Grease Guns

[Willl]

I've never owned a powered grease gun. I've borrowed them before and both times, half way through the job the batts gave out. Maybe it was the fault of the guy I borrowed it from but it sure left a bad taste in my mouth when I had to climb out from under there because a dead battery.

I really don't like the fact that I have to get down on that creeper, even worse when I have to do it twice. I'll waste less energy pumping that gun then I will reclimbing into that creeper.

 

[johnems]

The Milwaukee is the best I have used. The five year warintee is worth the investment. I have not had to use it. It primes easy and works great.

 

[Artisan]

Yes Awsome, Cool, Good Idea, Beautiful...all very good input.

I have one Milwaukee M12 tool so if after I get the 1134 I see a need for electric I think I will spring for it, and yes, I bet it gets old and yes, I bet an electric gun takes the mundain out of it, maybe faster as well.

I ALWAYS have backup batterys ready for all my cordless stuff, dead battery go in the lunch box area and get recharged daily if needed. Disapline, I remember doing construction and the time wasted by guys charging there batteries during work hours is a massive waste. In the long run it is cheaper to buy several batteries and charge them while your sleeping then playing the
daily on the job recharge game...

I saw longer hoses and I thought of it, after useing it we will make that call.

Ledge End, my tube of royal purple says it is good for bearings, FWIW.

 

[crazyal]

Also buy a box of the latex or vinyl gloves, the throw away kind. Sooner or later things will get messy while greasing or changing a tube.

 

[Ledge End]

Artisan, Thanks for looking that up.

I found a few compatibility charts online for those interested:

http://www.mobilindustrial.com/IND/English/Files/tt-grease-compatibility.pdf
grease info
Lubricants USA - Grease Compatibility Chart

I bought my second grease gun today. Going to experiment with a pistol grip type, one handed 14oz cartridge whiz bang almost do it itself grease gun - on sale even. :laughing:

This time I looked at the grease cartridges and the "wheel bearing" cartridge didn't mention the base used. hmmm I'll keep looking around. Ready to go, but nothing to load. Got to do something soon, the oil is dripping out of my old gun after just a few months. Maybe I'm over-thinking this but I want to make a better choice the second time around and then just do it.

 

[dieselmechanic]

I have used a lot of grease guns been a mechanic for 23 years now plus as a boy dad preached grease everything before use which I'm sure had something to do with his haybine lasting 20 plus years on original bearings and u joints but personally I don't like the pistol type guns simply the hurt my wrist when using them a lot or on some fittings which are tight I have found that a hose made up out of 1/4 hydraulic hose around 24 to 30 inches works good for me it cost more but the ones you buy never seem to hold up very long I got on from tsc once lasted three days swelled up like it was ready to give birth sure enough it did didn't take it nine months either ha ha I do own a recharge gun I found on at tsc a legacy brand at the time it was 99.00 compared to 199.00 for a Lincoln mine is 12 volt I think Lincoln was to at any rate it has been a great gun came with two batteries I work on slot of over the road trucks I can grease four road tractors on one battery and they have several fittings plus the fifth wheel as far as grease you can load from a 5 gal pail with a pump my dad has had one for years I have a 55 gal drum pump bought it at auction Cheap works for me drum last about a year one trick I use to load my guns from the bulk grease is just to install a grease fitting in the hand gun and pump it in just watch the handle as it comes out

 

[cornshucker]

We have three guns. A pistol grip alemite, a lever style alemite, and a Lincoln 12V rechargable. Use all of them but mostly use the rechargable to grease Track Loader and a combine that has over 70 fittings on it. Mostly just use the pistol grip for most jobs but never use the rechargable on a U-Joint. For your money the Alemite gun is hard to beat.

 

[955Lincoln]

I bought a high quality gun last year called Megaboost and I really like it. The head is cast aluminum and it has a volume/pressure lever. If you have a fitting that won't take grease switch it over to pressure and so far it hasn't failed to clear any clogs. Get a 3' hose as that will allow much more maneuverability.

 

[Artisan]

Y U Gawd Dam Son of a Bitchin' Gawd Dam Son of a *****!

I am so MAD! I get my new 1134, load a tube of the "best" grease and walk out to the BX25, loosen the knurled coupler, "click" it over a zerk, pump
till she oozes and then upon removal IT WILL NOT COME OFF! :thumbdown:Oh man...I loosen the coupler till it comes off the hose and still IT WILL NOT COME OFF! I barely start the hose threads into the coupler and yank effin hard on the gun body and it finally comes off, 4 more times and I AM LIVID! DAM! I call Lincoln tech and he tells me IT IS DEFECTIVE! He said he is sending me "a couple of different heads" to try...

Well, at least I was able to get a human on the phone and they are doing something about it. I can not imagine me doing anything wrong, if I am please chime in!


Oh, I loaded up the hose, not the ridgid 6" long tube. FWIW

 

[k0ua]

Um.. you said you loosened the coupler until it came of of the hose....hmm ...did the part with the hex flats come off of the threaded coupler on the hose or did you loosen the knurled coupler front part while holding the hex flat part ? What I am getting at is the coupler itself is 2 pieces and those 2 pieces need to be loose. Now I know from your first line in your post, you are pretty angry, and I am just trying to be helpful, and you may have done all you can do, and I could be wrong. But look over the coupler carefully and determine if the front and the back half of the coupler are loosened from each other, and not just unscrewed from the hose. If need be put the coupler hex flats in a vise and try to turn the knurled portion with fingers, vise grips/pliers or whatever it takes to seperate the 2 pieces. If you take it totally apart you will be looking for a spring and some chuck jaws on the floor. If you have been down this road I apologize in advance. good luck

James K0UA

 

[Scooby074]

I loosen the coupler till it comes off the hose

I think your loosening the wrong part. The coupler needs to be threaded onto the hose (or rigid pipe) FIRMLY. The part you loosen is the KNURLED part. The far end in other words, the part that goes onto the zerk. If you look inside the coupler you'll see some jaws, sort of like a drill chuck. It behaves in the same way, when you loosen the knurled part it spreads the jaws. When the couplers are new they can be very tightly screwed together from manufacturing, Sometimes you need to use pliers on the knurled section to loosen it for the first time. After that you should be able to adjust the jaws by hand.

