There's hardly a farmer in the country who hasn't cursed at a plugged up grease fitting. Last year's dried grease can make this year's fitting virtually immovable.
Custom hay baler and retired shop teacher Paul Michener of Waynesville, Ohio, counted himself among those perennially frustrated farm mechanics up until two years ago when a particularly stubborn fitting on a baler inspired the invention of a tool that's changed his life. "This is a tool that I've needed forever," says Michener holding up an eight-inch cylinder with a piston at one end and a hydraulic grease gun coupler at the other.
Using a penetrating oil, Michener places his tool on the grease fitting and forces the solvent inside by tapping on a knob at the top end of the piston. As he taps, the solvent forces its way into the fitting and loosens it for greasing. "Now I can grease bearings in just a few minutes, whereas before it took almost a half-hour per bearing," the inventor points out.
Michener assumed he could find a tool like the one he needed, but after searching stores and catalogs and finding nothing similar, he decided to build his own. Locating a grease gun coupler and a small piston was no problem, but he had to contract with a local tool and die maker to make a miniature hydraulic cylinder for the tool.
Shortly after constructing 10 of the tools, Michener sold five and gave four others to friends and realtives. The response was so encouraging that he quickly set to work making 50 more. Patened and trademarked as the Grease Buster, Michener's tool has been displayed at Midwest trade shows and is now available retail in a few shops and by mail order from the inventor directly. "After I started selling the Grease Buster a guy down at the coffee shop came up to me and said he'd used a tool like this during World War II," Michener points out. "It was made of black metal and developed for some military equipment, but it didn't clamp around the grease fittings and it tended to mash the bearings when you hit it."
Michener recommends using a solid fluid solvent with the Grease Buster, not an aerosol. A good tap on the piston will force the liquid into a stubborn fitting. "It works great on king pins, too. They get tight and freeze up with grease, dirt, rust and you can't get them open. Using this tool, I can have them opened up in two minutes," says Michener.
