Just oiling it will only make it run for a short time, from a few hours to a few months. It will soon have pressed the new oil away and the motor will run slow again - or not at all.

The oil sits inside the pores in the brass material.
The oil is infused into the pores under vacuum and is sucked out when the motor is running by capillary action.

An oil with the right additives will have to be used. Originally SAE30 was used.

Beolover shows how to do it here, though with Beogram 4002, but the principle is the same.

That's what you could do to a steel-bearing, but I would never recommend it to sinter-bronze.

Sinter-bronze is a very delicate and soft material, - you can easily deform it by handling it carelessly, even with just your finger-power, and you can scratch it with a nail.

When the motor is running, there is no metal-metal contact between the spindle and the bearings. The spindle runs in a very thin film of oil, pulled from the pores in the bearing metal by capillary action from the rotation of the spindle itself.

That's also why the bearings practially won't ever wear down and more or less last forever - or at least as long as oil is pulled from inside the bearing and replenished from the reservoir felt washer.

If you grind or polish the bearing, you will smear out the material and clog up the pores, oil will not be sucked from the material, or only with difficulty, because the capillary action won't work.

The same can happen if you force a motor with sinter-bronze bearings to run without oil. Bearings will be damaged from the metal-metal contact, which could be seen as a kind of polishing.

If you only add oil to the outside of the material, the motor will only run for as long as it takes for the oil to be pushed away, used up or evaporate.
It won't be replenished as intended, so the motor will typically only run fine for a short time after which it will be back to starting slow and
running rough (if at all).
Depending on condition, oil type and use etc. this could be a matter of a few months, a couple of weeks or even as little as 24 hours.

Up to apprx 1/3 of the bearings weight is from the oil it contains.
In other words, a freshly filled bearing can weigh up to 50% more than an empty bearing.

More reading about Oilite bearings;

Hello. I quick Q. f the speed is just a little slow ,would honing away som brass from the bully do the trick? i.e. make it run faster? Erik fro Oslo

Hello. I quick Q. f the speed is just a little slow ,would honing away som brass from the bully do the trick? i.e. make it run faster? Erik fro Oslo