contractors air greaser

[Randy88]

Ok guys heres a question for you, does anybody know anything about a contractors air greaser or thats what some call it, its a self contained air tight, moisture tight, dust proof container that you have to put bulk grease into and seal the lid and then it has an air operated pump on it to dispense grease, I've asked my oil/grease guru and he knew nothing about it and had never seen one before, all he has seen and been around are the ones that fit onto a five gallon pail and are not moisture and dust proof and told me to avoid them for my application.

I want somthing to handle bulk grease to eliminate the tubes and constant refilling the gun in the field, yesterday I went through another 9 tubes to service my machines and I'm getting tired of constantly changing tubes of grease, I now use an air operted lincoln grease gun and love it for the fact my hands don't fall asleep from all the pumping of that many tubes of grease in one time but its now time to move onto a bulk system of some sort to save time and mess.

All the typical grease pumps are designed to be around a shop setting more than in the field and since I drive a lot of gravel roads and such dust is a major problem with any other bulk system I've looked at and thats why my grease guy has as of yet told me to avoid the bulk air pumps system in my case. Alemite I think makes one of the contractors style and lincoln does too along with a few imports. My grease guy told me to buy an import and see if it works before spending the money on a name brand at three times the price and see if its dust and moisture proof and keeps the grease clean in my service truck toolbox. They come with a 15 ft hose and hold about 25 lbs of grease, I was thinking if I'd set this unit out on the ground and hooked up an air hose to it I could then just use the hose to do a walk around and hit the zerks and carry it around the machine as needed until I was done but does anyone have any experience or advice? The larger ones to fit a five gallon pail or the larger 100 plus pound containers with hose reel and all that how do you keep the dust out of them along with the moisture buildup over time? Does the bulk systems work in the field and on a service truck that you drive everyday and do they handle cold weather to be able to dispense grease or is this just a fantasy idea and the real world senerio doesn't work as good.

 

[Tinkerer]

Randy, I ran a grease truck for one of the largest dirt contractors in Illinois for 7 years. All of the trucks they had used Graco air powered grease guns. The hand dispenser was on the end of a 50 foot hose mounted on a spring powered reel. The pump set on top of a 55 gallon drum.The lid had a lip that extended over the top edge of the barrel about 2 inches. Dust and dirt were not a problem. Some moisture condensation took place inside the barrel but was never a problem until the barrel was nearly empty. We used a winter weight grease in the cold weather.There is a filter for the grease in the handle. That is about the only thing that would slow down the discharge of grease.

 

[jimrr]

i too have a lincoln gun.......sure looked nice but won't dispense much grease per pump so went back to hand pump unless i needed more pressure.........the grayco mentioned above sounds right, they prob make one for a 5 gallon can if they make one for a 50 gallon drum?

 

[Tinkerer]

Here is a link to the Graco site. If you click where it says brochure it goes to a .pdf file with all the pump info. Some of the pumps fit a 16 gallon container.

http://www.graco.com/Internet/T_PDB...Form&Cat=Lubrication+Equipment#Lubricationone

 

[Randy88]

Jimrr, my lincoln gun pumps grease and won't stop until you let off the trigger, you can pump the gun empty with only one trigger pull if you wanted to, the dealer told me it was the only model they had that did that and I love it for that feature but now I need more volume per package as they say.

Tinkerer, how did it work as far as air locks were concerned, they tell me there is a follower plate that takes the grease down to the bottom of the container and that prevented the air locks, how was it in real life, did it work or is it just a sales pitch. Also would it pump grease until you let off the trigger or did you have to pull the trigger for each pump like any other manual gun. This contractors air greaser you put the grease into it manually out of a pail or drum and then put the follower plate in and the cover on and dispense grease any thoughts on that kind of a deal instead of just putting the cover and follower plate on a new full pail or drum. I've noticed that any grease with moly in it doesn't tend to air lock as bad as plain lithium grease or at least thats how its been working in my guns anyhow, is the bulk systems any different? What did you use for winter grade grease in the bulk systems with a grease pump? Thanks for taking the time to respond.

 

[jimrr]

oh great, now i learn!!! ............ it's possible (and evidently probable) i never held the trigger down long enough to find out...having let it up as soon as i heard it reach end of stroke, i just can't quite believe i never discovered it'd recyle for another pump all by its' self!
as for air locks, it was horrible, a real bear to get pumping again. the follower plate you mention while not only spring loaded also is sucked toward the top of the grease gun by suction as long as there is no loss of seal inside the grease tube and is meant to keep a squared column of grease there.
My father had a air powered one in the gas station that fitted in a 5 gallon pail of grease, it was powerfull and would pump quite a load per pump..........surely they still make them? the follower in it worked by gravity and suction what with the grease making a good air seal along the side of the 'metal' 5 gal. can so as the grease level went down, the 'follower' brought all the grease down evenly to the bottom of the can.

 

[jimrr]

it took me some effort but there are 5 gal. pumps on that grayco web site, i found the hand pumps anyway, i'm sure they have the 5 gal. air and electric also. type into their search eng. ''5 gal grease pump''

 

[Randy88]

I thumbed around a little on the website also and I think the model I was thinking of is a fireball 241573 pump and 241486 resivoir assembly that holds 90 lbs of grease and also on the lincoln side its a model 987 25-50 lb pail 60lb bulk greaser, I'm not sure how to get the fancy website on here but if you google lincoln model 987 it took me to several distributors who had pictures just like lincolns site did, they advertise it for all weather operations and beng dust and moisture proof with its own container with a sealed lid.

How did you get the air locks out of the bulk systems and did the one you used have a gravity follower plate or a spring follower plate from the bottom up or how did they work or not work, these I'm looking at have a gravity follower plate and are supposed to keep the air locks out by greating a seal around the grease and following it to the bottom, yea, sounds good in theory but I'm not so sure it'll work that nice in the field when I'm in a hurry and running late and the weathers bad like most days for me.

Northern tool also had an import model on their website for a couple hundred bucks and my grease dealer told me to buy one and try it first before shelling out the money for a lincoln or alemite or graco unit and see firsthand if its the way to go or not.

 

[Tinkerer]

We used 55 gallon drums of grease. Never had a need for the followers. The grease in the drum would form a shallow vee as the grease was pumped down. Air lock was never a problem. A little condensation did occur in the warm months but I would just pull the trigger until I had good clean grease. Yes I could pump the whole barrel with one pull of the trigger. It would just keep on pumping. The pump was very powerful. I don't remember ever having a zerk that wouldn't take grease. Actually I could shoot a stream of grease 30 feet in the air ! The only thing that would slow the pumping speed (capacity) was when the filter in the handle would start to plug with debris. I found that grease is not that pure in regards to contaminates.
I do not know what the weight of the grease was we used in the winter. It was sent out from the shop to wherever I was working. I don't think the grease we used was lithium because it was pretty much lacking in color. Correct me if I am wrong but I believe lithium based grease is black.The service truck sat out in the weather. Never in a heated building . I used to service 30 to 40 machines a day when we had fairly large dirt spreads. I only mention this to give you an idea of how much grease and oil I would pump in a week.