Bearing grease for small grease gun?

For discussions about bikes and equipment.
User avatar
Sweep
Posts: 8443
Joined: 20 Oct 2011, 4:57pm
Location: London

Bearing grease for small grease gun?

Post by Sweep »

Anyone got any suggestions?

I have tended to use this:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/fini ... prd|6826UK

I like it as:

@It fits the grease gun - a smallish metal thing - probably originally from Finish Line though I think the Weldtite plastic grease gun uses the same thread for attaching the tube.

@ I find the small grease gun ideal for fiddly stuff like wheels bearings - if I was to try to use loose potted grease and dab it in with a finger/small stick or whatever I am sure I would end up dislodging the bearing balls.

@ The consistency is very good - holds the bearings well while I faff and minimises the chances of the bearings moving/dropping while I faff with the wheel.

@ The colour - semi clear - ideal for bearings I think as on opening stuff up it is easy to spot any discolouration from muck ingress.

But being a mean sod and also aware that a lot of the bike lube business is just devoted to repackaging standardish grease into tiddly quantities to rack up the price by several hundred per cent am interested in exploring alternatives.

I know that you can get 400g of what I assume is perfectly good grease for the demands of bike bearings from the likes of Toolstation and Screwfix for about £3 but it won't of course fit on the grease gun. I know you can get bigger grease guns to fit these 400g tubes but they wouldn't be good for fiddly bike work. Also I think a lot of them are purple - while I am happy with purple grease for thread lubing etc I don't want to use it on wheel or headset bearings for the reasons above,

I know the excellent weldtite do a lithium grease but am not sure if it comes in grease gun tubes. Also it isn't clear - sort of cream/white. And the consistency doesn't seem as good for ball-holding etc.

In tapping this rambling list of questions out (who would have thought grease could be so interesting?) I did come across this:

https://winstanleysbikes.co.uk/finish-l ... E#455g-tub

seems excellent value - free postage if you can get the order up to £30.

Anyone had any success with refilling tubes - cutting the bottom off and resealing reliably so that pressure is maintained?

Or is there by chance some refillillable thing you can buy that fits one of those standardish small grrase guns?

Apologies if my post seems mean but I know that there a few friendly souls on here who don't believe in buying the same stuff repackaged at a mega markup :)
Sweep
mig
Posts: 2702
Joined: 19 Oct 2011, 9:39pm

Re: Bearing grease for small grease gun?

Post by mig »

yeah i've cut the end off the tube on my small grease gun and filled it with a grease of choice from a pot. they don't seem to generate much back pressure and it works happily enough. there is a bit of a mix comes through after the change but i'm using it into a winter bike rear hub so that doesn't complain too much.
pwa
Posts: 17371
Joined: 2 Oct 2011, 8:55pm

Re: Bearing grease for small grease gun?

Post by pwa »

mig wrote:yeah i've cut the end off the tube on my small grease gun and filled it with a grease of choice from a pot. they don't seem to generate much back pressure and it works happily enough. there is a bit of a mix comes through after the change but i'm using it into a winter bike rear hub so that doesn't complain too much.


Seal with a bulldog clip? Or would that get in the way?
User avatar
Sweep
Posts: 8443
Joined: 20 Oct 2011, 4:57pm
Location: London

Re: Bearing grease for small grease gun?

Post by Sweep »

How did you seal the end mig?
Sweep
mig
Posts: 2702
Joined: 19 Oct 2011, 9:39pm

Re: Bearing grease for small grease gun?

Post by mig »

giant bulldog clip that followed me home from the office one day
mig
Posts: 2702
Joined: 19 Oct 2011, 9:39pm

Re: Bearing grease for small grease gun?

Post by mig »

# small note

i was going to empty the tube, clean it thoroughly and rinse through several times with a sump cleaner. then i looked at the bike, the fact that it was going dark that day and my hands were freezing already and just wodged a load in. rolled the end over a coupla times, bulldog clip et voila monsieur!

now....i have noticed an extra 2.76W drag on the bike since the mixed grease went in the hub but i'm putting that down to the extra aero drag of the 12th sprocket fitted at the same time.

:D
User avatar
Sweep
Posts: 8443
Joined: 20 Oct 2011, 4:57pm
Location: London

Re: Bearing grease for small grease gun?

Post by Sweep »

I would be using a tube which had contained the same stuff so no wattage loss :)
Sweep
mig
Posts: 2702
Joined: 19 Oct 2011, 9:39pm

Re: Bearing grease for small grease gun?

