Oil dispenser.

[Plato]

I might be the only one whose ever had a problem with this but I thought I should share, just in case.

I could never find a suitable way to get oil from those little Moebius bottles without wasting as much oil as I transferred to the oil cup.

I searched online for 'small/mini/micro spoons' but came up short. I then stumbled onto an object called an ear pick or scoop which seemed perfect. I bought a set (6 items) on Amazon for £6 and they fit perfectly. Please let me know if there's a better way.

[KarlvonKoln]

I wonder if an old glass eye-dropper would work for this too.  I think I may still have one in the house someplace.

[Plato]

1 hour ago, KarlvonKoln said:

I wonder if an old glass eye-dropper would work for this too.  I think I may still have one in the house someplace.

I have tried that too but they're really hard to clean, I don't want to risk mixing the oils. Unless the eye-droppers can be capped and kept with each oil jar? 

[KarlvonKoln]

2 hours ago, Plato said:

I have tried that too but they're really hard to clean, I don't want to risk mixing the oils. Unless the eye-droppers can be capped and kept with each oil jar? 

Good point.  I'd need different ones with caps.  Or maybe inexpensive pipettes?  And find a way to plug or cap those?

[fixermole]

I use disposable plastic pipettes. You can get a batch of 50 or 100 for dirt cheap off Amazon or eBay. It's easy to control small amounts, especially with the 1-2 mL sizes.

Just to be on the safe side, I suck up a small amount and expel it in waste, and do this a couple of times, to remove any traces of plasticizer or other garbage on the inside walls from manufacture before dispensing an aliquot into the oil cup.

I found this works the best, and the Moebius 2 mL vials have a pretty wide opening.

[Plato]

15 minutes ago, fixermole said:

I suck up a small amount and expel it in waste

Maybe my little ear spoons could be better? 

[markr]

For the price we pay for oil there should be a glass dropper inside the lid.  I have an old bottle of Elgin oil that has a glass tube inside the lid.

[markr]

6 minutes ago, markr said:

For the price we pay for oil there should be a glass dropper inside the lid.  I have an old bottle of Elgin oil that has a glass tube inside the lid.

 

[markr]

Price on the box is $1.50

[clockboy]

I put the tips (slightly opened) of my fine tweezers into the bottle and release the oil into the oil cup. More than few drops in the cup is a waste. 

[canthus]

I use a piece of fine wire with a loop at the end. Dip loop in oil and transfer to oil cup, repeat until desired amount. This avoids oil being wasted on the rest of the wire.  I always clean before and after use and keep wire for each oil grade in small plastic envelope so it is exclusive to each oil. 

[Plato]

9 hours ago, markr said:

Price on the box is $1.50

How much is that in today's money though...

Apparently, $16.99: https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1950?amount=1.50 

Much less than today (and using a very conservative guess of 1950 for the age of the Elgin oil)

[spectre6000]

I've used the tweezer method as well as just my largest oiler. The latter takes severals dip/transfers, but it gets the job done just fine.