My husband has a piston greese gun with hose. The problem is he never uses all the greese and when it’s stored it leaks every where. We have tried storing in a plastic bag, plastic containers and it still leaks every where.
I have looked on the net with no success. Don’t these things come with a cover or some kind of storage solution?
If you have any ideas it would be greatly appreciated. I am tired of cleaning up greese all over everything it touches in the garage.
Thanks,
Patty
5 gallon bucket?
I have a similar grease gun, but it does not “leak”. I store it in the cornner of the garage in a 5 gallon pail together with other items for changing oil.
How hot is your garage?
I use a plastic protective electrical connector dust cap on my grease gun. It works great. You can find them at any electrical supply store or eBay. I bought a bag of assorted ones for a couple of bucks. Just find one with a snug fit and you are good to go.
Mine leaks grease, too. Red grease (synthetic). I lay it on the floor under a shelf and wipe it up every now and again. Use a bucket or plastic bag, no high tech solutions here.
If it’s a huge problem, either replace the gun with a better new one (they’re not that expensive) or he could take the pressure off the grease by pulling out the handle (at the bottom of this picture) and leaving it in the ‘load’ position:
I have cabinets in my garage with roll out shelves, I have two grease guns that I keep in a cardboard tote box on one shelf, along with other items that tend to be messy. No problem here but might want to buy him a new one for Father’s Day.
I keep mine in a plastic storage tub (bin? Box?) from the dollar store with a dollar-store drain rack on the bottom so the gun doesn’t sit in its own goop.
They all make a mess. The moment you open the first cartridge, stick it in the gun, and start to pump, the mess begins. There’s no avoiding it.
I have a grease gun like @Texases posted above, except with a needle applicator, and I just pull that handle down to remove the pressure on the grease tube when I’m done working with it. As long as I remember to do that, it doesn’t leak. They do tend to get grease all over them in the process of greasing the car, so either I clean it off first, or I store it in a plastic tub between uses.
I do have this leaking problem though, not with the grease gun, but with the plastic squeeze bottles for solvents or lubricating oils. The kind where there’s a small tube inside from the top to the bottom. That kind will leak even in the upright position if the temperature or the barometric pressure changes unless you loosen the cap before storing them.
I think the worst stuff of all for uncontrolled mess-making is graphite. A tiny bit of that stuff has a magic ability to spread everywhere.
My wife awarded me with a couple of large cookie tins. They are great for storing my three grease guns on high shelf along with other “leaking and dribbling” tools. Once in a while I wipe them down just to clean them a little. The tins never rust anymore with that layer of grease and everything is in easy reach. Always keep a rag bin and rubber gloves near by too. I would never bag up a grease gun as everything thing gets coated by a messy gel as it liquefies overtime…or seems to me. I keep it all out in the open in the tins on a devoted shelf. My wife makes a wide path around it when in the garage.
I use powdered graphite to lubricate my door locks at home. It is in a squeeze bottle and is not dirty at all. Except if I don’t pay attention when I squeeze the bottle and didn’t pay enough attention to where the powder is sprayed. I keep it in a kitchen cabinet.
Dagosa reminded me that you can go to the grocery store and buy those tin foil baking pans in various sizes for about a dollar. They work great for oil changes in small engines, drawer liners etc. Clean them again or throw them away, your choice.