You all have read newspaper accounts of mass shootings, where some person kills a whole pile of people in a fit of rage and frustration. Pundits suggest that it's stress, workplace harassment, racism, and drugs that are setting people off. It's all BS. I know the reason why people lose their minds. They all had to grease a backhoe for the first time. I must have the patience of Job not to have borrowed my neighbor's Barrett light 50, and shot my backhoe. Things I've figured out. 1. People hate grease guns because they are a pain to get working. What seems like it should take 10 seconds to load takes hours. When you can't get them working, you've going to end up covered in grease, using up a case of paper towels, and wasting a tube of very expensive, moly grease that you had to import from a Tibetan monastery where they make it from yak grease and rare incense. Something that seems simple - loading a tube of grease, demands a gaggle of Catholic priests to bless the event, grease physiologists to put you through 6 months of intensive training at the US Olympic center, and a Buddhist monk to teach you to meditate so you can properly focus. 2. The reason why people go looking for electric guns, or bulk greasers is that backhoe joints don't just take two shots of grease. I've been pumping 20 - 40 shots before I see grease oozing out of the joint. Maybe the chimps who used my hoe were too stoned on bananas to properly grease, but mine seem to take forever to fill. I worked on my hoe for two hours, and have only gotten half of them done. The gun is pumping grease. so I know grease is entering the joint. 3. When a ZERK won't pass grease, you'll discover that the banana-stoned chimps decided to ignore a fitting when it plugged up instead of actually fixing it. I scraped out mud and dirt from the outrigger Zerk holes, and am still soaking them in penetrating fluid to see if I can get grease in the holes. I have a feeling that I'm going to have to have those rusty pins removed by Deere service to get grease into those joints. I know that this is a learning exercise, and eventually, it will become second nature, but I never expected it to be this much of a challenge. I have new-found respect for the mechanics and operators who do things right, and take pride in their work. This Bud's for you guys.
Lincoln air grease gun, Locknlube coupler, with assorted accessories. Just works, you will never look back.
Milwaukee 18V grease gun, Lock-N-Lube with extra tips and your greasing life will change for ever. I fixed it for you lantrax.
Emmett, your next to last line. Thank you. Some of us still have pride in a job well done. For me, a machine well and correctly greased is one of them. Hard to explain maybe, but it just feels good knowing things can swivel, bend and rotate freely. From the mechanics side, I have told people for years, I would rather work in grease to my armpits than swing a 12 lb to drive out rusty or frozen pins....
NOPE! I'm done with electric greasers thank yew very much! I'd rather tote a compressor or a mile of hose, I find it THAT much better!
Have you tried a Milwaukee?
Lantraxco, I've gotta give this round to the kid. Those Milwaukee guns are mean little sobs. I have both and the guys fight over whos gonna get the Milwaukees.
If it takes 40 shots of grease, there is waaayyyyy to much slop between the pin and bushings.
I admit I have not, and it may be the king of battery op guns, but it can't be that much better, that much quieter, and last that much longer than the Lincoln's I've had. How fast can you run through three tubes of grease, and will it do it on one battery? Lincoln air gun, $74 free shipping. Yeah, I gotta have air, but mostly I have to have that anywhere I go anyway. To each their own YMMV
Get an assortment of zerks in the little plastic box. Don't muck around trying to clean or fix one. When you get it out after much swearing, take a small drill bit, much smaller than the zerk threads, to the concrete-like grease behind it. Carve that shizzle out rather than try and push it through. Try that with any zerk that does not want to accept grease. The dredge had a lincoln, but it dieded. I have the milwaukee and the aforementioned lock-n-lube.
I'm gonna call it a tie, got the pneumatic when I got it $64 lincoln at home works great, especially for the hoe..At work we've got a lincoln canister on a keg that is my go to, especially when greasing under the trucks or machines, not as bulky and doesn't run out of grease mid truck, but when you get a clogged zerk or stubborn kingpin or auger bushing that milwaukee 18 volt has a lot more pressure and rarely fails to push some grease..Just my 2 cents
emmett, Thanks for the BUD! One thing that I am thinking is that the previous owner was not that diligent, or hadn't greased the unit in a while. I feel like the next time you grease it (after ~8 hours of use), it will prolly not take as much grease to make it happy. I ran into this when I greased my backhoe for the first time (took 2 cartridges) . Also, once you get the unit to take grease on all zirks, it shouldn't be hard to keep that going if you grease regularly. The battery powered units do have lots of pressure behind them. I have greased my backhoe with the Milwaukee 18 volt unit (with the 5.0 battery) at least 3 times, and the battery is currently still working...that includes months of sitting between greasing's, so the batteries do last in this gun.
