John,
Grease guns - straightforward. At one end (the end without the pump handle
and nozzle) there is the end of a rod sticking out. Pull this rod outwards
(against a spring), and when it is all the way out there should be some way
of locking it, usually by moving it to another hole a little off-centre.
Then unscrew the cap at the other end. Pour in oil (easy) or push grease in
with your hands (messy!). Screw the cap back on again. Release the
spring-loaded rod, which will pressurise the oil/grease - you are ready to
go.
Wipe off your grease nipple. Get a thin pointy thing and press down on the
ball in the middle of the nipple, to make sure that it moves a little. Push
the end of the grease-gun nozzle onto the nipple - it should click into
place. Then pump away until clean grease/oil oozes out of whatever you are
greasing/oiling.
Some will inevitably come out at the nozzle/nipple interface - not a big
problem. Wipe it up afterwards, or smear over nearby metalwork to act as a
rust preventor! If it feels like it is ALL coming out here, move the nozzle
around a bit and try again.
For the filling, some grease containers have some sort of device on them
that should allow you to fill up the gun without getting messy - such as a
plastic plate on top with a hole in the middle (press the open end of the
gun over the hole while pulling the rod out), or a sort of mound with holes
in it in the base of the pot (again put the gun over the mound while pulling
the rod out). These sort-of work, but then again a half-full gun still
works fine, you just have to fill it up again sooner! The really cheaty,
clean way is to use a grease cartridge that you just pop in the gun, but
where is the fun in that??!
Your Spitfire need greasing! And oiling! (get another gun for that - for
the price of a cheap gun it's not worth cleaning out your grease gun and
re-filling with oil every time). Get to it!!! Seriously, if Saskia has not
been greased or had her trunnions oiled since you have had here, it is
SERIOUSLY overdue.
N.B. I suggested earlier you needed to empty the gun you use for oil between
uses, as it otherwise leaks out. Someone made the very good point that if
you simply pull the rod out again, the oil is not under pressure, and will
not leak, so the gun is ready for you to use next time.
Richard & Daffy
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