Good on Lincoln for sending you some couplers although i dont believe you need them. They stand behind their products.

 

[beppington]

... don't forget that the coupler is knurled on the end so that you may screw and unscrew it with thumb and forefinger to tighten and loosen it on the grease zerk to facilitate easy insertion and removal. In other words you can loosen it to put it easily on the zerk, give it a little twist to tighten so that it stays there easily by itself, pump your grease in, and then loosen it again to easily remove it.

That's exactly what I do on every single zerk, since ...

Some people have actually broken zerks trying to get the grease coupler off.

... I did that on one zerk & really didn't wanna do it again :thumbsup:

My Kubota's zerks are not all the same size, so on some the grease gun coupler would pop right on & off, others more difficult, then the one that was so tight it broke when I pulled the coupler off. That was before I knew the couple was a 2-piece unit that could be easily screwed & unscrewed as you describe :thumbsup:

 

[k0ua]

I think your loosening the wrong part. The coupler needs to be threaded onto the hose (or rigid pipe) FIRMLY. The part you loosen is the KNURLED part. The far end in other words, the part that goes onto the zerk.

Great minds think alike


James K0UA

 

[k0ua]

That's exactly what I do on every single zerk, since ...



... I did that on one zerk & really didn't wanna do it again :thumbsup:

My Kubota's zerks are not all the same size, so on some the grease gun coupler would pop right on & off, others more difficult, then the one that was so tight it broke when I pulled the coupler off. That was before I knew the couple was a 2-piece unit that could be easily screwed & unscrewed as you describe :thumbsup:

Glad to have been of some small service

James K0UA

 

[beppington]

I prefer the solid tube for the gease gun over the flexible. You can put it on easier, hold it in place easier and just move along faster with a solid tube.

Same here.

Unfortunatly, some fittings are impossible to get to with the solid tube, so you need a flexible one too.

On my L3940 I can actually get the grease gun on all of the zerks with the solid, slightly bent grease tube. Kubota did a good job of installing angled zerks where needed to accomplish this.

 

[beppington]

I think your loosening the wrong part. The coupler needs to be threaded onto the hose (or rigid pipe) FIRMLY. The part you loosen is the KNURLED part. The far end in other words, the part that goes onto the zerk. If you look inside the coupler you'll see some jaws, sort of like a drill chuck. It behaves in the same way, when you loosen the knurled part it spreads the jaws. When the couplers are new they can be very tightly screwed together from manufacturing, Sometimes you need to use pliers on the knurled section to loosen it for the first time. After that you should be able to adjust the jaws by hand.

Some people might not realize, same as me, that the coupler is a 2-piece unit. The 2 halves of mine were jammed together so tight at the factory that I had to put one end in a vice & lay all my weight on a pair of vice grips gripping the other end to break it free. Moves like butter now. It was actually so tight I wasn't sure mine was actually a 2-piece coupler unit, but I figured I had nothing to lose by trying really hard if I broke it, since it was gonna break more of my zerks if I turned out to be a 1-piece coupler.

 

[Scooby074]

Great minds think alike


James K0UA

That was too funny. Look at the post times. We all fired off the same posts within 3 minutes of each other:laughing: If i didnt draw my fancy picture i would have beat ya

 

[k0ua]

That was too funny. Look at the post times. We all fired off the same posts within 3 minutes of each other:laughing:

That is way cool! He seemed pretty angry, gotta wonder what he is doing right now. At least the zerk didn't snap off.

James K0UA

 

[Scooby074]

That is way cool! He seemed pretty angry, gotta wonder what he is doing right now. At least the zerk didn't snap off.

James K0UA

Hope he didnt fire it across the shop lol. This is such a common issue it should be a Sticky.

 

[Artisan]

Um.. you said you loosened the coupler until it came of of the hose....hmm ...did the part with the hex flats come off of the threaded coupler on the hose or did you loosen the knurled coupler front part while holding the hex flat part ? What I am getting at is the coupler itself is 2 pieces and those 2 pieces need to be loose. Now I know from your first line in your post, you are pretty angry, and I am just trying to be helpful, and you may have done all you can do, and I could be wrong. But look over the coupler carefully and determine if the front and the back half of the coupler are loosened from each other, and not just unscrewed from the hose. If need be put the coupler hex flats in a vise and try to turn the knurled portion with fingers, vise grips/pliers or whatever it takes to seperate the 2 pieces. If you take it totally apart you will be looking for a spring and some chuck jaws on the floor. If you have been down this road I apologize in advance. good luck

James K0UA

Your kidding! The coupler I have appears to be all one piece! I unscrwed the coupler from the hose, now I have a coupler w/ hex and knurled. I took a pair of channel locks on the knurled, and a crescent on the hex and NOTHING MOVED! I myself assumed they were two pieces, I put the coupler under a magnafiying glass and it appeares as though it is all one piece! HA! Defective is an understatement if I understand this coupler is suppose dot be two pieces! NUTS! I'll take pics later...