does anyone have any tips or tricks on hand loading a small grease gun. the only grease cartridges i can find for this gun is lithum and would like to try valvolines synthetic but cant find a small cartridge for it. the reason i have a small gun is that it dont take up a whole lot of space and i dont use it that often. someone told me i can hand load an empty cartridge, so i bought a jar of the stuff and am having problems loading it. it only works for 2 or 3 squirts and than stops working. any ideas? thanks.
hand loading small grease gun?
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Kestas
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I'm in the same boat. I've been reloading the same cardboard cartridge in my gun for the past 30 years. The only problems I've encountered are recently when I tried to load Exxon Infinitec - the first time I've used a synthetic chassis grease in my gun. I believe some greases simply aren't pumpable through spring-loaded grease guns.
Well since you are hand loading it anyway. Perhaps you could get one of the smaller cartridges of lithium grease and dump that out of the cartridge and reload it with the synthetic grease. I dont know if it would work or not, but it could be worth a shot.
i have thought of that. my question is how to reload the cartridge? i already have the cartridge, i just cant figure out how to hand load it. this is the first time i try to hand load it and am having a bunch of trouble with the air and such, and i dont know if i am loading it right. i just try to force as much as possible in the cartridge but it never seems to be enough in there.
Mystik makes a 3-oz cartridges with a calcium based grease,,,make sure you purge out old grease,,as its a good grease,,,if not get a 1 lb can of grease ,remove old tube (you dont need it) and pull plunger rod back,,get a paint stick and stuff the grease gun tube full of the lube,,,screw top back on ,,,pump,,if nothing loosen top just enough to remove air work cylinder rod back and forth while pumping ,,grease will come out,,,,BL
Well that is a dilema. Im not sure what else you could do. The only thing that came to mind when I pondered it was if you had one of those cake decorating things where you pack in the icing and then roll up the bag and squeeze it out. You could use that to fill up the tube, but thats an awful lot of trouble and perhaps mess to go through.
When I worked for the old coot at the brake shop, he tried to teach me how to refill a conventional grease gun from a barrel. I wasn't that good at it. You pulled the tube off the head, stuck the end in the barrel, and pulled back the rod, pulling grease into it. Try that without the cartridge at all. Once you have it filled, you may have to smack the head against something to settle the grease into the head. Those old guys had a bunch of tricks.
Kestas
Staff member
I always reloaded the tube with a spoon or putty knife. Tapping the tube on the work bench would move the grease down until it's full.
Hi Guy`s,
Go to Advanced auto and pick up a 13$ full sized grease gun and a tube of your favorit grease.Then you don`t have to worry adout refilling the smaller tubes.All this can be done for under 20$
Riflemen10x
Go to Advanced auto and pick up a 13$ full sized grease gun and a tube of your favorit grease.Then you don`t have to worry adout refilling the smaller tubes.All this can be done for under 20$
Riflemen10x
the reason i dont want a large grease gun is that i dont have a garage or shop to speak of so the gun has to stay in my toolbox in my truck and i dont use it enough to warrent spending even the $20 on a large one.
How about warming up the grease a little so as to make it more fluid like, then spoon or knife it in while tapping the tube to aide in the removal of any air as well as to settle the volume of grease? I think I recall Mola or another common contributer to this forum, warming a container of older grease that had separated a little, to aid in the remixing process...thus there being some thermal softening without having to apply too much heat.
Kestas
Staff member
I don't think heating will help with resorption of the oil. Heat accelerates oil separation from the grease.
Not sure if this will help but I have a similar situation. I have a very small needle point grease gun for greasing my air tools. I fill it with Redline Red Moly CV grease from a full size tube in a full size grease gun. I just shove the tip of the full size gun into the small gun and pump a dozen or two times until the small gun is full. Seems to work fairly well and is the least messy way I could think of to do it. Full size grease gun cheap at Harbor Freight.
I've seen guys put a grease zerk in the end of a grease gun and fill it that way at a gas station off a big drum fed unit-back when gas stations greased cars. Probably wouldn't be a viable alternative now unless you worked at a maintenance facility somewhere.
drill it and tap it for the grease zerk sounds like a great idea. leave the head screwed loose till grease seeps out then tighten her down. good to go.
My grease guns are messy so I keep them (3 of them) in an old rubber tub (dish pan). I cannot think of keeping one in my tool box.
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