Jura T Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 My Beast from the East (see http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f57/russian-hammer-5146/) is now sitting in my new shop. Finally, last Wednesday, my electrician finished the wiring in the shop and I was able to try the hammer. It runs quite nicely. The problem is that there seems to be some sort of a problem with the oiler. You can see the system in its simplicity in the picture below. Before running the hammer I filled the the small clear tube just after a needle valve with oil. The oil vanished after a short while but there seems to be no oil coming from the reservoir. I actually filled the tube several times and there seems be a lot oil leaking from the piston, so the oil seems to go where it is supposed to go... Now the questions is that what should I do to get the oil circulating. It seems that the oiler system has been the same for at least a fairly long time. So I guess it should work as it is. I used SAE 30 oil. Could it be that it is too low in viscosity? Should I try thicker oil, and if so, then how thick should I go? Couple a days ago I spoke to blacksmith using a Beche hammer and he told that he is using 80W-90 oil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnptc Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 i would crack open a few fittings and see if the oil is pumping and or this might release trapped air in the system Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 The small clear tube just under the needle valve is the sight glass. The sight tube lets you see and adhust the needle valve to drip a drop of oil every so often. Follow the red tube down to the small tank on the side of the machine below the valve and sight glass. This is the oil tank, and has a clear window in the side to show how full it is. Air comes from the machine to pulse a little pressure on the oil, it then goes up to the needle valve, drips a drop, and then into the machine. To adhust, one has the machine running tupping. Adjust for a drop every say 20 strokes of the ram. Let it run and stable out for a few minutes. Hold a white sheet of paper in front of the exhaust for one pulse of exhaust. One should see a VERY FINE, mist of droplets. Not spatters but tiny, hard to see mist. Adjust up and down fom there to what you need. These oilers need to be set for the oil and then always use that viscosity. I would think sae 30 should be fine. I suspect that filling the sight glass overoiled the piston. I think it may be possible that you need a new lower seal. I would drain and clean the oiler tank, and refill with new clean oil of the visicosity you intend to use. Then adjust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnptc Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 The small clear tube just under the needle valve is the sight glass. The sight tube lets you see and adhust the needle valve to drip a drop of oil every so often. Follow the red tube down to the small tank on the side of the machine below the valve and sight glass. This is the oil tank, and has a clear window in the side to show how full it is. Air comes from the machine to pulse a little pressure on the oil, it then goes up to the needle valve, drips a drop, and then into the machine. To adhust, one has the machine running tupping. Adjust for a drop every say 20 strokes of the ram. Let it run and stable out for a few minutes. Hold a white sheet of paper in front of the exhaust for one pulse of exhaust. One should see a VERY FINE, mist of droplets. Not spatters but tiny, hard to see mist. Adjust up and down fom there to what you need. These oilers need to be set for the oil and then always use that viscosity. I would think sae 30 should be fine. I suspect that filling the sight glass overoiled the piston. I think it may be possible that you need a new lower seal. I would drain and clean the oiler tank, and refill with new clean oil of the visicosity you intend to use. Then adjust. his advice sounds good to me !!! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesrjohnson Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 I am not familiar with this oiler or hammer, but have several thoughts/questions. There were two tubes, one that goes to the top of the compressor cylinder and the other that is on the lower part of the compressor side of the hammer. I am guessing that the lower tube provides positive presssure on the downstroke and the upper tube is where the oil flows into the compressor side piston. I would look to see if there are any one-way check valves. Anyang and many other hammers use suction on the downstroke of the compressor side and then when the compressor piston is coming up, there is a check valve to keep the oil from going back into the oil tank. One thing you can do is to replace the copper line with clear plastic line and then put in an inline one way check valve. With the clear plastic line, you will see if the oil is flowing. Then as long as there is no clogging in the system, you should get oil. I would also take apart all the lines and tank and clean everything out. If it is real cold where you are, I would also think about a lighter oil... when it is cold and I am breaking in a new hammer, I switch to 10 wt non-detergent oil. (I live in Texas... and I think we are warmer than Finland). Good Luck and keep us posted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jura T Posted April 6, 2009 Author Share Posted April 6, 2009 Thanks for the advices. I cleaned the oil reservoir and checked the tubes etc before running the hammer. When running it, just as ptree suggested, I held a piece of white paper behind the glass. I was expecting to see drops of oil through the sight glass. It was kind of hard to see but sometimes there was some oil on the inside surface of the glass and sometimes not. So if it is very fine mist that goes through the sight glass then the oil might actually be moving. Just above the sight glass there seems to be a small leak (I see very small oily bubbles). I'll change the seal today. Changing the copper tubes to plastic ones is on my TODO list. I just need to find right fittings. There is no check valve in the system, so adding one might wise as well. The hammer head moves nicely so I wouldn't expect the piston seals to be worn out...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Mintaur, the white paper goes where the exhaust air comes from the hammer when it is running. In the sight glass I would expect to see a drop from timne to time. The drop goes into the hammer and becomes the mist and is then blown out the hammer as exhaust air. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jura T Posted April 14, 2009 Author Share Posted April 14, 2009 Today I took everything apart in the oiler system. It turns out that the small part that I thought to be a simple fitting to connect the outlet tube to the hammer is a check valve at the same time. It was stuck. I freed the ball and thought that would solve the problem. It didn't; still no oil flow. What puzzled me was the direction of the valve. It was set so that it would open when the high pressure side is on the side of the oil tank. After reading the STC-88 Air Hammer pages I changed the direction by changing the ball to the other end of the valve. Finally there is oil flow! No visible drops but clear flow of oil on the inside walls of the sight glass. Still need to fine tune it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesrjohnson Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 That's great... the oil flows into the hammer when the compressor piston is on the down stroke (it is being sucked up by the vacuum). Then when the piston is coming up and applying pressure, the check valve is closing off the oiler system. Very simple operation. If you ever have a problem with the check valve, you can get one way in line check valves that are very low cost. Sounds like "problem solved". Enjoy your hammer. James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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