It is a common question for someone to ask what the correct grease is for a particular application. Of course there's no such thing as "one size fits all" when it comes to grease. Hands up, how many people can say that they can look at a manufacturer's data sheet and compare one product to another on the basis of the specification as it's writ on the paper..? Here's a crib sheet "seven tests for selecting the right grease" that tries to take a lot of the mystery out of the process.
"Raises hand"
The biggest problem with grease is people not using it!
John it's a fireable offense in my company.
Well,I’ve tried to figure out all that script,but it’s well beyond my brain capacity
personally, i have 5 grease guns all with different grease for various applications. some are special grease that only get used occasionally but its nice to have them
This keeping fresh cheap grease In the joints or parts versus using the best grease and only greasing every once in a while the cheap grease parts last way longer. With that being said I still believe in using a good grease and greasing often the more worn the part is the shorter my greasing Intervals becomes because there’s a bigger chance of dirt getting in and the grease being pushed out
I bought a Milwaukee 18 volt cordless grease gun in 2014. My brother remarked that ALL grease guns are cordless... However it's just been one of the greatest things I've ever bought. My old plant had 100 or so grease points all up, life was just so much easier once I got that thing and also, started a campaign to make the plant 99% greaseable while it was running. We went from replacing a tail drum bearing somewhere every 2 weeks to not changing one for several months. Where I work now only has grease guns and cartridges no bulk grease ( suits me, it's always such a mess and the drum is ALWAYS!!! empty when i get to it. I grease ALL the points on my loader every day. Well Except Saturday if I work it as the machine barely runs 3 hours. One squeak does damage. Last place I worked at I said to the sales loader guy on the 2 way: Brett can you hear that pin?? Yeah it's okay... No it isn't!!! I said a humpback whale is going to swim up the creek and want to have relations with that loader it's squeaking so loud. Oh and after 6 years and countless boxes of grease through my gun it's still in perfect condition. I look after it and never let it out of my sight if it's not in my van...
I bought a Ryobi cordless grease gun. It makes greasing enjoyable.
I can't count the number people who bought a cordless grease gun after seeing mine. it's several.
Same I have the m18 Milwaukee grease gun that thing is priceless
My dad was always on the ball with greasing. His truck got greased every weekend regardless if he worked it 3 days or 5 days. Of course it got hit top to bottom with the hot water pressure washer Friday night regardless. Definitely needed greasing after that! Funny thing was, he never had any premature failures, breakdowns etc. When you're under the truck, greasing and thoroughly inspecting stuff every weekend you tend to catch issues long before they become problems.
One of the benefits of daley greasing is equipment gets inspected daley.
I use mobile delvac extreme grease in about everything. now I did just buy JD corn head grease a #0 grease for the track system on my newly acquired JD 450 dozer.
Ok, here goes, been reading about everything written on grease, why? because it seems someone greased one of my trenchers with apparently the wrong grease and now I'm replacing about 5k in bearings, not to mention labor. The kicker is, nobody seems to know what they used that "wasn't" compatible with what we normally use for grease is about the jest of it. I've learned a lot in the past week, but since nobody knows for sure what was used, everything is pure speculation as to why the major bearings failed with plenty of grease still in them. From what anyone can recall, they might have used some John Deere grease, polyurea grease some customer had on hand when they ran out of what was on the service truck, so instead of not greasing it while working over a weekend and unable to get what we normally use, they borrowed some tubes from a customer. Which led down the path of, how old was the customers grease, turns out deere made a sheer stable grease that was compatible and also an older version that wasn't compatible with lithium grease we normally use. So just going by what we pieced together, it must have been an older version that wasn't compatible, which was never caught or even thought about and now we are trying to figure out what grease to use, so this won't happen again...........hopefully. Now the table Nige put up is nice, seen if a few times before in my search, but there are far more grease types and additives not mentioned anywhere on the chart or most charts so to speak, which brought about what the bearing manufacturers recommended, which is two or three different types of grease on the same machine, so a call to some bearing companies to get info on what is acceptable or not, which is a complete joke at best, turns out a lot of different greases can be used in the same bearing, its more to do with what brand of grease you want to use, but don't cross contaminate the same bearing with greases that are not compatible is the jest of the whole deal. Anyone what to shed light on what happens when you cross greases that don't mix so to speak, besides they react in a different way and its not good for bearings, like get thick or thin or don't allow rollers or balls to roll but rather skid instead, or turn solid and don't lube at all, or allow water to mix in the bearing and cause rust and a whole host of issues it seems I was never aware of until all the bearings failed at about the same time, which is very unusual even for me. What we've been using is pretty simple, moly if it slides, glides or is a bushing of any sort, lithium grease for bearings, now most of my stuff is older, so I don't have a huge amount of specific grease like is what is required on a lot of newer equipment and according to the bearing suppliers, who's bearings I'm replacing with, I can use about anything in them as long as the grease is compatible, meaning all the bearings will get the same grease this go around, which brings up the debate of, who's grease and what kind? Now I'm not sure but been reading and there are moly greases that can be used in bearings and don't cause issues, from what I can understand its got to do with the aluminum content of those greases and other moly's that should not be put in bearings don't have aluminum but rather other additives? Anyone care to explain what polurea grease is, and what sheer stable means?? Can't really get anyone to pin it down in any language a human can comprehend is about the jest of it? There are a lot of greases that fall under the category of Lithium NLGI 2 with a huge amount of different additives, many that you shouldn't mix, anyone want to narrow that down a bit, basically I've gotten lost when comparing labels and the compatibility charts then onto the specs comparisons between the greases themselves, then to locally available to buy and a steady supply on hand kind of thing, then toss in trying to make things as idiot proof as possible for everyone working for me or around here. I used to agree with John in saying as long as someone actually greases it I'll never complain to now, we might have to revise that statement slightly.
