Loading a tube grease gun question

[Jim_Rogers]

Do any of you have any tips on getting the grease gun started again after you have loaded a new tube in it?

I seem to be having a hard time to get it started again.

Thanks

Jim Rogers

[Chuck White]

The reason it doesn't start coming out right away is because of the air pocket at the top (the exit end) of the grease tube.

It's best if you have a grease gun that has a vent screw on the exit end cap.

If it does, just loosen it a little, it would have slits cut in the side of the screw/bolt.  When grease starts to exit, just tighten it back down and you're ready to go.

My grease gun doesn't have a vent screw, so I just loosen the cap "a couple turns" and let the air out that way.

CAUTION:  Don't loosen it too far or the grease will end up on the ground.

Just pump it and you should be able to get rid of the air!

[Jim_Rogers]

I think mine has one of the push button air vent things, but I couldn't hold the grease gun, push the button and pump at the same time......

Do you pump it while you hold that air release open? or not.....
I would think not as I may let air in.

I have tried turning the body a couple of times and pushing in on the plunger a little more.....

But I can't see to get this one started.

Normally the grease gun is out near the mill and I hang it up with the hose down, in the sun. I figure the sun is going to warm up the gun and the grease will run down by gravity and fill in the pump hole.

But this one's not working out for me.

Jim Rogers

[beenthere]

Mine has a spring-loaded plunger and takes cartridges. Just drop them in, thread on the handle/hose end, release the plunger and no problem.

Yours may be built different.

In the old days when we had to scoop grease in by hand a glob at a time, then the air pockets were a little more bother. There were all kinds of contraptions to load guns, but I like the cartridge best of them all.

[scsmith42]

The reason it doesn't start coming out right away is because of the air pocket at the top (the exit end) of the grease tube.

It's best if you have a grease gun that has a vent screw on the exit end cap.

If it does, just loosen it a little, it would have slits cut in the side of the screw/bolt.  When grease starts to exit, just tighten it back down and you're ready to go.

My grease gun doesn't have a vent screw, so I just loosen the cap "a couple turns" and let the air out that way.

CAUTION:  Don't loosen it too far or the grease will end up on the ground.

Just pump it and you should be able to get rid of the air!

+1.  Jim, it helps if you keep track of how much grease that you have left in the gun, and you stop pumping as soon as you run out.  When you leave the tube a few turns loose to vent the air, don't try to pump it, otherwise you'll get air in the plunger which causes the problem.

[Dakota]

I had an old grease gun that I tried to put a new cartridge in.  Found out that the new cartridges were just a little smaller in diameter.  This caused the plunger not to push the grease through the tube.  I ended getting a new gun.
Dakota

[1woodguy]

Usually it's just air on mine if I do it right I can loosen it till I see grease
But once or twice on me it was paper from the tube ,(old one)but when that was the problem it won't pump
Don't know if anyone else had this happen or not
  For years I just filled the gun by poking end into a bucket of grease
Or hand filling it

[Jim_Rogers]

I went to Youtube and watched a couple of videos on re-loading the grease gun with new tubes.

Two of them the guys pushed the plunger rod all the way in at the very beginning after putting in the new tube of grease.

Do you do that?

Or do you let the spring push the plunger up as it uses up the grease.

I thought I always let the spring push it up....

Jim Rogers

[DouginUtah]

Sounds like you are using a cartridge.

I put a cartridge in backwards once.

[thecfarm]

I push the plunger in as soon as I screw on the hose and handle part. I go through ALOT of grease. My wife mows about 2 hours a day. Gets greased after every time she gets done mowing. Than the tractor takes some too.Once in a while a tube will give me a hard time. I just loosen the top and pump the handle and it will usually come around fine. I did find some old tubes in the woodshed. Some worked good,but some did not. The cardboard tube was kinda soft and would keep the plunger from going all the way through.

[beenthere]

Jim
Not exactly following you, but before unscrewing the housing from the pump end, I grab the T handle and pull it out which compresses the spring and then will slide in a slot to lock it.

Then unscrew the pump end, pull out the spent cartridge, and drop in the full one. Then remove the tab.

Screw the pump end back on the housing and release the T handle and push that plunger back into the cartridge. The spring keeps pressure on the grease.

[Jim_Rogers]

push that plunger back into the cartridge. The spring keeps pressure on the grease.

This is what I'm asking, how far do you push the t handle back in? all the way or not?

[thecfarm]

All the way is my way.  ;D

[beenthere]

This is what I'm asking, how far do you push the t handle back in? all the way or not?

As thecfarm says, all the way as the handle no longer is doing anything. Just its rod is imbedded in the new grease. At anytime you want to know how much grease is still in the tube, pull the handle out to where it contacts the end of the spring/plunger and it will tell you (like a measuring stick).