Post by mig »

canny!

if only i'da thought of that...
Samuel D
Posts: 3088
Joined: 8 Mar 2015, 11:05pm
Location: Paris
Contact:

Re: Bearing grease for small grease gun?

Post by Samuel D »

If you rate Shimano’s fluorescent yellow-green grease – and I know Brucey doesn’t although it’s worked pretty well for me – you could look into Motorex Bike Grease 2000 (PDF). It seems to be the same stuff as Shimano Premium Grease at a considerably lower price. Available in a wide variety of packages.
Boogaloo
Posts: 64
Joined: 25 Nov 2016, 12:54pm
Location: Sunny Suffolk

Re: Bearing grease for small grease gun?

Post by Boogaloo »

You could try a Dualco Grease Gun or similar (Evans have them £12.99). Simple to refill from standard pots of your preferred grease. I have had one for years (Branded I.D.) and it's plenty compact enough for any cycle job.
Brucey
Posts: 44521
Joined: 4 Jan 2012, 6:25pm

Re: Bearing grease for small grease gun?

Post by Brucey »

any half-decent 'proper' grease gun can be fitted with a pointy nozzle and refilled from a tub for pennies.

Having said that I quite like mig's scheme. IIRC you can buy a kitchen gizmo for sealing openings in bags and cardboard cartons that may do the sealing job.

If you must buy grease in little tubes I think TF2 grease is quite good.

cheers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
User avatar
Sweep
Posts: 8443
Joined: 20 Oct 2011, 4:57pm
Location: London

Re: Bearing grease for small grease gun?

Post by Sweep »

Boogaloo wrote:You could try a Dualco Grease Gun or similar (Evans have them £12.99). Simple to refill from standard pots of your preferred grease. I have had one for years (Branded I.D.) and it's plenty compact enough for any cycle job.

brilliant - many thanks - I think I have my answer. Love the slightly retro look of it as well - looks like the sort of thing Flash Gordon would service his 1930s rockets with.

The metal gun bit atop the can looks like my existing grease gun for tubes which is encouraging as that is a quality item

Am a great believer in refills - my facial moisturiser is filled into prized open pots as well.

Am sure other folk will be interested in the dualco. Vids of it on youtube.

Yours is maybe this

https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Dualco-Mini-Gr ... _59880.htm

and I may get it from there as I have a voucher.

My purple grease is mostly for rough smearing on threads and the like - happy to use fingers for that.

Thanks boogaloo :)
Last edited by Sweep on 6 Apr 2018, 6:32am, edited 1 time in total.
Sweep
mig
Posts: 2702
Joined: 19 Oct 2011, 9:39pm

Re: Bearing grease for small grease gun?

Post by mig »

Sweep wrote:
Boogaloo wrote:You could try a Dualco Grease Gun or similar (Evans have them £12.99). Simple to refill from standard pots of your preferred grease. I have had one for years (Branded I.D.) and it's plenty compact enough for any cycle job.

brilliant - many thanks - I think I have my answer. Love the slightly retro look of it as well - looks like the sort of thing Flash Gordon would service his 1930s rockers with.

The metal gun bit atop the can looks like my existing grease gun for tubes which is encouraging as that is a quality item

Am a great believer in refills - my facial moisturiser is filled into prized open pots as well.

Am sure other folk will be interested in the dualco. Vids of it on youtube.

Yours is maybe this

https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Dualco-Mini-Gr ... _59880.htm

and I may get it from there as I have a voucher.

My purple grease is mostly for rough smearing on threads and the like - happy to use fingers for that.

Thanks boogaloo :)


shakes head.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/JUMBO-BULLDOG-CLIPS-BLACK-CHROME/dp/B00PETXEHS

:wink:
User avatar
Sweep
Posts: 8443
Joined: 20 Oct 2011, 4:57pm
Location: London

Re: Bearing grease for small grease gun?

Post by Sweep »

By the by, this was one of the cheaper bearing greases I was considering.

https://www.toolstation.com/shop/p89691?table=no

Toolstation's impressively fast customer services email team got back to me about my enquiries about its colour.

Apparently it is "caramel".

May be a possibility.
Sweep
User avatar
Gattonero
Posts: 3730
Joined: 31 Jan 2016, 1:35pm
Location: London

Re: Bearing grease for small grease gun?

Post by Gattonero »

I'd get one of the dualco Grease guns, they last long time and allow some saving in the choice of grease.

http://www.ison-distribution.com/englis ... art=2DULG1
Image
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best,
since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.
Thus you remember them as they actually are...
Post Reply