Air Line Lubricators

[Handyandy23]

I've got a question on the effectiveness of air line lubricators. Is there a certain minimum distance from the tool before you should be worried about the oil not actually reaching the tool?

I've heard anecdotal recommendations of "shouldn't go more than 10 feet from the tool" but nothing really consistent.

In my case I have copper hard line from my compressor to a hose reel. The copper hard line is only about 10 feet, but the house reel is a retractable 50 foot hose. I'm wondering if that 50 feet of hose will be too far and just get built up with oil internally?

 

[BillK]

I will probably get flamed for this but I have never used an air line lubricator for air tools. Most of the air tools at my business are probably 25 years old and I simply have not had any issues with them. Every once in a while the die grinder will sound like its slowing down some but a few drops of air tool oil fixes it up for another 6 months. I prefer to have clean air.

 

[nadogail]

I agree with the above; general purpose compressed air, IMHO, should be kept as clean and dry as possible.

 

[dffay]

Best to oil the tool at the air inlet each use. If you send oil through the hard line, it might wind up in the paint when you plug in a spray gun.

 

[930dreamer]

X2 on oiling at the tool inlet.

 

[malibu101]

X whatever.
IF it is a dedicated, heavily used tool (as in an assembly line setting) I can see the value of a lubricator.
Otherwise, a few drops when you think about it is normally sufficient.

 

[Handyandy23]

Thanks for all the input, everyone. That's what I've been doing up until now, just putting a drop out two into the tool inlet when I use them.

I had this idea that a lubricator would save me 5 seconds of oiling and give a more consistent lubrication, but after some research along with this thread, seems like a waste. Pros don't outweigh the cons in this case

 

[larry_g]

I worked industry many years and tons of pneumatic s. The oilier went on the inlet of the machine or if a large machine then located as necessary close to the actuator. All exhaust lines were plumbed to a coalescing filter that removed the oil from the air before it was exhausted. I highly advise against using oilier's in a shop environment.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[matt_i]

All good advise, an airline lubricator belongs in a scrapyard or on ebay in anything other than a production line.

From my years of actually working on high volume production lines, the best ones actually had a thin plastic tube which went all the way down thru the ID of the air hose to "drip" right next to the tool's inlet. There was a 3 position adjustment I think for 1, 5, 10 tool hits before a micro-drop of oil was dispensed.

 

[coljar]

I will probably get flamed for this but I have never used an air line lubricator for air tools. Most of the air tools at my business are probably 25 years old and I simply have not had any issues with them. Every once in a while the die grinder will sound like its slowing down some but a few drops of air tool oil fixes it up for another 6 months. I prefer to have clean air.

Agree 100%. Most of mine are over 30 years old and adding a few drops to the inlet of tool is all I've ever done.

 

[rlitman]

I wouldn't want oil inside my hoses. Especially on a 50' hose reel.

90% of my tools, I just put a few drops of oil in the inlet every so often. These are all occasional use tools.

I have a few continuous use tools where I keep a 3' whip hose and an inline oiler on the end of that. Basically I do this for my DA sanders where I can put my palm down on the paddle for sometimes over an hour. Also, my pneumatic chain hoist and paint shaker have oilers at their inlets.

 

[bts]

Seems I am the odd one out.
I run separate lines for straight air (yellow line) and oiled air (blue).

Comes from spending 10 years repairing pneumatic tooling.

 

[ford33]

I specified air line lubricators on permanent production machinery but never for use in air lines for handheld tools. Lubricate the hand operated tool when necessary by dripping oil into the inlet fitting.

 

[chinboys]

I installed an inline oil lubricator at the endpoint of my 20-foot airline system with a shut-off valve right before it. Before this endpoint are 4 outlets that I use for "clean air".
I have used air tools at all 5 outlets and know 4 of them don't add oil to the tool and the 5th one does but set at minimum.
my 2 cents.