Oil zerks or grease zerks?

[Gizmosity]

Short story:
Some zerks are for grease gun some are for a high pressure oiler. How do you tell the difference?

Long story:

All the milling machines I'd ever used had "One Shot" oilers installed except for one and it had grease zerks installed on it. I spoke with a Tool and Die maker pal of mine who clued me in. Buy a high pressure oiler and you're in business. Fast forward some years and I get into a lab with some mills with One Shots and then this lonesome mill nobody uses. Asked around and it seems that "when a farm kid sees a grease zerk and a grease gun...." You get the idea. That thing was PACKED with grease and had been for years and years.

Every once in a while I see a zerk and wonder if it's for grease or oil. I have an old motor with a zerk on it. I also have motors with oil cups. I have to assume that the zerk is for greasing a bearing and not oiling a bushing. But without taking it apart I'm not positive.

 

[G_P]

Learn something new everyday! Never knew there were oil zerks. You would think they would make them different sizes so you cant put grease in an oil zerk or vice versa.

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

Grease for gears oil for bearings

 

[Gizmosity]

Grease for gears oil for bearings

So you've never greased bearings before?

 

[larry_g]

A zerk fitting doesn't care what lubricant you put through it. You have to know your machine and what it requires you to inject through the zerk.

Quote:
Originally Posted by SuzukiGS750EZ
Grease for gears oil for bearings

As for the above, wrong. All my standard transmissions have oil, and most of my front wheel bearings have grease.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[Gizmosity]

A zerk fitting doesn't care what lubricant you put through it. You have to know your machine and what it requires you to inject through the zerk.

Exactly. I don't always "know" the machine. There isn't always a manual available for it either. To steal a phrase I found while trying to figure out if I should oil or grease a particular motor

"Grease, itself, is an oil sponge. The base (spongy) part of the grease varies depending on the manufacturer, temperature, environment and user preference. The grease holds the oil in suspension and allows the oil to flow during operation. The oil compresses between the bearing balls, inner and outer races and the cage, reducing friction. Ball bearings have small, microscopically rough surfaces on the balls, these surfaces move the oil, holding it to the ball during operation.

When too much grease is added, the grease is compressed between the bearing surfaces, increasing pressure and resulting with heat. Too little grease causes the surface friction to increase, resulting with heat. In any case, once bearing noise is audible, it has failed. Reducing noise by lubrication requires excessive grease, endangering the motor, and giving the technician the false security of extending the motor life when, in reality, additional damage is occurring to machined surfaces."

I'm going to guess I should be greasing this particular motor based on the motor housing boss that looks like it's there specifically for a bearing.

I'm just throwing the question out there : If you don't know, how do you know?

 

[Outlawmws]

Short story:
Some zerks are for grease gun some are for a high pressure oiler. How do you tell the difference?

Long story:

All the milling machines I'd ever used had "One Shot" oilers installed except for one and it had grease zerks installed on it. I spoke with a Tool and Die maker pal of mine who clued me in. Buy a high pressure oiler and you're in business. Fast forward some years and I get into a lab with some mills with One Shots and then this lonesome mill nobody uses. Asked around and it seems that "when a farm kid sees a grease zerk and a grease gun...." You get the idea. That thing was PACKED with grease and had been for years and years.

Every once in a while I see a zerk and wonder if it's for grease or oil. I have an old motor with a zerk on it. I also have motors with oil cups. I have to assume that the zerk is for greasing a bearing and not oiling a bushing. But without taking it apart I'm not positive.

Your motor should get oil, but the question is what grade?

you still work at that lab? you can probably get that mill cheap...

 

[Gizmosity]

Your motor should get oil, but the question is what grade?

you still work at that lab? you can probably get that mill cheap...

I'm not positive if it should have oil or grease.....not yet anyway. It's a tablesaw motor and the motor pivots so oil cups on a bronze bushing wouldn't be a good idea...maybe oil? I don't know.

I do still work in that lab. Had a student worker take it apart, clean all the grease out and now it works like a brand new 40 year old milling machine.

Here's a shot of the motor just as it came out of the saw and as it sits on my bench right now awaiting cleanup and some sort of lubrication.



Edit: here's the link to the article on motor bearing grease.

reliabilityweb.com/index.php/articles/electric_motor_bearing_greasing_basics/

 

[Outlawmws]

No markings anywhere on it for oil grade?

 

[Gizmosity]

No info that I can find. It does have bearings and not bushings.

 

[Allenw]

And old farm and other machinery had hard oilers on them. Cups you filled with grease and capped then screwed them down to dispense the grease.

 

[justme-]

most old machinery that needed oil had oil cups too - metal cups with spring covers full of felt to which oil was added and wicked through the felting to the passage and thus regulated flow. I've never heard of zerks being used for oil. Not doubting it, just never experienced it on any manner of machine.

