How about a gravity fed system? Have a header tank, witha manifold plumbing into each oiling point with a tap to control the flow rate. The header tank could be topped up daily from a hand pump. Also have an overflow pipe back to your source, so no need for any level monitoring on the header. Just pump until it overflows back down.

Bearing in mind the budget, could something like a garden micro drip watering system be adapted using a header tank. Plastic tubing and adjustable drip nozzles, starter kits of 20-30 nozzles and tubing seem to come in at <£20.

Sounds an interesting museum

please give location and link

I fancy some smarties

Good morning Rainbows,

I don't know if any of these companies still exist, but they all provided "centralized lubrication systems" some time ago.

Tecalamit, Lumatic, Bielomatic & Trabon.

Yes, HGV's would be a good start, but don't forget the AG industry with Combine Harvesters, Forage Harvesters & Balers, etc. Not to mention production machinery.

Good luck. Preserving the past deserves it!

Trevor beat me to it. They have a grease or oil reserve and slow reacting chemicals that force rhe lube out over a period.

Martin

Plastic tubing will be somewhat out of keeping with the equipment you describe, using bundy tubing to bring the oil points to a central point could simplify the task and was used to simplify the lubrication of some of our old overhead conveyor systems. Battery powered and timed lubricators are available but these probably fail the cost test of your application. It sounds like you require an automatic timed system and it is difficult to imagine how this could be achieved at low cost. There are plenty of solutions where cost is covered by labour saving but for a volunteer labour force it is difficult to offset the cost against labour saving. Getting the balance right between over and under lubrication is difficult, over lubrication is messy and under lubrication can be disastrous Manually visiting each point does give feedback on the situation of each lubrication point.

Mike

The Grease -O-Matics are available with different feed rates . Am sure consultation with the company coupled with variable and logged initial manual monitoring would result in an eminently suitable solution in all facets.

Making 30-40 larger oil cups with adjustable restrictors would be a much bigger task than routing and cutting thin black plastic pipe – each run of which would only take a minute or so to install. And once installed the pipe system will not need every lube point to be individually checked daily, which I think was part of the brief.

Edited By John Doe 2 on 19/04/2023 09:34:08

Not sure to which museum Rainbows is referring, but Kelham Island in Sheffield has a similar display and is well worth a visit; if you can find the best route to the entrance via the new low traffic planters.
https://www.sheffieldmuseums.org.uk/visit-us/kelham-island-museum/

I was there yesterday, as the host a series of lunchtime lectures.

Bill