Oil Wick Test

Testing a mystery wool (looks and feels like wool/synthetic blend) found aboard ship vs a known 100% Worstead wool of smaller diameter. Six strands each 16 inches long total, folded in half to give eight inch tails. on either four inch drop wires or two and a quarter inch drop wires. Results at end of video. I will be testing a bundle of Worstead at same total thickness of "mystery wool" to see if bundle can match or beat the results.
Oil was ISO 150 at 70 degrees F. No, I'm not going to warm my house to 90 for the experiment. Cold oil flows would be most critical as they're slower and when the bearings would be most vulnerable.
UPDATE: After the test I added three more strands to the smaller diameter Worstead wool bundles and had a significant gain over the mystery wool with volume of bundle still less than the mystery wool bundles.
Music:
'Yakety Sax' by Boots Randolph
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[@TroyeWelch]

Cool science experiment! The moral of the story seems to be (?) that there is not a ton of difference (less than a factor of 2) amongst the 4 samples. Perhaps increasing the number of strands (cross-sectional area) would have a bigger impact. They all seem to work to varying degrees. Not sure what problem you were trying to solve? Maybe the “manuals” specify a certain drip/flow rate, but the proof is in the pudding as to whether the bearings heat up or not (and to what degree). Of course, if bubba lets the reservoir run dry, it’s all moot anyway.
Most of the total-loss gravity-fed lubricators I’ve dealt with are needle-regulated drippers where an interval between drips can be timed (depending on temperature/viscosity of course). Some will have cotton waste jammed in as a filter to keep abrasive particles out of the bearing. Only a very few actually rely on this capillary action for the main flow. Can’t say I’m a big fan, but if you want to stay original, there’s not much choice.🤷‍♂️

[@UBG_Marine]

answering life's most important questions

[@alwaysbearded1]

Interesting. Wonder what effect if any oil moving through bearing aids in drawing in more oil if that makes sense. Of course as you mentioned, as the bearing and oil heat up the flow should be faster. Also interesting note that adding some strands significantly increased the flow rate. Maybe the effect works best at a certain scale.

[@rhavrane]

Bonjour Wesley,
I am a little bit surprized by the grade of the oil you test. I commonly use 430 steam oil inside and outside my machines. Is 150 the oil one you use in your lubricator ?
Amicalement, Raphaël

[@wanglydiaplt]

Have you tried it with a detergent oil? Howzabout with the Saito mix: they recommended adding some Moly Dee to the oil IIRC.

[@WesleyHarcourtSTEAMandMORE]

Just what I had on hand. Trying to replicate conditions on the Jeremiah O'Brien