How often to grease?

[D7E]

Better to put too much grease on something than too little.

There is one thing I haven't seen mentioned in the thread to pay attention to - when greasing, *especially* when using a pnuematic grease gun you can blow seals out. That might even be worse than not putting in grease in some cases. The "crack" sound is grease escaping from a seal, and that is all good unless it is the sound of a seal letting go...

I just said that ?

 

[curly]

I just said that ?

Well, I've never heard a crack...just greased til I saw fresh stuff coming out. I've generally used a manual grease gun but I now have an air gun.

 

[Builder]

Can that hurt it?

It probably won't hurt the machine itself unless you blow out a seal.

Although I always thought it attracts a lot of dirt to the area, wastes grease and leaves blobs of grease on your garage floor, driveway or customer's property and looks generally like you're a sloppy mechanic. If you're wiping grease off a joint, then that means you didn't want it there in the first place, so why pump grease into a joint only to wipe it off and throw it away?

 

[curly]

It probably won't hurt the machine itself unless you blow out a seal.

Although I always thought it attracts a lot of dirt to the area, wastes grease and leaves blobs of grease on your garage floor, driveway or customer's property and looks generally like you're a sloppy mechanic. If you're wiping grease off a joint, then that means you didn't want it there in the first place, so why pump grease into a joint only to wipe it off and throw it away?

Well actually, I thought he meant greasing to often...not putting to much in there (I know, I'm not very mechanical ). But speaking of that, aside from hearing a crack, if you don't see some clean coming out, how ya gonna know ya got the dirty outta there? Seems like ya gotta put a little too much in there to know ya done good...thus ya either wipe it off, or like some other's have said...let it stay there to form a barrier.

 

[saparks10]

Well actually, I thought he meant greasing to often...not putting to much in there (I know, I'm not very mechanical ). But speaking of that, aside from hearing a crack, if you don't see some clean coming out, how ya gonna know ya got the dirty outta there? Seems like ya gotta put a little too much in there to know ya done good...thus ya either wipe it off, or like some other's have said...let it stay there to form a barrier.

There is no one answer for how often to grease. How often and how much depends on the application (load, environment, temperature, speed) I will say that over greasing is one of the most common reasons for bearring failure. Bearrings simply need friction to roll. When to much grease is used the bearring cannot role and sliding friction happens, versus the rolling friction. Anyone ever seen bearrings with flat spots on them?

 

[curly]

There is no one answer for how often to grease. How often and how much depends on the application (load, environment, temperature, speed) I will say that over greasing is one of the most common reasons for bearring failure. Bearrings simply need friction to roll. When to much grease is used the bearring cannot role and sliding friction happens, versus the rolling friction. Anyone ever seen bearrings with flat spots on them?

Wow, never knew that, never even thought about that

 

[Z-Michigan]

There is no one answer for how often to grease. How often and how much depends on the application (load, environment, temperature, speed) I will say that over greasing is one of the most common reasons for bearring failure. Bearrings simply need friction to roll. When to much grease is used the bearring cannot role and sliding friction happens, versus the rolling friction. Anyone ever seen bearrings with flat spots on them?

This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I can see how a too-slippery lubricant might prevent roller or ball bearings from rolling, but frankly, if it's that slippery than what damage will be done by sliding without rolling? Also, most grease points on my tractor are in areas with plain bearings and not roller or ball bearings. There's nothing to roll in a plain bearing, and too much friction creates a spun bearing = instant pricey repair.

 

[saparks10]

This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I can see how a too-slippery lubricant might prevent roller or ball bearings from rolling, but frankly, if it's that slippery than what damage will be done by sliding without rolling? Also, most grease points on my tractor are in areas with plain bearings and not roller or ball bearings. There's nothing to roll in a plain bearing, and too much friction creates a spun bearing = instant pricey repair.

Because the load is meant to be distributed over the ball as it rolls, if it is not rolling then the load is placed on one point, which eventually will flatten out.

 

[curly]

This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I can see how a too-slippery lubricant might prevent roller or ball bearings from rolling, but frankly, if it's that slippery than what damage will be done by sliding without rolling? Also, most grease points on my tractor are in areas with plain bearings and not roller or ball bearings. There's nothing to roll in a plain bearing, and too much friction creates a spun bearing = instant pricey repair.

Well hey, that makes sense too.

(I'm being tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. )

 

[saparks10]

This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I can see how a too-slippery lubricant might prevent roller or ball bearings from rolling, but frankly, if it's that slippery than what damage will be done by sliding without rolling? Also, most grease points on my tractor are in areas with plain bearings and not roller or ball bearings. There's nothing to roll in a plain bearing, and too much friction creates a spun bearing = instant pricey repair.

Z, you are correct on the plain bearrings part. Sliding friction is already taking place, therefore there is no transition to be made from rolling to sliding.