I’m third in line on this hoe. It started life in rental, then went to plumbing contractor (where I’m not sure they had any grease gun). So now, there are joints that can take 20 to 40 pumps of grease from a DeWalt. Have not tried a hand pump to count strokes and see if both squeeze out similar volumes. I kinda wonder about the joints that grease only comes out one side or the other (on a center fed pin/bushing). There are loose joints, mostly from the life it chose but keep changing bucket teeth and press on! I never realized how close I was to committing Harry-carry! It takes a new roll of paper towels and almost three tubes of grease. Hour and a half to two hours (but I get distracted easily). Usually not in a rush and kinda enjoy doing it. Would plug an electric gun. They are worth the cost. Need to work on adapters. Bought the lock-n-lube but have not used it. There are places I don’t think it will fit, thus the need for adapters. Then, how to store and keep them clean? Back in the 50’s and 60’s on the farm, we used a pump I couldn’t carry. Held probably 5 gallon of grease, maybe 3’ tall. My job was to pump the handle. Dad or brother took the hose and climbed around on the implements. Everyone have a great day and leave the BAR in the cabinet until it’s plinker time.
Yeah we have both air and electric too. Our job boxes have air comp and grease keg for daily greasing. The electric gun is nice when you don't have air. We don't carry comp's around on our pickups.
possibly, but there is only 1600 hours on the hoe and the Deere inspection did not report bad slop.
Too much slop is when you pivot the backhoe in one direction and you have to adjust the stabilizers to even it back out before digging
I spent a winter in the shop of a company with 7 backhoes, fixing stuff. The bucket heel pins were the most neglected and I hammered several of them out to get grease in them. Never had to replace any, just drive them out, carve out the grease mixed with rock dust, and reinstall with new zerks. I burned a few boxes of hard facing rod and re-lined truck boxes. The money was the same but now I don't brag about being a welder OR a scraper hand. Don't need any of either of those headaches.
I had a hand pump grease gun, the leaver type for almost 20 years. Not sure who made it. It was marked ingersol rand, but I didn't think they made grease guns. I put a 2 foot hose on it. I used to put a new tip on it every spring, and give it a bath in the parts washer. Then some *&^% borrowed it, left it on the track of his hoe, and ran it over. Everything else has been garbage, and I only get a summer or 2 out of them before they start oozing grease and refuse to pump. Our back hoes are the worse, as they have no dedicated operator, and never get grease until they start squeaking. The plant loader and the loaders at the quarry have automatic greasers, as they are a 16 hour day gig, and most times a non stop machine. I like taking the time to grease because that's when you find things that need fixin.
When I got back to work for this outfit I took a 4 hour afternoon going over the 120, replacing zerks and pumping 4 tubes in. Now I am comfortable with giving it 10 pumps per on most fittings, using the Milwaukee's automatic pump counter. She rattles a lot but does not squeak!
I still have a 40 year old Alemite, NOT giving it up OR Away!!! Most dependable lever lube gun I have EVER had.
My father had a lincoln grease gun. I think it was a 12 volt. It wouldn't pump red grease. It has been in my mother's shed since he died, so over 12 years. Battery is probably ruined. I've often meant to get it for home, but unless I have to put another upper control arm on my pick up, it only has one grease nipple. Yes I call them nipples. Never like to call them zerks. Maybe fittings, but never zerks.
we have zerks and button heads. I had never messed with the buttons till I got on the 75 year old dredge.
I love my Milwaukee but dang if a tube of grease doesn’t feel like it lasts but about 15 seconds in it. we have an air keg greaser setup but the hose is wrestling a greasy pig and the tip is always shot and it feels like it always goes empty on me so that’s 20 mins lost to change it out in a most cumbersome process. and if you want fun try dealing with a POS autolube especially a hammer autolube. Guaranteed to be broke.
The digger dredge had a lincoln air unit on the 120 pound grease barrel, with 40' of hose to wrestle. I greased the bucket at the end of the night shift. It has 3" pins and would drink 5~10 conventional tubes of grease, and take way too long that way.
Very insightful analysis. Going over this unit, and fixing all the tiny things is teaching me a lot about how the machine is laid out, and allowing me to catch questionable things before they actually break. I've been to the hardware store and auto parts store at least once a day since the hoe arrived.
