OT: Grease pump

Hi Guys,

I am looking for a grease setup that uses a 35 lb pail of grease instead of the 14 oz tubes. I have a Milwaukee cordless grease gun and it works okay. But I can easily go through a couple of tubes of grease in short order and it takes longer to change the tubes than the rest of the grease job. Especially since an air pocket seems to happen every few tubes and that requires 10 minutes and a quarter of a roll of paper towels to get worked out.

This is for the home shop where I am greasing heavy equipment toys. Mostly old stuff with some hard to grease fittings. Getting good pressure is going to be important.

I see $200 China special type setups. Probably want to avoid those.

I see $400 sort of setups. But they seem to be 5,000 PSI. For example:
Legacy L6000 $580.33 Grease Pump, 35 lb./5 gal. Pail, 55:1 | Zoro.com

And then I see a setup that McMaster-Carr sells that has a "booster" on it and can go to 10,000 PSI:
McMaster-Carr

Which appears to be a Mcnaught P3TR. On Amazon as:
https://www.amazon.com/P3TR-Power-L...01CIW2BB8/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8


Is this sort of the setup the way to go to grease old stubborn stuff and not to have to change 14 oz cartridge and bleed air as often?

Thanks

Yes, keep an eye on craigslist ect as they show up there pretty frequently as most cars don't have any grease fittings any more . Bill

I have a container mount system. It uses a hand pump and spring pressure to keep the gun charged. It is ok, but not as nice as the air pumps.

I also have a drum mounted system for refilling standard grease guns. It works ok but is a bit of a pain.

If the cost is not an issue, that McNaught system would be high on my list.

I have an old Alemite power system that uses 120 pound grease barrels and has a pneumatic pump with a hose and hand gun. My hand grease guns have been fitted with zerks and are refilled with the power greaser. The Alemite is also used to refill the reservoirs on the machines with automatic greasers.

If you have heavy equipment to grease then the 35# pail pump is the way to go. Having said that, let me say that if you learn the proper way to load a 14 1/2oz cartridge into a gun then there are no drips runs or errors..or burping. Once you learn the technique for loading, the hand grease gun is fine for occasional jobs.

Stuart

Bulk systems or OK if you have a spotlessly clean workshop,but typical earthmoving scenario ,and there is a greasy mess full of grit unless care is taken......which rules out employees .....The whole advantage of cartridges is the exclusion of grit from the grease.

atomarc said:

If you have heavy equipment to grease then the 35# pail pump is the way to go. Having said that, let me say that if you learn the proper way to load a 14 1/2oz cartridge into a gun then there are no drips runs or errors..or burping. Once you learn the technique for loading, the hand grease gun is fine for occasional jobs.

Click to expand...

Hi Stuart,

I don't do anything special and it seems like 1 out of every 10 I have to fight with. I don't know that anyone has ever shown me how to load a grease cartridge. My employees (at work, not at my home shop) seem more like 1 out of every 3 they fight with.

My technique to change a cartridge is pull back plunger and lock it off to the side, unscrew barrel, pull out empty tube, put in full tube, tear tab off of new tube, screw barrel into gun, push plunger in, give it a try.

What is the proper way to load the cartridge into a gun? I have seen references to smacking the end of the retracted plunger. But that's about it.

I did just press go on the Macnaught unit. Looking forward to it!

if it finds an air pocket, try to push it in with it not fully tightened to push the air out, or loosten the screw at the top.

typically grease that has lost all the oil out of it and gone dry will give you fits.

I have newer model Lincoln 35 lb system.It works good. I keep it OUTSIDE IN A LARGE ROLE AROUND PLASTIC TRASH CONTAINER. It always looks good this way.Even if I had room in my shop for it ,I still would keep it in a trash container.These things are messy.Just put all the hose and gun inside and close the lid.I have a post on the other forum oct 30 2019."Time to grease the green monster".I have a 10 ft long skinny plastic grease hose on the FRONT of my grease gun.I climb all over my machines and have a helper pull the trigger.Also get a locking grease coupler.Edwin Dirnbeck

Try grease in plastic cartridge

I still have a manual grease gun for a quick job. I find that the plastic grease cartridge doesn't lockup like the cardboard tubes.Edwin Dirnbeck