Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

Working on a Ideal Steel open gear windmill .
There are 6 different oiling points .
#1 ) What "material " do I stuff into the oiling holes to slow the oil flow to a slow drip ?
#2 ) What weight oil ? Yah , I know a Aermotor uses 10 wt . But open gear ?

Mike B
New Braunfels TX

On the old windmills most manufacturers used wire wicks but I doubt any one sells that try using kerosene wicks with 10 weight

Got ya .

Something that is used in the oilers of old gas engines is sheep's wool. If you have any sheep around go cut you a hand full. Something else I've stated using in my oilers like that is chainsaw bar oil. it is kinda sticky and thicker so it hangs around longer. Just my 2 cents worth.

No sheep around here but I like that idea ! But Amazon has everthing .
I have several bottles of chain saw oil and your right , it does stick to everything .

I think it depends on the oiler "system". From what I have seen, the oilers that use a wire also had a tube coming up the center (soldered at bottom). Then a fine single or many times twisted wire went into the oil and down the center tube. The oil would actually wick up the wire over the tube, then drip off the end of the wire. Other similar had a fiber wick. I am not so sure how well a heavier oil would wick.

On mills with built in reservoirs ... like a F&W or what I think I am seeing on Mike's Ideal ... I believe stuffing with wool and a heavier oil would be a good bet. Even the holes on the bottom of the F&W oil reservoirs have what I consider a pretty big hole ... too thin of oil is going to flow out fairly quick.

Mister Ed , the holes in the bottom of the reservoirs are approx 3/8 inch dia . lots of thin oil could run out very quickly .
I have several woven lantern wicks coming from Lehman's Hardware in Ohio . They specialize in items the Amish use regularly
Mike B

Mike, about what I was guessing based on my F&W. That wick material will probably work well. I think I have some F&W literature that calls for wool or felt. Heck it might even say cotton too.

That's what I'm gonna use on my F&W 12. There is a sheep farmer down the road from me 2 miles. I can get all I need. Never thought of chainsaw oil good idea.

So i got some sheeps wool. I just wonder what i should do with it? Its full of dirt and straw and everything. Maybe i should boil it to clean the lanolin out of it. Im going to use john deer corn head grease for my F&W 12.
I wondered if i could warm up the grease somehow and get the "clean" wool nicely saturated with grease. Does anyone have any ideas on this?