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Wicking in drip oilers
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 2:20 am
by farmerden
My main bearings,eccentrics and a few other spots have a material in them to allow the oil in these reservoirs to slowly weep into the journals.Is it just wool? What's best? I'm trying to enlighten our beginers on some of the smaller details in steam engines.Has anybody got any other small details we all should know and have perhaps overlooked with the thought that "gee I thought every body knew that!!!"
Den
Re: Wicking in drip oilers
Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 5:53 am
by 87gn@tahoe
Way back my father experimented with several different wicking mediums. From his experiene, he found that plain old natural sheep's wool seemed to work best..
He has an old wool sweater that has been providing wicks for years.
Re: Wicking in drip oilers
Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 6:33 pm
by Johnlanark
Wiki has info on wool (worsted) wick feed lubricators at section 3 here:
http://wiki.owwm.com/Default.aspx?Page= ... eSupport=1
These work by syphoning. The oil climbs up the wool strands from a reservoir and then drips down a passage, which is usually in the middle of the reservoir. Any grit will be left behind. They are primed by squirting oil over the wick when topping up for a run of the engine.
John