Years ago I was told in no uncertain terms, never mix oil brands even it they have the same specifications because of the additives that manufacturers put in them. It's far better to run an engine low until it can be topped with the correct stuff. It could be very much the same for grease with so many different varieties now on the market.
Lots of cheap grease, sometimes twice a day on bucket pins on skid steer. I've tried lots of different kinds and come to this conclusion.
The moly really hangs in there better than the cheap grease.
polyurea Base grease can make weird things happen to the existing lithium base grease when you mix them together, such as the lubricant separating from the base and flowing away from the bearings. Or, the mix can cause the lithium complex grease base to harden up. Now, the liquid lube component in the grease doesn’t touch the bearings.
I get made fun of by the guys I run with, but at the end of the day, I believe what grease you use in what joint DOES make a difference. As far as bearings go, I don't care if you run lithium, aluminum, calcium, or polyurea, just don't mix them. Same goes for pins/bushings, except make sure it has moly. The heavier the load, the more moly. I won't use polyurea or aluminum complex because they seem to not play nice with anything but themselves. Lithium and calcium work fine together, the calcium sulphonate 5% moly grease I use doesn't pump worth a dam when it gets cold, so I switch to a lithium complex 3% moly that has a synthetic base oil that pumps great down to about 0°. They work fine together.
If you want to stay with a 5% moly all you need to do is find one with a lower NLGI Number. I assume you're using a grease that is NLGI #2. You could go to a #1, a zero, double zero, or even a triple zero. A lot depends on whether the grease is manually applied or run through an autolube system. So long as the greases come from the same family they will be 100% compatible, the only things that will noticeably change is that the 4-ball weld test number will come down a bit, and the weld scar number will go up.
I use exclusively Cenex grease, and they do not make the Moly Extreme in anything lighter than a #1. Here are the specs, I think it is about as good can be had for pins and bushings. I suppose if I increase my operating loan I could afford Caterpillar Arctic Platinum https://www.cenex.com/~/media/cenex/files/lubricants/grease/hd moly xtreme_pds-h8-06.ashx
I like grease that's slick. If it's not greased on time every time the type and brand doesn't matter.
When it comes to trucks, that is very true. However, on heavy equipment, I do not believe that you will get the same hours out of a lithium chassis grease as you would with moly, even if you had an auto-greaser.
We don't use lithium base grease. But all the U-joints for the past four years on class eight have been grease-less warranted for 450,000 miles.
What kind of grease do you use?
checking to see if you folks are on your toes. nlg #2
Yeah, but what base? Poly, calcium, aluminum, what?
Sorry I didn't put my lab coat on to check that.
Ah, so it probably is Lithium
When it gets down to 0 any grease will work for me cause I'm not firing any machine up. A good friend gave me a new Milwaukee 18 volt grease gun for Christmas, sure makes greasing lots easier. I tend to do a better job since I have it.
I trust you guys, but I'm having trouble seeing it. I don't plan on using my loader daily, but is it really that hard to use a pistol grip gun? Won't it be good exercise? What am I missing? I can see how if you had to grease 10 pieces of equipment, but I just have one backhoe that I will probably use once a month.
You have to be a Philadelphia lawyer to figure this out!!! Funny thing is that everyone I know who owns a Kubota or Deere farm tractor never talks about grease. I'm guessing that's why these tractors don't last. If you get the piece of equipment used, how do you know what grease was used so you don't mix?
Don't worry about that so much. Just grease more frequently the first week or so, wash it up to get rid of the mess and you'll be good to go.
Pump enough in to flush out the old crap.
I use Schaffer 238 and suffer through its nasty stringyness. It’s the worst. But it is computable with lithium complex so I’m not stuck like if I used polyurea. I tested it with polyurea and the poly lost its base oil. I tested it with the green lucus.
