I hate my grease gun right now

[MikeInEburg]

Seriously? I'm not making fun of you, it just never occurred to me that someone may have never used a grease gun before. .

I got a good chuckle out of this reply. I'm almost POSITIVE that there was a time in every life when we had never used a grease gun. Or tied a shoe lace. Or walked on two feet.

 

[s219]

I have used grease guns for many years, but was recently loading a new one right out of the box, and it was the most frustrating experience I've had in a long time. Turns out the plunger was catching on the edge of the cardboard tube and would not slide in to pressurize the tube. That in turn caused the gun to pump out the "head" of grease that normally primes the pump, so air got in. I think I went through a whole roll of paper towels. Ended up having to ditch the tube and manually load the gun (which is fine, since I normally load from a 35-gal bucket anyhow).

Hard to believe something so simple can go so wrong, but I suspect some of it is due to poor-quality grease guns being made nowadays (this new gun is a Deere model). Made me appreciate my older Lubrimatic gun that has been working for 20+ years without problems.

 

[Bigfoot62]

You'll get the hang of it. :thumbsup:

I've found this grease gun to be the easiest for me: John Deere grease guns
It's the pistol grip gun that's featured in the big pic and listed fifth item down.
I know that JD doesn't make it, but it's the only place I've found it. It's a decent quality and reasonably priced. I've been using that style JD gun for nearly 30 years. (even before I owned a JD tractor)

 

[SPYDERLK]

I have used grease guns for many years, but was recently loading a new one right out of the box, and it was the most frustrating experience I've had in a long time. Turns out the plunger was catching on the edge of the cardboard tube and would not slide in to pressurize the tube. That in turn caused the gun to pump out the "head" of grease that normally primes the pump, so air got in. I think I went through a whole roll of paper towels. Ended up having to ditch the tube and manually load the gun (which is fine, since I normally load from a 35-gal bucket anyhow).

Hard to believe something so simple can go so wrong, but I suspect some of it is due to poor-quality grease guns being made nowadays (this new gun is a Deere model). Made me appreciate my older Lubrimatic gun that has been working for 20+ years without problems.

Gun was probably supplied with the plunger assembled for use of a bulk grease load. Turn the plunger cup around for use in cartridges.
larry

 

[k0ua]

Gun was probably supplied with the plunger assembled for use of a bulk grease load. Turn the plunger cup around for use in cartridges.
larry

Yet one more thing to know about grease guns..We are all supposed to know how to use this simple tool. But so many of us do not know these things.. I say in 8th grade shop we should spend a week on this one subject.

James K0UA

 

[jinman]

I remember the days before grease guns had cartridges and it was a sure bet that you'd get grease from head to toe trying to refill them. I've never seen this done, but my brother suggested warming the grease until it liquified and then pouring it in.:confused2:

When you put in the new cartridge, did you remove the plastic cap and feed that end first into the gun? Finish by pulling the pull tab and remove the top before carefully screwing the cylinder back into the head. I can tell you there have been two or three times that I managed to bump the plunger into my leg as I started screwing in the cylinder. With only a couple of threads caught or no threads caught, grease is gonna spew everywhere.:laughing:

 

[jimmyj]

I remember the days before grease guns had cartridges and it was a sure bet that you'd get grease from head to toe trying to refill them.

Ha ha ha ha

You mean I'm not supposed to get covered head to toe with grease whenever I even walk past where my grease guns hang!?

Good thread, no matter what I do, how careful I am, I get greased every single time! I've taken to wearing gloves and holding the grease guy with an old rag. Still I get greased. :laughing:

 

[MasseyWV]

I got a good chuckle out of this reply. I'm almost POSITIVE that there was a time in every life when we had never used a grease gun. Or tied a shoe lace. Or walked on two feet.

Yea, and some of us start earlier than others.

 

[rsewill]

You might take a look at these! There are others out there but this was what I could find quickly! Yes I have been there one time before myself! The School of the hard way!

How to Load a Grease Gun: 20 steps - wikiHow

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxX9rS8NFyk

I would definitely reverse 1 and 2 in the wikiHow:

"1Unscrew the head cap of the grease gun. This is the part of the grease gun with the dispensing head attached. Separate it from the rest of the grease gun, which is the cartridge holding barrel.

2Pull back on the metal handle on the other end of the cartridge holding barrel. Continue to pull until the plunger rod is withdrawn fully from the barrel."

 

[pacerron]

With 10 hours on my new tractor, I'm going through a basic maintenance once-over. I figured I'd hit all the grease points just to be thorough. This is my first experience with a grease gun, and I think I have figured out all of the wrong ways to reload it.

Wrong way #1: Mis-read the instructions and remove the base, then insert the cylinder, then try to push the plunger back in with a cylinder full of grease in the way.

Wrong way #2: Correctly remove the head before reloading, but forget to pull the plunger back, so that as soon as you remove the head, the plunger pushes the last leftover bit of grease in the gun out onto the ground.

I am running into a problem that is probably user error, but I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. As the gun starts to empty out, it won't push grease anymore. The handle gets spongy. So I open the gun up to put another cylinder in, but the problem is there's still enough grease in there left over from the last cylinder that the new cylinder won't go all the way in. So, clearly the gun wasn't empty. I have tried pressing the air release nozzle and pumping the handle to get the air out, and I have tried ... tapping it on something upside down to try to work the rest of the grease down towards the head. What should I be doing differently?

Thanks.

Now I'm going to go wash all this grease off me. Sheesh.

If you happened to drop the cartridge or if the case/box of tubes have been dropped, sometimes the plunger (spring loaded rubber chunk) won't start in the end of the cartridge. You may release the shaft and put spring pressure on the back of the plug but it really doesn't enter the cartridge or gets stuck part way in only allowing you to use some of the grease.
You will never use it all, even when working properly.
The least messy way is to:
1. Pull the plunger lever back and latch it.
2. Take the plastic cover cap off the end of the tube and be sure the cardboard isn't dented on the end.
3. Put the tube in the gun from the top with the open end toward the back of the gun.
4. Push it in all the way till the metal ring around the top end touches the top of the gun tube.
5. Peal back the thin metal cover on the top end of the grease tube.
6. Screw the head on the gun.
7. Unlatch the pull back rod and push it forward all the way. On some guns you have to twist it to release it from the plunger.
Work your lever a few times till grease comes out the nozzle.
8. If nothing comes out do the air release thing. If that doesn't work you may have to pull the rod back and push it forward again to release the air.

If it still doesn't work with any of the cartridges you may have got cheap grease that has the size of the cardboard a little off.

You can always scoop the grease out of the cartridge and put it in the gun with a putty knife if the cartridges are no good.
If you don't like grease all over your hands and under your nails, ( your nose will probably start to itch or someplace worse about this time) get some cheap hospital gloves to wear while your greasing:laughing: