Lathe Bearing Wick Capilary Material

Rebuilding my new Cataract lathe, and the capialry wicks are all dried up and brittle from oil that turned to varnish. What kind of felt or wool material can I use for the two wicks inside? I have some green felt of unknown type, can I use it just for now to run the lathe for short periods?

For reference, it's a total loss oil system with cast iron bearings and a "hardened ball bearing steel spindle".

No...mcmaster has machine felt

snowman said:

No...mcmaster has machine felt

Click to expand...

I figured I should go that route, but I just figured I should ask. Right now it's still apart.

Wool felt is traditional. Wool because is has an affinity for oil and felt because of its interlocked fibrous nature makes it a superior wick. Shop around and you can find felt wicking at the usual suspects on the pages where wool felt is found.

That said I was stuck over a week end needing some wool wicking. As if happened the neighbor just sheared his poodle. I bummed a pile of the fluff, combed it out, and finger-spun as nice a wick as ever graced an American machine tool. Once one end dipped in oil, it slowly wicked up the length and wetted the two bearings and the dovetails it served. If wool was a 10 on the wicking scale I'd give hand spun poodle hair a 12.

In a pinch, you could raid SWMBO's knitting basket for a few feet of wool yarn you can loosely twist together. If you need a bit more substance you could twist in a light wire. I used 18 ga (1.21 mm) magnet wire the few times I needed it.

I've got an old BP manual that calls for "standard pipe cleaner"
JR

You will have trouble finding wool felt in the stores these days...and wool yarn is damn near gone as well.

Thankfully, the number of available poodles is pretty high.

Got an old fedora hat laying around? Ort any other hat made of felt? The cheaper ones are wool felt. High priced ones are fur felt (mine cost $125.00).

Buy the felt from mcmaster carr. It's about 1/4 inch round, and goes in like this:

http://mwdropbox.com/dropbox/59_front_1.jpg

It folds over once the shell is in place:

http://mwdropbox.com/dropbox/59_front_2.jpg

You can see the groove so the oil can travel from the oiler to the wick:

http://mwdropbox.com/dropbox/59_oiler.jpg

When it's all apart it looks like this:

http://mwdropbox.com/dropbox/59_exploded.jpg

(large photos...)

Wow Jim, you're the hero of the week Thank you very much for the photos.

I was talking with Larry but he's away for a few weeks.

You just never know when you're going to need poodle clippings.....