Oil Can leakage......how to replace the seal

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I have a few old oil cans with the long stem that threads into the base. They are the old style where you push the bottom wizard of oz style and the oil comes out the long stem......not the new trigger / jar style.

Anyway......every time i use them they leak and get oil all over heck.....around the body and eventually in the tools box etc.

Originaly they must have had some kind of gasket here or cork? I am wondering what others use here to keep them from leaking? Perhaps a small o-ring? That might work over the threaded part and cinched down when screwed to the base.

 

[wmm2]

When I was young, my father had a couple of those for some reason. If memory serves me correctly, it had a shiny coated fiber style gasket in it. (I don't know if it was original, or salvaged from a more recent source) I won't say it was a perfect seal, but I don't remember it leaking excessively. I'd suggest either making one from gasket material, or going to a plumbing supply place and seeing if they have one that's a close fit. Putting something in there has to work better than having nothing to keep the oil in the can.

 

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yup....i can see bits of something that used to be there but these things are from the 40s and they have all disintegrated. IT looks like cork or cork gasket material from what i can see. The bits are so small its hard to tell.....

Ill grab a small sheet of that and a few o rings the next time i stop by the hardware store.

I find the super tiny ones handy. The are little sewing machine oil cans. They work well for building bicycle wheels and lubing the spoke threads as you lace them. Neat little cans.