grease guns

Nancy Howell

Well-known Member
I do not want to start a war, but James has been through several grease guns, some were not cheap.

Who makes a good grease gun?
 
Used to be Lincoln, and a few others, like say Alemite. I am not sure why some are trouble some, that battery operated Lincoln my farmer friend had was pretty good, need an extra battery and what goes along with rechargeable stuff, but I used to lube his pretty large JD 637 disc and there was a lot of fittings on it, same with his 6620 combine, little easier than pumping by hand, I think the one I use which was from our service truck from the ford dealership is a K-D or something I forget, its been working longer than I've been around and I recall greasing our 535 mower conditioner and 532 baler with it in the 70's. I had a red one from Napa, early 90's era gave me no trouble, some how it and the rotary cutter met up :( and the only thing left straight from it was the pump handle LOL ! I think what Napa sold used to be fine, not sure about the present though.
 
My uncle has a battery powered Lincoln that he wouldn't be without. I bought a battery powered John Deere greese gun when they happened to be on sale a couple years ago and it's been really good so far. I'm not sure who makes it for them though. As far as any others i've bought expensive Lincolns and cheapies and they were all equal amounts of junk.
 
I bought 6 of them at a auction 5 years ago, All were round 15-20 years old, Gave 5 or $10.oo for all of them, Kept 1, Gave 1 to my helper cause it said John Deer on it, They were the best ones Gave the others to whoever wanted them. Still useing The one I kept still works A-1
 
i have a lincoln battery at the farm, at the shop, i have a mac manual pistol grip and a snap on air gun. the mac is a nice manual gun. heres a link
grease here
 
I have two Lincoln grease guns that are at least 40 + years old and they still function good and still using them . They are the old style where you can hand pack them or use the cartridges
 
I got a $15 pistol-grip greasegun at wally's-mart a couple weeks ago. I can't say much about reliability as it's still on its first tube, but it came with a hose and a pipe each with a 4-jaw tip, and the tip that was on the pipe has greased the 16-row planter 3 times a day since then.
 
I bought a John Deere pistol grip 20 yrs ago to greese 2 trucks and trailers (over the road trucks) stil works good. It was made in the USA!!
 
The older Alemite (Model 500, IIRC)guns are good, not sure if they are still made, and where.. I have a Mac Tools, pistol-grip type gun that I have had good luck with.
 
Well, I see some of the guys down below touting John Deere grease guns, so maybe I oughta mosey up to the Deere guy and buy one, because like James, I too have been through many grease guns, and expensive doesn't mean better so far. I've had some good ones years past, but they come up missing, and that means new ones because my luck has they've been one shot junk. I'm in the same boat. Deere they say? Can't be any worse than anyone else, I hope. I'm sure they're not any cheaper, but maybe, just maybe this time... What do I have to lose? Another failed grease gun?

Good luck.

Mark
 
I bought a cheapie air powered one at TSC. I think it was on sale for $15 or some such. It has been the best thing I have bought in a long while. Works without a hitch and is well built.

I think it is such a crap shoot anymore. I am starting to think that it all depends on luck rather than brand.
 
Forget the grease gun... where can a person buy a decent chuck? I have half a dozen grease guns, including a JD one and they all work fine but all the chucks are junk. Even the one's with an adjustable chuck are problematic. Either it's too loose and grease just squirts out from around the fitting or they are so tight that they rip out the jerk fitting when you try to remove it.

I am willing to pay most anything to get a decent chuck that stays on tight enough to allow the jerk to accept the grease yet doesn't tear the zerk out of the threads when I remove it.

The only decent chuck I current own is one that my dad used when he was a mechanic. It's one of those right-angle jobbies that rotates. He retired over 10 years ago and the chuck has to be 20 years old and nearly worn completely out. Pathetically it's still the best chuck out of all of them.
 
I'm in the same boat.. Sad but true, these guns nowadays are junk.. I've found that used auction guns are the best bet.. My best one is a "Ford" grease gun I picked up many years ago at a sale.. I just bought a "Lincoln" grease gun.. Supposed to be the best.. Not so.. Only pumps half a stroke at best. no matter how it's bled or what type of grease I use..
 
For a hand grease gun, Lincoln!!! Not even worth looking at anything else. If they don't prime right away just loosen the barrel a couple turns and pump a couple times and you're good to go. I've had grease guns given to me but nothing even compares to the Lincoln I bought about 25 years ago.
 
One problem I see with you guys who are talking about the grease gun you bought 20+ years ago, and it"s still working, is that you can"t buy that one anymore, it"s been replaced by junk!!
 
But if we bought something new and it hasn"t had the chance to withstand "the test of time" how would we know if it is junk or not?
 
I have had good luck with Alemite grease guns. I bought one 15 years ago. It lasted until my shop burned so I bought another one. I worked in a truck shop so I went through 2-3 tubes of grease a day. Never had a problem.
 
I don't know who made it but it is badged FoMoCo and I bought it new about 1971. Been excellent for me. I have 42" hose in it and has been thru many pails of grease.
 
One I haven't seen mentiond yet is a Plews. I've got one that's been around for as long as I can remeber and it works as good, or better, than any of the other ones I've got that are Lincoln, and Alemite brands.

One thing to remember is that the pistol grip types are only good for low pressure application. If your doing alot of fittings that need 'extra' pressure to get them to take step up to the lever style gun. That said I've known of several customers that have machines with alot of fittings on them. In both cases they bought the 18V battery powered Lincolns. One, I know has been using the same gun for years without any problems.

I've got to agree with others though, a good gun isn't nearky as hard to find as a good coupler. I've tried every brand I can find and haven't had much success there. I'm really to the point that I think the cheap, China made zerks are the problem more so than the couplers. Well, between that and some really poor engineering designs that put them in places where you can't get straight on them, and then also put them down in a hole that gets full of dirt every time you use the machine, etc, etc, etc. greasing just isn't what it used to be...
Plews
 
I have also had good luck with grease guns made by Plews Edelmann. I have a lever style and a pistol grip style one from them and both work well and seem well made. I also have a Lincoln 18 volt gun that is working well. It replaced a Lincoln 14.4 volt gun that had the motor on it die after about 6 years of use. Like one of the other posters said, the most difficult thing is finding a coupler that works well consistently.
 
I've got a Lubri-Matic that's probably 10-15 years old. It was a cheap one then and it still works fine. I've also got a couple of NAPA guns. Not sure who made them... but they're good. The problem is tips. I don't know of anyone who makes a tip worth a damn anymore.

Rod
 
I bought one from Harbor Freight a few years ago, think it was supposed to be air operated, couldn't get a tube of grease to fit in the barrel. Must have been for chinese grease cartridges.
 
I have a pistol grip I got at JD. It has worked well for the last several years. I don't know who the original mfg. is. Paul
 
I have several Lincoln guns. They don't get much use these days. The 1980 Chevy pickup I had, had a lot of grease fittings on it. Hal
 
Legacy mfg has a clearance garage sale here once a year ..pallets of everything ,air hose grease guns , hose reels etc..5 grease guns for $20 , I tend to stock up on way too much of everything there,,lol
 
I have the same problem with junk couplers, the grease comes out around the fitting. Speaking of fittings, how about the junk grease fittings that don't have a good spring loaded ball in them and the grease comes back out when you remove the coupler.
 
I have a Lincoln gun and it is one that you have to pull off the fitting of to free it. What I’ve done is unscrew the couplers 3/4 of a turn and it works grate the only problem is you have to readjust it on every fitting. I'm thinking of cleaning it real good then loctite it or super glue it in place.
 

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