Pretty pink or red for bearings, ujoints and sticky black bear **** for bushings, pins suspension parts and disk bearings. I dont really deal with much new and super extreme so the bear **** comes from Mystic 3% moly. Its a dolar a tube more and have to have extra guns. If I was hobby or part timer wouldnt fuss, would use chassis and bearing in it all and simply give it a pump on occasion. We were out and got some general, I dont think it hung in the disk like the moly does. Same for kingpins and ball joints.
With the Chemtool factory burning down last week in Rockton, stock up on your favorite flavors. Especially bulk polyurea. Experiencing shortages in my region. For example, Petro Alaska has shifted all resources just to supply Fort Knox mine.
Tried certified Extreme Permalube. Was on a excavator and it could not take the heavy load at all. Tried Paragon 3000 with dropping point of 640 F and 100 timkin load . It worked way better. By the way the sales guy selling the Certified told us the Timkin load did not really matter. Is that true? I'm not so sure myself as his grease did not have a Timkin load rating and it failed miserably compared to the Paragon 3000.
I suggest that you take a look at Post #1 on Page 1.
Rockfarm, The Timkin OK Load Test is antiquated and isn’t very useful today. The short answer.
The first things I look at are the 4-ball results for both weld load & scar size. IMO that's the reason those two parameters are #1 & #2 on the "seven tests to look for". YMMV.
For me, it's a Calcium Complex for high speed bearings and a 5% moly for low speed, high load applications. Both are synthetic.
I run on a pretty hard 'if it can't run in mystik JT-6 that's a design problem' philosophy. We feed that to anything we can. We use it on all the motors we get in for bearings too because an extensive field study has shown you're average operations monkey with a gun isn't gonna put Mobile Polyrex EM in it anyway lol, give them their motor back and tell them to use the grease that looks like strawberry jam.
Mr nige why I can’t open this?
Not sure why it's not opening for you. When I clicked on that link it does ask me to save it as PDF I saved it to my "desktop" and then I can open it from there.
I open it but is very difficult for me to understand all this. Can someone help me to buy the exactly correct grease for my machine? I have a cat grader h series. I don’t mind to use two type of grease or everything is needed
Great paper Nige! Where are you working these days?
Doing bits & bobs, "busman's holidays" here & there. I guess I'm semi-retired now. Trying to stay out of trouble and failing miserably......
I have a hard time picking grease and it's part of my job! The worst is when I get calls asking what to use on equipment that costs more than I'll likely earn in my lifetime. I don't want to be the scapegoat on that! "Can you get me a spec, or even the manual"... We don't have one. "What were you using?" Dunno, the mechanic/oiler, etc that took care of it quit months ago. Great.
If you run out of things to do you can always come and visit me! We live in the bush… and not many people around to see you, so pretty hard to get in trouble here LOL. Very good thread too, thank you!!!!
Anyone try the Triax grease? It's possible give a advice witch better for excavator pins and for the hidraulic hammer? The triax nano xp it's in stock on amazon.es, I'm thinking to buy the 10 tube pack...
Triax - Remmco LLC is an interesting company. A small blender in Houston Tx with a direct sell marketing strategy. Amazon, E-Bay, or direct sell from a little rental warehouse in Grapevine TX. It would be nice to know where they purchase their addy packs from. Lubrizol probably? I’ve never seen there products before or have any experience with it. Give it a try and report back.
Use a proper chisel paste for the hammer.
This^^^
Here you go. Schaeffer rep here, I can sell you a case of 216 Synforce Strike Chisel paste shipped anywhere in the lower 48 states for $ 364.34 + tax. Loaded with moly,graphite, and copper. 800kg 4 ball weld load
I contacted triax and first they recommended their top seller: Atlas 600. I asked for nano xp and they respond: "TRIAX Nano XP is our top of the line grease and is far superior to any chisel paste. It’s unique formulation with Nano fullerene provides outstanding performance in extreme applications, including construction heavy machinery. It is very consistent, sticky and and has a black colour. We are sure you will be satisfied with it’s performance for lubricating the hydraulic hammer." So they have the nano xp available in amazon.es and I bought to try.
I'm sure it's a very good grease--but it does NOT have copper in it which all chisel pastes need to have for greasing hammers. When I hammer rock I grease twice a day, with that grease I think you should grease 3-4 times per day to be safe.
Replaced a lot of tool bits and bushings on breakers that folks used regular grease in. If you're not going to use chisel paste then you best grease it twice as much as you normally would IMO.
I'm sure that chisel paste it's better for hammer. For now I'm happy with nanoxp for pins, have more consistency. Better for clean machine ☺️ and uses less grease Not use it in hammer but I think will be better that the ep-2. Greased by the hour and with nanoxp i think will work 2 in 2 hours.