Must be a Canadian thing??....... my wife ( a Newfy ) called erasers "rubbers"...... went into the college bookstore asking where they kept their 'rubbers'... clerk told her she was in the wrong store... The roommates had a big laugh on that one..
What would you call this then?? All kidding aside, my employer has insisted that the item above be called a space piece as not to offend anyone...no bs!
big plumber joke " he said nipple "
In my experience, the people that are the most reasonable, the most honest, the most un PC, and the most professional have been cops and military types. And I get the impression, blue collar folks are the same way. As long as you can meet the standards, not whine about anything, show integrity, and concentrate on doing the best job you can on the thing that involves them, they don't give a rat's ass if you're male or female, gay or straight, Christian, Jewish, Muslim or pagan, cis or transgender. "Get er done" is the most important thing.
It's a pipe nipple . And if you're a snowflake, in a tizzy over a word, then you obviously have too much time on your hands.
Well, I watched this thread heading get replies and pop to the top and finally,,, I reluctantly,,, clicked on it. I think an admin should change the title to something more on topic. Just saying! The first thing I did before my first backhoe greasing was to order a bag of grease fittings and plastic caps from Grainger. I was still working at the time and we had contract pricing from them so the cost was negligible. I have used a pistol grip Alemite with an 18" hose for neigh on to 50 years. The hose cover is cracked all over but still doesn't leak. After the second greasing I went to Tractor Supply and bought a DeWalt 20V grease gun. I will never give up using my Alemite but it will probably never approach my backhoe again. Lessons Learned: After the initial freeing up of all the pins a fitting that won't take grease is more often under a load than an actual fitting clog. Sometimes you have to start the machine and reposition the bucket or boom so the pressure isn't on the fitting side of the pin. After a dozen or so greasings you learn the best way to park everything before you start so you can grease the whole machine without having to move something. I was able to free up all the pins and get all my fittings to take grease except the bottom boom pivot fitting. It really concerned me and every time I greased it I tried to force grease into it. About the third greasing with the DeWalt it gave in. That was a happy day when it gave in and took grease. I tried everything under the sun to get pressure off of it and get grease into that one fitting. My stabilizer pins are about the only ones that challenge me if I grease regular. I'm pretty sure I would have never got grease into that fitting with my Alemite gun. In the case of the DeWalt you have to be mindful of the sound of the grease gun. If you continue to hold the trigger after it runs out it will suck the tube closed and make it a booger to get out. When the grease tube is empty it changes from a beat type sound to a constant motor type sound. I have the lock and lube coupler on mine but I'm not in love with it. I eventually had to install the rebuild kit that came with it and it works better than it originally did. I had to clamp it in a vise to get the damn thing apart. It went in the trash at one point but being a little OCD about defeat I dug it back out and made it succumb to my repair attempt. It doesn't always grab onto a fitting easily and if you pump grease on a fitting that is clogged or blocked it can be a real pain to get off. If it happens to be in an area where you can't get a pair of channel lock pliers on it you will use your entire swear word vocabulary. My last thought and lesson learned is grease type. Get yourself a good 5% moly grease. I use Amalie Pro Tac +. It will stay in the pins 3 or 4 times longer than a typical 3% moly. Several companies make and recommend a 5% Moly including CAT for heavy equipment use. I wouldn't use it in an automotive wheel bearing but for pins and such I think it made a big difference in how often I need to grease my machine. Now I've gone and opened the "BEST GREASE" topic. ENJOY!
I've always thought the word snowflake was wasted on what people are trying to describe. Snowflakes are mother nature's works of art, and each one is unique. I think they should just call a spade a spade.
that greasing with the pin unloaded thing is easier to do with a helper at the controls. Sometimes that is all it takes to get things going. you find the sweet spot and away it goes.
I think it's even labeled a nipple in the bin at the hardware store.
I bet you have never seen a grease zerk fitting . Bob
If we're talking zerks on outriggers, what position should they be in to grease? Can you float outriggers?
just touch them on the ground.
@emmett518 Great thread starter! I would agree wholeheartedly! Repriming my pneumatic grease gun has caused all kinds of frustration and has been a reason I don't grease enough. I went and picked up the now infamous Milwaukee 18v, but I haven't had time to try it out yet, though I'm excited to, it'll probably be a task for this weekend. Also, thanks guys, for the note about pins not accepting grease because there is likely a load on them, I didn't think about that but it makes tons of sense. I'm also thinking of drawing a diagram for how the hoe needs to sit for me to reach all the zerk fittings. I mess up, usually with how the hoe bucket needs to curl to reach a fitting in that pivot.
