# Anyone Own a Grease Gun? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 20, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-own-a-grease-gun/772570 "2016-11-20T19:33:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![donkeyoatey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@donkeyoatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donkeyoatey)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2016, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-own-a-grease-gun/772570/41 "2016-11-22T04:55:45Z")
Oops, it’s the [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grease_fitting) ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2016, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-own-a-grease-gun/772570/42 "2016-11-22T05:29:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Engineer and inventor, the son of Flora and Bernard Zerk, a textile merchant in the former Austro-Hungarian empire. Zerk’s surname is permanently attached to the check-valve lubrication fitting known worldwide as the “Zerk fitting”. He arrived in America on June 30, 1924 at age 46 aboard the ‘Leviathan’. Long before America discovered the secret of a fresh cup of coffee, Oscar Ulysses Zerk invented a personal coffee bean grinder for his kitchen, but the brilliant Kenoshan thought it so unimportant that he never bothered to apply for a patent. He did, however, patent some 300 other inventions during his 90-year life, a remarkable record. His engineering creativeness asserted itself in a multitude of fields: leg-slimming hosiery, quick-freezing ice cube trays, spatterproof nail brushes, fail-safe brakes for trolley/interurban cars, vibration-free camera tripods, oil well recovery systems, and automotive refrigeration equipment. But Zerk’s most important invention – and the one that earned him the most money – was the tiny grease fitting, a lubrication system which became the basis for those used on nearly every car, truck, plane and other mechanized vehicle. At the time of his death in 1968, it was estimated that 20 billion of those fittings had been manufactured. He also is credited with designing and patenting stamped metal wheels and wheel covers for autos which, in the 1920s, offered a stylish alternative to wooden artillery wheels and wire wheels. He also devised a type of non-skid vehicular brakes. > **[Oscar Ulysses Zerk (1878-1968) - Find a Grave...](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21910566/oscar-ulysses-zerk)** > > Engineer, Inventor. He is most recognized as the inventor of the Zerk Grease Fitting, which is a metal fitting used in mechanical systems to feed lubricants, usually lubricating grease, into a bearing under moderate to high pressure using a grease... ---
**Author:** ![donkeyoatey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@donkeyoatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donkeyoatey)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2016, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-own-a-grease-gun/772570/43 "2016-11-22T05:50:53Z")
Well thanks Mr. OP, never have I ever heard of that gent before. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2016, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-own-a-grease-gun/772570/44 "2016-11-22T08:07:41Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Zerk fitting? I always heard “grease nipple”. I grew up with ‘Zerk’… ::: shrug :::: 🆒 I have an air powered, with 2 gal hand pump quick refill pot, 2 antiques, one in brass or bronze and 1 big lever and 2 little squeeze types. Spare ‘Zerk’ fittings, etc… 😛 All My equipment is like me …Old. Bawahahaha:D ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-own-a-grease-gun/772570/45 "2016-11-22T19:27:08Z")
When I worked in a service station, we had to service the school buses which was a pain in the ass as you had to crawl all the way along the drive line to get all the u-joints and tie rod ends and such. We didn’t have a pit and you weren’t going to get a school bus on a hoist. Beside, I doubt it would have fit in our shop. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2016, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-own-a-grease-gun/772570/46 "2016-11-22T19:31:12Z")
> [@JerrySTL](#): > > I haven’t used my grease gun in years until just a few weeks ago. A neighbor has an 80’s Buick and it had a grease fitting on a tie rod end. Probably a replacement part. I don’t know what model of Buick it was, but my 1984 Buick Regal has a number of grease zerks. I think the number is something like 11 and they are all factory installed. ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2016, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-own-a-grease-gun/772570/47 "2016-11-22T20:45:33Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > When I worked in a service station, we had to service the school buses which was a pain in the ass as you had to crawl all the way along the drive line to get all the u-joints and tie rod ends and such. We didn’t have a pit and you weren’t going to get a school bus on a hoist. Beside, I doubt it would have fit in our shop. I have a similar story about working in a lube shop as a teen. A customer who was a dump truck owner/operator came to our shop for one specific lube tech. It was fun to watch this particular tech work because he had all 60 something grease fittings memorized, and would occasionally shout out that he’d found a new one, and the count was up to 63 or whatever. Scrambled all over the dump truck like a monkey with a grease line. I used to wonder what the hell he was greasing in the various parts of the truck. To the OP: I have a grease gun because I replaced some sealed suspension parts with greasable parts when the originals broke. Didn’t specifically choose to have greasable parts but that’s what was available. They are front sway bar end links, to be specific. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-own-a-grease-gun/772570.md?page=2)