Just don't do it like the guy in this video.  Completely clueless. :   ;D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXaWbv_lzQ8

[Al_Smith]

Hey that guy is a genious . :D

Seriously on a cartridge gun you don't normally have problems .Fact I can't imagine why there should be any problems .

The old kind you fill with a putty knife once it's full you just tap the base on something to settle the grease then pack it full .They work too but are a pain in the buttocks to fill .

Fact an old trick on those hand fills is just take the end off and stick it in a bucket of grease and pull back on the plunger .If there was enough grease in the bucket it would pretty much get sucked into the gun .On a side note I haven't seen or used one of those antiques since I was in high school and that was many moons ago .

[den]

When you put the new tube in screw the pump end on just enough so when you release the handle
the end doesn't come off. Now pull the handle back out part way, turn it so the slot in the piston
lines up with the end of the rod in side. Pull out a fraction and then turn 1/4. now the rod will be locked behind the piston. Put the rod (that has t handle) against your belt, and pull hard on the grease gun and pump at the same time. Do this when ever you have air in the grease gun. Now screw the end all the way on.

[bandmiller2]

Some grease guns are designed to be bulk fill or cartridge.Only difference is the way the lip on the pusher rod seal is facing.For bulk fill the lip should be pointing to the pump end,for cartridges lip away from the pump,if the lips the wrong way it will haqng up on the end of the cartridge tube.After I put a full tube in I leave the head loose and release the pusher rod from its holdback notch,then tighted the head.Some times it helps to hold the gun upside down and tap the head with a soft hammer. Frank C.

[wascator]

I think Den has it: most guns will let you turn the fill handle on the end and poush against the piston while holding the vent open, this will force the air out, or you can do this while pumping the handle. Or take pains to add some grease at the pump end by hand as you insert the cartridge.
Hope this helps.
RR

[Brucer]

Mine has the push-type vent. Once the tube is in and everything closed up, I push the handle in, rest it vertically on the mill with the tip pointing up, and press the ball on the vent. After a few seconds the grease starts to flow out the vent. No need to pump the handle.

[bandmiller2]

Beware of the sawyer with a rusty grease gun. Frank C.

[woodmills1]

when you screw the tube container back into the head just turn it till it starts


then relese the push rod


then screw the tube container all the way in

usually this puts the grease up close enough to feed

[barbender]

I hate grease guns and grease, we are always at odds with each other. I have gotten into different batches and/or brands of grease that were worse about airlocking, I remember one type of moly grease we ended up throwing out because it had dry pockets in it.

[sandhills]

Bought a new grease gun a few years ago that inevitably gets air in it with about 2" of grease left in the cartridge, every tube, never fails.  All i do is unscrew the hose and the air pops out along with a little grease, it's a pain but that's all it takes, as for getting air out when reloading I agree with all the other suggestions, and that guy in the video was a hoot, hope he doesn't rebuild engines on the side though  :D.  I bought a case (12) of cartridges 6 weeks ago when we started cutting silage, as of tonight I have 1 tube left  :-\.

[Jim_Rogers]

Late yesterday afternoon, I tried and tried to get my grease gun to work. I tried every suggestion in the thread and then some.

And it wouldn't work.

I was thinking that my plunger isn't going into the paper tube correctly. I tried to remove it to test it into the tube by taking off the bottom end and pulling it out. But it won't come out through the metal cylinder.

I also tried another cylinder from another grease gun that I had on hand and the thread size is different and it wouldn't thread onto my grease gun head.

Did they change sizes of the tubes? the inside diameter. Maybe I should get a new grease gun.
It seems funny that I've been using the same one for better than 18 years, that I've had the mill, and now the plunger won't fit into the tube.

Should I trim off an inch of the end of the paper tube to see if it will then go in?

I took the one I found from the broken air powered grease gun and pushed out a big gob of grease and stuffed it onto the head of my pump gun and then reloaded the cylinder again.

That did get me enough grease to grease my blade guide rollers when I changed my blade. And I'm hoping that the suction from the pump will help pull some of the new tube grease in. Only time will tell.

Jim Rogers

[thecfarm]

Jim you have ALOT more patience than I do. I would of brought a new one by now. I'm not there to see what is wrong,but mine works good,99% of the time. Without doing anything or any trick to it either. I just pull the plunger back,lock it in place,unscrew the nozzle,pull out the old one,pull the end cap off the new one,insert in gun,pull the end cap off the new cartridge,put the nozzle end back on,release plunger and start to use grease gun.I can go through a tube in a week real easy in the summer months.