Button Oiler - How to use.

[Eric Q.]

Hello fellow shoptask owners.

I have an '03 eldorado bridgemill and it has these funky little button oilers on the table. I've searched all over this forum and the internet in general for information on what tool I should use to put oil in these but have come up blank. The little button and hole are soo small I can't get a standard oil can tip to do much.

Is there a special applicator for using the button oilers? Or do folks put the on the 'ways' in a different manner?

Thanks,
Eric Q.

[dahui]

Huh, interesting point. I just jam the metal tip of my oil can in there and fire away. Tilt it to the side a little to the ball isn't plugging the tip of the can though. I also do the ways manually if they are dry.

[PinMan]

I just jam the metal tip of my oil can in there and fire away.

Lol, I do the same thing.

Another way to do it is to take the metal tip off of a basketball air pump and attach it to the tip of the oil can (most oil cans have threaded tips) the threads are a perfect match. At least on my oil can The tip is a perfect fit into the button hole and the holes on a basketball air pump are on the sides so you dont have to worry about the ball getting in the way

[smallblock]

I use a regular oil can to depress the button and squirt away. I think most of the oil runs out around the oiler, but enough goes down the hole to do the job. These things are a bit old fashioned, but probably part of the engineer's mentality. For most of the time i just squirt the oil directly on the ways. The old Cup type oilers were more practical, as you could fill them up and then open the little lid every so often to see how much the level dropped. Problem was that they stuck up too much and often got busted off. I've been kicking around the idea of a pressure system using a reservoir with an air line attached and feeding certain areas of the machine using those plastic air lines that come with air shocks. I thought of drilling into the carriages and the brackets holding the acme nuts so I could run presurized oil into those areas when the machine is running.

[Eric Q.]

Thanks for the replies.

I like the tip (pun intended) about using a basketball air tip. I was at HF a couple days ago and they had some oil cans that someone had stole the tips off of. I said to myself 'who would ever buy those now?', well it looks like I might be the one. lol.

The pressurised system sounds very cool but I think for the newby that I am I'll concentrate on just getting some oil on the machine. I would love to see how you implement that system though.

Eric Q.

[Eric Q.]

So I liked the idea about the baskettball air tip so much that I pushed on the little oiler ball and the first thing that happens is the ball jumps off of the spring and now I'm left with a hole. lol. Overall, not a big deal but dang, couldn't it have let me get to the second one before something else hinders my attempts at machining?

Maybe it was the weak one? lol.

Anyone know how to get the oilers out? I imagine that they push out from the bottom but it's lodged in there pretty dang tight.

Eric Q.

[fastlanecafe]

Those oilers are just a slight press fit into the hole. You can use something like a dental pick to pull them out. If its too tight for that, drill into it with a 5.5 mm drill- the oiler is 6mm, so once the walls are thin, its easy to pick out the remains. Shoptask sent me one when I had the same problem. If you screw up the hole, there are 1/4" oilers available from McMaster Carr and you can just open the hole up with a1/4" drill.

[Eric Q.]

That's good information fastlanecafe.

Thanks.