I've got a wall adorned with hand operated grease guns, an air powered grease gun, and a Milwaukee 18 volt. Only gun I've ever had that wasn't a pain to bleed the air out to get it pumping is the Milwaukee. Other guns; thoroughly wipe out ALL grease in the pump area, and from the threads before putting in the new tube. start the thread a turn or two, release the plunger, push it in. Most guns have a bleed plug to remove, and when grease squeezes everywhere, they are difficult to get the thread started. In extreme cases unscrew the hose. Use two guns at a time. When one is empty, refill it, hang it on the wall hose end up. use the other until it is empty. I once had a gun that pumped under very high pressure. That sometimes got grease in those neglected joints. More commonly, on a new to me machine I have to take a few pins out to clear the grease galleys. You don't need a whole tube of grease in each joint. Manual instructions on a few points will call for a lot of grease EX: Case 580K calls for 50 pumps in each rear axle bearing once a year. I presume this serves as a seal to keep gear oil in the transaxle. Other joints, a few pumps suffice. Squeeze out just attracts grit, does more harm than good, might damage seals.
As a teenager, I used to grease trucks at my father's work on Saturdays. They had an air grease gun, the one that sits on the barrel. He always said to stop once you hear the crack of moisture coming out. I still do that, but after years of saying I don't need hearing protection, it's harder to hear.
#1 son mumbles EVERYTHING he says as he faces away from me. I never could make out much of what Mrs. B says, she always had a soft voice. She too seems to only mutter when she faces away. I work often at an industrial facility, I reason that when I wear earplugs people shouldn't try to talk to me. Yes, I once could hear a deer stepping on a twig 100 yards away. 50 years later, I feel the train .7 miles away moving the earth before I hear it. CDL test: She says: "Face the corner, I'll talk to you in a low voice. Raise your hand when you can make out words." She says nothing for a very long time. My message to the young: Use hearing protection while it will help!
More than half the guys I work with are hard of hearing, and I have a soft voice, so I repeat myself a lot. I can hear soft sounds, but I can't talk to someone in a crowd anymore. Most of the time, I just smile and nod. I do notice a lot of the younger folk, using hearing protection on the jobs. I just sat through the annual company safety orientation. The feds are making it harder to bid jobs unless everything is safety compliant. After all these years, I finally found a hard hat I don't mind wearing all day, and now they tell me I might not be able to wear it. My boots are no good, not long enough. She says they have to be 8 inches high, I tell her I don't think I could walk in heels that high, no sense of humor. I like the 6 inch, it's easier for shoving pedals all day. You need safety glasses. I can't see right with safety glasses, I'll wear them when I need them, I'm in a glassed in cab. You need hearing protection, what! You need hearing protection, I need what! Hearing protection. What? Again with the lack of sense of humor. No more reflective suspenders, you need a full vest. You have to wear a mask with more than one person in a vehicle. Then I start to think....... Someone actually married her, and she has kids, so someone slept with her to.
One of my first jobs was a dam job with our own crusher and concrete plant. I worked dam construction for a couple of years and finished my stint there at the plant running loader. We'd shut down and I would crawl the belts and jaw and cone/screen plant and burn a 10 tube case with an Alemite hand pump in a morning.
A couple of us older folk have a hard time understanding the twenty somethings. When they talk to us, they think we are mad at them because we talk so loud. Told one kid he should wear hearing protection if it bothers him.
My mother gets mad. She says we older folk are not stupid or slow, we just can't hear?
I know that prolonged exposure to loud noise contributes to hearing loss, but in my family at least, it seems to be more of a genetic thing. The women in my family (who were not generally exposed to excessive loud noise) have about the same degree of hearing loss as the men who worked in loud industrial settings. Glad to see this thread never got off track! Lol
I have worked in a workshop environment for 36 year, plus for 15 years I built and fielded stock cars. I have tininitus which is not bothersome except at night. I have some hearing loss at 57 but so far I am doing better than most guys I know my age. I do have trouble picking out conversations in a crowd or when there is a lot of background noise. I do notice the younger generation generally mumbles and slurs their words. It is not my hearing, it is they are always looking at their phones while conversing. Also TV shows have the voices too low in relation to the sound effects. I am constantly turning the volume up and down. If I what an older show I don't need to do this. The sound editors should be shot.
