• Thank you for visiting HeavyEquipmentForums.com! Our objective is to provide industry professionals a place to gather to exchange questions, answers and ideas. We welcome you to register using the "Register" icon at the top of the page. We'd appreciate any help you can offer in spreading the word of our new site. The more members that join, the bigger resource for all to enjoy. Thank you!

Filling my Grease gun -- OPTIONS

farmboy555

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2006
Messages
191
Location
KY
Occupation
Owner Operator
Don't they make a pump that will fit on a 5 gal. pail of grease that will refill a grease gun? I'm getting a lot of waste with the tubes. :confused:
thanks for any input you may have. Dennis
 

RonG

Charter Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2003
Messages
1,833
Location
Meriden ct
Occupation
heavy equipment operator
There might be problems these days with using a grease gun without a tube in it as I don't think the piston will seal well against the walls of the cavity that the tube goes in.
You can buy a pump for a 5 gallon pail or you can stick the grease gun into the pail and suck the grease into the gun but that is kind of messy and might be wasteful as well by the time you get it cleaned up.
Can you share with us the problems that you are having that is causing the waste?
There may be a solution that you have not tried yet that some of us has dealt with successfully.Are you bleeding the air from the gun after you change cartridges?Sometimes you have to burp them again as you are using them but if you have a quality gun and use cartridges with no dents in them there should be very little waste,almost none in fact.
Release the spring into the cartridge before the top is fully tightened and pump the pressure up until it is pumping grease and then tighten it down.
As I said before you sometimes have to do it again before the cartridge is empty but if you are wasting grease them something is wrong with your hardware or your method.Ron G
 

Squizzy246B

Administrator
Joined
Sep 9, 2005
Messages
3,388
Location
Perth, Western Australia
Occupation
Digger Driver
Down here Alemite, McNaught and Lincoln have a Loader pump that goes on a 5 gal pail of grease. You just push the bleeder nozzle of the gun into the loader and pump the handle.....no more screwing around with bloody cartridges and grease at near half the price of cartridges. In most guns you need to reverse the piston or shift an O-ring to switch from cartridge to bulk.

The Alemite Loader pump comes with adaptor nozzles to fit Lincoln.

The Loader pump is the ducks guts cause you don't really need to carry around cartridges that get busted and damaged. Every time I'm at the yard wondering what stuff I need to do or organise I just put the gun on the pump and give it a top up. I'd say there is substantially less waste than cartridges although for the last load in the bottom of the drum you need to suck it up the old fashioned way.

On an older gun, if the sealing on the piston is not good you just leave the gun with an empty cartridge in it and re-fill from the loader pump without changing anything....the cartridge acts as a sleeve....and lasts for awhile.

We actually did the cost comparo today....20 litre (5gal drum) costs A$130 and equals 42 cartridges at almost A$6 a pop...or $240....and the Alemite Loader pump costs just under A$200.....so two 5 gal drums and you are in-front....not to mention the convienience.....thats all in Aussie Dollars.....which, the Aud by the end of next week should be worth about $3 US:rolleyes: :D
 

farmboy555

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2006
Messages
191
Location
KY
Occupation
Owner Operator
Thanks for the reply. I've never changed a tube of grease that didn't have what I considered to muck left in it to be not pumping / empty. Just looking for a clean, cheaper route, with less wasted.
 

DPete

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2007
Messages
1,677
Location
Central Ca.
I buy bulk grease in 120lb drums for which I have a pneumatic pump. To fill my handguns I put a zerk in the head of the gun and fill with the pump. Very rarely do I buy tube grease.
 

Dwan Hall

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2004
Messages
1,029
Location
Juneau, Alaska
Occupation
Self Employed
I buy bulk grease in 120lb drums for which I have a pneumatic pump. To fill my handguns I put a zerk in the head of the gun and fill with the pump. Very rarely do I buy tube grease.

Same here.

Dwan
 

atgreene

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2005
Messages
508
Location
Sebago, Maine
I've gone to the same set-up. 5 gallons of Amsoil grease and an older pump that I had works much better than tubes. I do run an old tube in my gun, although I don't know if I need to.

I have the Napa #'s for the addaptors you need them. My Napa guy laughed when I first called him for the adaptors I needed. In 20 years of heavy equipment work at Napa he had never been asked to find the set-up for this.:Banghead He got a good laugh out of it, even if it did take a day to find what I needed.
 

sea_goin_dude

Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2011
Messages
20
Location
EAST CENT. ALABAMA, USA
Yes put the zerk in place of the plug in the head of the gun and fill it with any lube gun. Also do leave the empty cart in as it will just refull it too. If you do not have the plug/zerk you can unscrew the hose/tube and put a zerk in there, refill it them replace the lube hose. some of the small hand guns do not have the plug and this is a great way to refill them without having to buy/stock carts for them. :)
 
Top