enots oil cans work well, especially ones with "nylon" spouts, but best of all is the Reilang. It is expensive, does not leak, works at almost any angle and forces oil to where it is needed.

Ones supplied with a machine tend to leak, putting it mildly.

As always, you get what you pay for!

Howardf

Reilang don't list a right angle nozzle, but as the nozzle is screwed into the stem it would be possible to make one. I may need to do this once my son fits his DRO kit.

Brian G

I buy old Wesco cans cheap on ebay, clean them out then solder on attachments suitable for the requirement. I have a row of them for each job in hand, total cost about £25. They are not pretty but its very handy. Only one of the lot needed any tweaking to make it work, every other one worked as soon as fresh clean oil was pumped through a couples of squirts.

The one with a cone on for the myford nipples is a godsend.

The American "Eagle" style oil can had a good reputation. Its design seems inherently well suited to minimise leaks and drips.

I believe it is no longer available commercially but designs for a home workshop made look-alike can be found on the internet along with short write ups on construction. Making one has also been written up in MEW. I don't reliably recall the author but think the write up may have been by Stewart Hart.

Producing a lightly modified version has been on my "projects I'm unlikely to live long enough to get round to" list. Proposed modifications are to make it easy to change solid spouts so one of appropriate shape can be selected for each job and to adjust the valving to (mostly) clear the spout after use which ought to reduce drips if the rest position of the spout points upwards to some degree.

Naturally if the performance and drip rate of the oil cans I currently use deteriorates from mildly annoying to right PIA the build schedule will be advanced to "make 3 before the end of next week".

Clive

Not Done it Yet

yes, an annoying design / installation oversight

SillyOldDuffer / Nick Wheeler / Samsaranda

It's oil and oil cans are well...oily

A 'drip' would be heavenly compared to a handful.

Brian

something to consider with your sons install - I haven't taken the oportunity to see if the scale can be moved.

I've looked for 45* / 90" drive fit nipples for the beds, choice is limited guess I can modify some threaded ones ...I have a lathe now.

Jon / Clive

Probably won't be chasing vintage cans or making new/repros. Humbly ..a good working oil can 'a' drip after use will be fine (for now)

Plus one for the Reilang oil can, excellent design. If you're only going to buy one, that's the one to go for.

My Wesco must be close to 50 years old now and I used to keep it full of 20/50 motor oil as it could pump oil through the rocker shafts of my Trident when reassembling the head and give a good squirt to everything that was going to wait for the oil to arrive on first startup. A Reilang is filled with 32 weight hydraulic oil for Myford general oiling but a Tecalimit oil gun does all the nipples. None of these could be claimed to be oil tight but the Reilang returns the oil that dribbles down the outside of the spout to the tank so the outside of the tank stays relatively clean to handle. My hands seem very tolerant of oils but many people are vulnerable to dermatitis and the thin membrane gloves offer protection and may be the only solution, a dusty oil can I am sure does not exist.

Mike

I have gloves but honestly can't say that I reach for them first, I have suffered from mild dermatitis but thats dry cardboard related- years of working in warehouses.

As such not a problem with oily hands, motor, oil, gun oil (hmm Ballistol) the slides run a lot smoother on iso 32 hopefully that won't cause any longer term issues.

Looks like I may hit the button on a Reilang, I think there's an old Wesco in the shed ..somewhere behind the chainsaws.

Although I think a lot of people are very pleased with their Reilangs, there are a few dissenting voices. I see one chap on this forum ended up making a new seal arrangement.

I've got two reilangs. I bought them because everything else forced itself apart under the hydraulic pressure they encountered when used on the numerouse ball oilers dotted around my machines. They haven't forced themselves apart, which is something but they leak as much as the next can and the pumps constantly jam, needing to be jiggled about (I think that is the correct technical term) to get them to function. Not worth the money I paid for them, in my humble opinion.

Interesting,,not infallible but unlikely to self destruct,

I don’t think a Reilang is really intended as a high pressure oil gun that can pump oil into nipples intended for a high pressure oiler so I am not surprised that they are not great at that job. An oil gun like the Wanner or Tecalemit can produce very high pressure compared to a Reilang or Wesco type can.

Mike

I have several metal oil cans supplied with the lathe and mill and they all leak. I have a 30 year old simple plastic can that doesn't leak and I use it in any orientation.

This type of oil can I have:oil can

Further to my post above the oil can that I ended up buying, and yes it was a cheapo, came from the website of the National Motorcycle Museum, it carries an advert for Castrol oil and is in the company green colour, it does dribble but nowhere near as much as others I have had in the past, it has a flexible spout so it easily reaches the push button oilers on my machines, I wouldn’t be tempted to replace it with an expensive one it does the job. Dave W

I resigned myself long ago to the nature of any oil-can / old washing-up liquid bottle / 'Flit'-gun / owt with a fancy brand-name, to lubricate the intended bearings if you're lucky whilst performing its intended function of oiling everything else - including the user's hands - within range.

Oh though for something sensible for feeding oil past those miniscule ball-bearings held closed by remarkably powerful springs, that pass as oiling-points on many machines!