Grease Gun Made From Hydraulic Cylinder

Grease gun made from hydraulic cylinder FARM SHOP Maintenance 16-1-29 This home-built, 3,000 psi grease gun is so simple you'll wonder why you didn't think of it. Lawrence Grabher, Hemingford, Neb., converted a double-acting, 5-in. dia. hydraulic cylinder into a state-of-the-an high-pressure grease gun that makes greasing quick and easy even on older equipment with lots of greasable joints. "Most newer equipment has sealed bearings but if you've got some older machinery you can spend a lot of time greasing," says Grabher, who particularly likes his powered grease gun for greasing his disc seeder, which has a grease fitting on every disc opener, and on his 60-ft. rod weeder which is "loaded" with U -joints and other greasable fittings. "Using this grease gun I can grease up either piece of equipment in no time." Grabher started with a 5-in. dia., 8-in. stroke double-acting hydraulic cylinder. He removed the hydraulic hose from in front of the piston, replacing it with quick couplers (he used conventional air compressor quicktach compression fittings) that let him quickly interchange a grease filling hose and grease gun hose. To fill the cylinder with grease, he attaches the grease filling hose and simply pumps the cylinder full of grease, which forces the cylinder backward. To grease equipment, he hooks up a grease gun trigger handle and connects the hydraulic fitting at the other end of the cylinder to a hose leading to the tractor. When the tractor's hydraulic lever is activated, it applies constant pressure to the piston, which compresses the grease at about 3,000 psi. "When you pull the trigger on the grease gun, it greases the joint almost instantaneously," says Grabher, who put 50-ft. of hose between the cylinder and the tractor so he can carry it around as needed when greasing big equipment. When greasing the discs on his seeder, Grabher puts a 4-ft. pipe extension on the trigger handle so he can grease joints with-out bending over. He just walks along behind the equipment, effortlessly filling each joint with grease. In fact, he mounts the home-built grease gun on a truck that he uses as a drill fill, powering the gun off the truck's dump hoist. Grabher made no modification to the cylinder used and, as far as he knows, the grease does no damage to internal components. "It's a simple idea that lets you use existing equipment you've got around the farm. Anyone could do it. Because it makes it so much easier to grease, it helps take better care of equipment." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Lawrence Grabher, HC73, Box 27, Hemingford, Neb. 69348 (ph 308 487-3697).

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