+1
Pretty soon, we’re going to have to have classes, licensing and inspections in order to be able to use the bathroom. Government nannies are out of control. You can’t even fart without some government busybody wanting to get involved.
It's easy to see. Every time someone gets hurt, or killed, the laws change. It doesn't happen as much here, but people do get sued. Most of the time it's the insurance companies. The feds put pressure on the companies by raising their compensation rates, and making you become core certified in safety before bidding on government work. Here in New Brunswick, you have to be core certified in order to work for all 3 levels of government. The companies top 3 expenses right now, are wages, fuel and safety. Grease and grease guns are in there too.
Well, holy ****! The Milwaukee m18 grease gun is effing incredible and well, well worth the $300+ dollars it cost. It started with some trouble because I was too dumb to realize the battery clicked into the charger, so I came out to see a red/green flashing that meant there was a battery issue. I went and spent 85 bucks on a new slightly larger capacity battery. Next, I came home, plugged that bad boy in, and after a half hour or so got the same red/green issue. Now, the battery didn't feel like it went into the charger properly but it showed it was doing something so I assumed it was good. Out of frustration I jammed the battery on a bit harder and it clicked into place, then I felt like a dumba$$ because it went to red and charging. Regardless of any of that junk I went out and burned through 2 tubes of grease, effortlessly, no priming issues, and greased the beast! No longer any threat of me losing my mind! @emmett518 if you have a chance this is a game changer (pardon the expression).
What happens with the Milwaukee if the zerk is plugged?
It either squeezes grease all over around the fitting, or builds a lot of pressure & it can be hard to get the coupler off the fitting. I had a tube type air powered gun, I couldn't be sure it was actually pumping grease into the joint. The Milwaukee makes a clicking noise when it is successfully moving grease.
Yup. Apparently I need to change out all my stabilizer zerks because they all did just this. Spooge out grease on the outside of the fitting. For what it's worth I've also tried one of those zerk cleaners where you putting the coupler on the fitting pour some wd40 into a tube and proceed to beat a plunger to force the wd40 into the zerk to get it to take grease. So far I'm about 1 for 5 on it working and new zerks are pretty cheap, so I'll be going with just buying a big bunch of zerks and trading them out when needed.
LOL @ you guys. Shouldn't we, as we get older, be using the old hand held and pistol grip grease guns!? I mean.......we need all the exercise we can get. There's nothing like the feeling of satisfaction my arms give me after pumping up a track with an old Alemite lever gun.
The bucket on my Mauldin grader. Those nipples plug easy. The only way I can keep them clear is to grease them every day I use it. Even if it is only one shot.
My carpel tunnel is screaming...NOOOOOOOOOOO!!
I had the same issue with the DeWalt charger. For a year it charged the battery just fine by setting the battery lightly in the charger. When it started indicating the battery was charged but it wasn't I called DeWalt and they sent me a new battery. Then I found a YT video explaining you had to PUSH the battery onto the charger until it clicked. Problem solved and I got a free battery out of the deal. The DeWalt has a pressure relief valve just like a manual gun. On a clogged zerk it will build to a certain pressure and then push grease out the relief valve.
Glad to hear I wasn't the only one @NH575E ! I was planning to make the phone call when the 2nd battery didn't work as I was in the mood to grease (and it'd been too long). I'm glad I didn't but I'm curious to know if one of their trouble-shooting suggestions is "did you try pushing it down?"
I use both Lincoln air and milwaukee i like Lincoln better Milwaukee is best battery but none can hold a candle to big barrel of grease with air pump speed power and never air pockets or changing tubes
That is what was funny about the call to DeWalt. The phone tech didn't ask or suggest that I push the battery down till it clicked. He just offered to send me a free battery since my machine was under a year old. I didn't search and find the solution on the web until after my new battery arrived and did the same thing. My call was actually about the battery for my string trimmer but the same charger and battery for the grease gun. I've had the grease gun two or three years and i don't think I've had to charge it more than 3 times. I also have their cordless fan. I bought an extra battery so I have a total of three 5AH batteries and the 4AH that came with the grease gun. I also bought a 20V DeWalt battery to 19.2V Craftsman tool adapter to backup all my C3 tools.
How's that fan? I bought a battery operated fan a year or so back to have in the backhoe with me, and I've used it when camping once, and it blows in both places, and not in a good way. I'd love to find a small battery fan that I could hang from the roof of the backhoe somewhere.
It's too heavy to be that portable. I just got it to work out in the barn and stuff.
Thanks @NH575E , that's way beefier than what I was thinking. Unhijack!