 

[jmm]

most old machinery that needed oil had oil cups too - metal cups with spring covers full of felt to which oil was added and wicked through the felting to the passage and thus regulated flow. I've never heard of zerks being used for oil. Not doubting it, just never experienced it on any manner of machine.

That's how the textile machinery I used to work on was set up. Never heard of oil zerks (or seen an oil gun set up to hit fittings) either.

 

[Provincial]

The closest I can think of to an "oil zerk" is called a "ball check oiler." These were often used on machine tools to keep abrasive debris out of the holes provided to apply oil to moving parts.

 

[Fretters]

The closest I can think of to an "oil zerk" is called a "ball check oiler." These were often used on machine tools to keep abrasive debris out of the holes provided to apply oil to moving parts.

Those are the only things I've ever seen similar to *******, for oiling points. If it's an actual grease ******, then it's always for grease in my book.

 

[Gizmosity]

The closest I can think of to an "oil zerk" is called a "ball check oiler." These were often used on machine tools to keep abrasive debris out of the holes provided to apply oil to moving parts.

Every lathe I've ever used has these and I'm quite familiar with them. They typically are pressed into a hole where a zerk is threaded. An "oil zerk" is (in the cases I've run across them) identical to a grease zerk. I've heard some machines had colored marking washers under the zerk to identify lubrication requirements (red for oil, blue for grease, etc) but I've never run across one.

I picked up the high pressure oiler at MSC for about $100 for a western university and 8 years later a for Midwestern university. There are quite a few threads on "Practical Machinist" and other machining forums regarding converting a standard grease gun into a high pressure oiler, but we just bought one. If you're ever looking at a milling machine without a one shot oiler and it takes effort to move the X and Y axis.....odds are good somebody crammed them full of grease.

Oil cups are pretty standard fare if you've done any maintenance on facilities/equipment. I spent a couple years maintaining several boiler rooms and would go through Zoom spout oilers like crazy on all the circ. pumps and motors.

I posted this for a couple reasons:

1. I wondered (and searched and came up empty) if there was some "rule of thumb" for a grease vs. oil as it relates to zerks. Currently the only ones I've run across are on Bridgeport milling machines but that's just my experience. And as I stated, whenever I see a zerk I wonder.

2. If I can keep one milling machine from getting crammed with grease my mission is complete.

 

[Gizmosity]

I WAY under priced the oiler. I purchased.

Currently at MSC the "Alemite Heavy Duty Lever Type Oil Gun" is $266.62

http://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/99596108?rItem=99596108

 

[A_Pmech]

As larry said, it behooves the maintenance man to know what he's working on before using a given lubricant.

Those are the only things I've ever seen similar to *******, for oiling points. If it's an actual grease ******, then it's always for grease in my book.

A self-admitting Bridgeport greaser!

 

[Fretters]

A self-admitting Bridgeport greaser!

If I saw *******, I would automatically assume that was there purpose, but if oil was the order of the day, the ******* would be whipped out in no short order and replaced with oil cups or those ball oil points.

 

[Bobf]

My old (1952) Index 55 mill has Zerk grease fittings but you use oil thru them for the ways they feed. My machine was packed with hardened grease when I got it. After dis-assy and cleaning and Mobil way oil it really works slick.
I think you need to know what the fitting is feeding to determine what it should be fed with.

 

[sloppy]

I WAY under priced the oiler. I purchased.

Currently at MSC the "Alemite Heavy Duty Lever Type Oil Gun" is $266.62

http://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/99596108?rItem=99596108

I just converted a HF cordless grease gun.. Works like a champ does leak some oil out of the tip if it lays on its side..

 

[Gizmosity]

I looked at converting a gun initially but time was an issue and there simply weren't any locally available to modify. The first one I bought I'm pretty sure was just north of $100. I didn't think I paid that much for the second one. Time again was an issue. I simply don't have time at work to monkey around modifying things when I can just get what is needed. Ours doesn't leak a drop and it is obvious to students that it's an OIL gun and not a GREASE gun. Now for home use, sure I cobble together all sorts of stuff. But there aren't hundreds of people using my shop, just me.

 

[sloppy]

I think it maybe took 10 minutes to convert. I think even using the word convert is somewhat of a stretch and new gun could just be assembled to dispense oil.. I would only use the word convert in the case of what I did because I had to clean old grease out first..

 

[Zeroek]

And this is why I'm afraid to grease anything but the suspension on a car. I won't even grease my impacts or air tools. I normally take my impact apart and lube it by hand because I can't see how much grease is really going into it.

 

[My Old Tools]

Ways usually get oil as grease tends to make the chips stick causing wear. Lots of mills use zerk fittings for oiling ways under the table.