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Thread: new grease gun

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    E TN, near Knoxville
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    12,298

    new grease gun

    I seem to spend a lot of quality time with grease guns! With a variety of farm and dirt equipment and vehicles I have to feed a bunch of zerks, never counted but at least 50, probably more. Some, of course, are in awkward places! I've acquired a grease gun collection, a half dozen lever or pistol grip and several pneumatic guns which save a lot of time.

    Last week I came home with what I'm nominating King of the Grease guns - a Milwaukee cordless electric gun that uses their 18V lithium battery. It's been on my "want" list after I watched a guy in a heavy equipment maintenance shop use one.

    grease_gun.jpg

    Zounds but it's far better than I even imagined! It takes zero effort like the pneumatic guns but without bringing the machine to the air hose. A nice feature is the dial on the side that can be set to deliver multiple shots where needed.

    I added a new locking coupler which makes it even easier to use, especially when the zerks are in tight spots, under the machine, or way overhead. A lever locks the coupler on the fitting and releases it when done - no more fighting to release recessed couplers. I tried two different models, a LockNLube and an imitation at 1/2 the price. I'm sold on the LockNLube! The cheap imitation uses 3 jaws instead of 4, the design makes it difficult to install, the spring is way too hard, and I hand to use a pipe thread tap on it before I could even attach it. Go for the LockNLube!

    grease_gun_lock_n_lube.jpg

    I wouldn't want a locking coupler on a gun with a rigid tube but I prefer a flexible hose. The cordless gun has a 4' hose - yay! (sorry, I get excited about these things! )

    JKJ

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Longview WA
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    When you have a lot of equipment you need to keep running, you need to have a lot of the proper maintenance tools. It may as well be the ones that give you the least trouble.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Okotoks AB
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    I've always wanted one of those, but I only use a grease gun once or twice a year at most. I just think they're neat. Cordless caulking guns too.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
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    Somewhere in the Land of Lincoln
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    2,546
    We have a lot of those in use. When machines have dozens of grease zerks and manifolds you pump grease into hand pumping becomes a chore that is detested. If it encourages proper maintenance it is cheap item in the end. While it can make things messy if they get carried away it's still a great tool.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Lake Gaston, Henrico, NC
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    With a skid steer, and an excavator, I can see where one of those would be pretty handy. I hired a guy with a Bobcat just this past Thursday. He had a track come off of one side. I helped him get it back on. After we put the track back on, he shot three tubes of grease into some fitting in the upper middle of that side. He used a HF version, and it was pretty effortless. I don't have anything that takes over 2 or 3 pumps per fitting.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    E TN, near Knoxville
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    12,298
    Quote Originally Posted by Tom M King View Post
    After we put the track back on, he shot three tubes of grease into some fitting in the upper middle of that side.
    The grease applies to a piston to take up the slack and correctly tension the tracks.

    Some of the big pivots take 5 pumps or more. According to the shop manual at the proper service intervals the main swivel gear on the excavator will need around 100 pumps and 20 pumps for the swivel bearing.

    I'm a compulsive greaser. Besides the skid steer and excavator other things here with zerks are two big mowers, tractor with FEL and backhoe, little 4wd farm truck, spreaders, rototiller, bush hog, the security gate, and four big trailers including a dump trailer. (A friend didn't grease the wheel bearings and had to buy an new axle when one bearing destroyed itself.) And a road vehicle or two. I wish I had a lift in the shop.

    I bought the skid steer used and it had obviously not been properly greased. In fact, the zerk on one of the lower bucket pivots had broken off and as far as I could tell it the pivot had only been lubricated with dirt. Even the seal plate was missing. Fixed all that and it seems happier now.

    JKJ

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Lake Gaston, Henrico, NC
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    8,973
    He put three whole tubes of grease in that one place. That would have been painful to hand pump that much at one time.

    I want a lift too. I'm planning to add an extension off one side of my metal work/mechanic shop for a lift, and will be easier to have heat, and air, without so much open space other than comfortable amount to work in. I have room, and height for a lift in the current building, but it's too big to do more than local heating,and I'm having too many birthdays to keep getting by on comfort level. My to-do list doesn't get any shorter.

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