Getting an oiler button out of a chinese lathe

I screwed up, again, and while oiling the carriage on my lathe I let the tip of the oil can push the little ball down too far. It disappeared in to? I've just got tape over it for now to keep it clean. How do I get it out and where to find new ones? I'm tempted to make a hook and just try to pull it straight up. The part still there is brass.

Hook it out with a self tapping screw - if that doesn't work - drill and / or dig it out.

McMaster Carr can furnish McMaster-Carr

Sami's got it. If you have a screw starter, they work pretty good. Just a screwdriver handle with a quick tapered thread at the end of the shank for starting screws in wood.

The other technique is to remove the carriage and then drive it out with a suitable sized drift from the underside.

Mark Rand said:

The other technique is to remove the carriage and then drive it out with a suitable sized drift from the underside.

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AKA Last resort

FWIW - cutting the head off with a small sharp cold chisel leaves a thin ring of brass tube which can easily be collapsed and winkled out of the hole.

Use a vise grip pliers, the kind with a straight jaw to the screw.. put in a longer threaded screw and add a knocker weight to go on the screw.. makes a great knocker puller for many jobs.

Yes you make single hooks, even double hooks to pull bearings, bushings, oil caps and the like.

IRWIN VISE-GRIP Original Curved Jaw Locking Pliers with Wire Cutter, 1", 52L3 - Vice Grip - Amazon.com

Wow I have seen those oil buttons 40 years old and still working fine..No not those but the better ones.

The oiler buttons on my import 16x40 (which I am generally satisfied with) are utterly useless. I have never been able to successfully inject oil through most of them (only two work, actually). This includes fiddly tweaking with Luer tip needles on manual squeeze bottles to shove oil between the depressed ball and the rim of the button, and using a high-pressure oil gun with a cross-slit tip to depress the ball while leaving a free space to pump. I've even tried pooling oil on top and then jacking the ball up and down with the tip of a scriber. As far as I can tell, these damned things are installed in blind holes! If there is any "window" of open oil passage between ball-up-and-full-closed and ball-down-and-full-blocked, I haven't found it in more than 5 years of playing with it.

I have not yet succumbed to the temptation of ripping them out with a woodscrew and a pair of needle-nose pliers, but I am getting very, very close. There are only a couple of oilers where a small filler cup would interfere with something (like slides passing overhead) and I'd be happy enough to plug those with felt or something.

In the meantime, the maintenance routine is very old-school. Dribble oil on the slides and run things back and forth weekly (daily if using heavily). Every six months (nine to 12 months if day job keeps me out of my own shop) take the compound and cross-slide apart, manually clean and lubricate.

Guess I would rip them out and make a close fit plug for them..but not likely buying a China machine.

Have thought about buying a xxxxx... ops! almost said the name..

I'd not be surprised if you pull some of those oilers out on a Chinese machine and find no passage for the oil to go anywhere, seen it on a 3 jaw chuck?
Dan

Danny VanVoorn said:

I'd not be surprised if you pull some of those oilers out on a Chinese machine and find no passage for the oil to go anywhere, seen it on a 3 jaw chuck?
Dan

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Yep. I've seen 2-3" long curlicues inside the apron left from match drilling/pinning the gears/shafts. Niiiccce.

Those import oilers were the work of Satan, almost never worked, the balls would stick down and even when the ball would travel up and down almost never would they take oil, normally they just pop out with a pull from vise grips. There were a couple that were flush mounted, no flange on those we used a small slide hammer with a tapered thread extractor, sucked them right out.

Well, for years you guys have been telling people if they make an errant hole to stamp "OIL" next to it and be done. Seems like the universe has switched things up on y'all .. LOL

metalmagpie

Take a drywall screw ,the tip is very sharp, screw it into the ball oiler about 1/4" or so. Then pull it straight up with a claw hammer. I replaced every ball oiler with standard cup types.

Once you get it out hunt around under it and make sure that the ball and spring come out so they do not scar up the moving parts.
Bill D

McMaster-Carr

I only know this because the previous owner of my lathe put the tall oil cup in front of a bold head , I needed access to said bolt. Chanel locks: enter stage right.