Old timer told me to grease the swing bearing every 10 hours not 40

Guy named Pete who ran a Manitowoc for 30 years saw me skip a grease cycle last month and told me I was asking for trouble. Sure enough at 38 hours I got a weird growl from the turntable that took half a shift to flush out. Any of you guys running shorter intervals on your rigs?

3 comments

3 Comments

taylor.hayden16d ago

Guess I'll start greasin' mine every coffee break now too.

grantw3216d ago

Pete's been around long enough to know that skipping grease is how you turn a 10 minute job into a 3 day repair. That growl you heard is the sound of metal grinding metal which means the old timers advice was dead on. Running 40 hour intervals might save you time on paper but it costs way more in bearings and downtime when things go wrong.

grantw3216d ago

Ha "every coffee break now" I actually had a guy try that once. Showed up with a grease gun every time he got a fresh cup and hit every zerk on the line. Thing is he was using the wrong grease and ended up blowing out a seal on a main drive bearing. That was a 2 day tear down. Its funny cause the old timers arent always right but the "check the zerks every 10 hours" rule has saved me more times than I can count. I still hear that growl from a machine i lost a bearing on back in 2019. Never again.