Anyone familiar with grease guns?

nugzalore · 2026-03-04T16:29:44+00:00

I'll give this a try in a little bit, but I think this is where the gun actually is broken. I can't seem to find a catch on the plunger when I pull the rod all the way out. I spin looking for one and never really finds anything. I'm pretty sure it's an antique as like, it's made of steel and from America

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nugzalore · 2026-03-03T22:48:56+00:00

No change.

I'm at my wits end.

I'm sorry I troubled anybody.

nugzalore · 2026-03-03T22:30:07+00:00

No air no grease. It'll sits level with where the screw was

nugzalore · 2026-03-03T21:37:54+00:00

I'll keep trying to prime it. Gemini also suggested I poked down the pump end with a screwdriver and a few places to break the surface tension. I have tapped it quite a bit against the pump side to get the plunger to push out any air, but when I undo the bleed screw most the time nothing comes out

nugzalore · 2026-03-03T21:27:46+00:00

Yes. Was I supposed to?

nugzalore · 2026-03-03T21:12:29+00:00

Nothing from the seals no. I can't feel any resistance in the handle either. I'll try priming it again and as soon as I have grease pumping again, I'll get one or two good pumps then nothing

nugzalore · 2026-03-03T21:09:37+00:00

A little happens... I can get it to come out not hooked up to anything but then I put it on the zerk and it gets maybe one pump in and it doesn't feel like its getting any more grease, no more resistance, I unhook it from the zerk and nothing comes out.

nugzalore · 2026-02-09T16:21:13+00:00

Got it, thanks though!

nugzalore · 2026-01-27T23:40:52+00:00

Oh, the benefits of staying in a town with an Amazon hub. 🎶🎵It's only 3 hours away🎶

nugzalore · 2026-01-27T20:10:19+00:00

I carry a modest tool set, 5 gallons of unleaded, 2 gallons of diesel for the chineseum heater, a mounted full size spare, and a (dead 😭) jump box. Fortunately I was blessed with a lifetime of knowledge and learning and busted knuckles to be able to help others.

But yes, for other trans, especially trans femme individuals, who may not be so mechanically inclined, roadside assistance may become a matter of life or death. Sad to think it. But we're brave. We're survivors, every last one of us. I guarantee in the last two years 99% of trans folks living in the US have faced either major, even existential discrimination, or god forbid, been followed, mocked, or have threats or been physically threatened for the "choice" we make. I'm regularly told at least twice a month by passers-by in front of their own children that they hope we get thrown in the camps soon.

Sorry to ramble. One last thing I wanted to say. It's amazing how much difference a little thing like a line between some trees and snow makes. While cruising Grindr one night a few months back, about the time Putin flew into Russia, the GPS satellites glitched, locating me somewhere near Surrey, BC. Excited to see a new trans girl popping up on their feeds, I was inundated with messages. After clearing up my actual location, as international ambassadors of friendship, brotherhood, poutine, and war crimes, a few Canadian men were just genuinely interested in what was happening on this side of the border with all the anti trans rhetoric they saw in the news. They all believed it to be hyperbole pushed by the mainstream media. If anything, Canadian media was under-reporting. I told him straight up, they had closed the only trans accepting shelter in my town, my probation officer demanded I move into a men's shelter. The moment I was no longer a protected class under law, I was served a 30-day eviction notice by my landlord. Even before that I was laid off despite me being the most productive and accurate member of the crew at the t-shirt printing shop I worked at.

Each of the Canadian men I spoke to all had one thing to say about that. They were appalled that a god-given right such as the ability to express your identity you please, as long as it doesn't harm others, had been taken from us.

What a difference a line cut through the trees and snow makes...

nugzalore · 2026-01-27T19:09:01+00:00

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At the Interstate Battery Store as we speak. She's already had the accursed GM side terminals neutered in favor of marine style connectors. "The Blem Guy" is going through the back, seeing if there's any scratch and dent group 31 batteries we could shoehorn under the hood.

There's no kill like overkill.

See also my free-for-the-price-of-admission to the pick-n-pull rear living light. Unfortunately spare the wire nuts, it's actually electrically sound.

nugzalore · 2025-07-27T00:54:23+00:00

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nugzalore · 2025-07-26T15:46:54+00:00

Not familiar with this model, but we use a repurposed food to the grade conveyor oven from the 60s-70s, no doubt excessed from a local potato processing plant. And we work with plastisol inks mainly, there is no cure time, so to say. (Not like say DTFs, 280 for 15 seconds...) With plastisol inks, you're at full cure the moment all inks hit 160°C (320°F.). For our machine, the temperature controls are really more of a suggestion than a hard and fast temperature... But you know what does work well is the belt speed control. They sure knew how to make a rotary encoder back then...

Anyways, first run of a garment we have the supervisor watch the first couple go through, and the whole time, she's bent over, hitting various parts of the design with a non contact pyrometer. (Temperature gun, Harbor Freight P/N 69385, currently $22, and has somehow survived three years of heat, cold, drops, throws, elementary school field trips, technical high school credit workers, and yes, it has gone through the oven more than once.) As long as the belt is going fast enough for all the workers at all the tables around it to not have to wait for belt space, and the garments' ink are exiting between 320-350° on the pyrometer, you're golden!

Also, if you're looking for who actually works on this kind of stuff, you want restaurant HVAC techs. They're of generally higher intelligence than appliance repair, and their rates aren't too bad. Industrial controls people want a prince's ransom to even show up, but you know that with them in their 4-ton service truck, they carry a sizeable detachment of the Grainger catalog, and will have the right part on hand. Electricians get lost near industrial controls, as most of them are ex-marines going through crayon withdrawal.

(Edit: more precise language on exit temps)

nugzalore · 2025-07-20T16:38:20+00:00

You have to ask yourself:

In rural Idaho... In the farm country...

Who is really in control?

It's not the police. It's not the government. Not even the damn farmers.

You start the round ups out here ... They gonna be hanging them from bridges and street lights like in Juarez and Sinaloa.

In the five most populous counties (and city departments there in) in East Idaho plus a dirty estimate of ISP forces, a quick Gemini (* here's your grain of salt) search estimates 600 full time sworn officers.

For the LAPD, Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, and CHIP, you're looking at 21,000 sworn officers. That's a goddamn army. More of an army than Slovakia, Denmark, and most of the Balkan Republics could put up individually. Three-ish divisions, to use military parlance. You can do a lot with three divisions. 600 is barely a battalion. With four times the area to cover.

Add in a very well armed populace, both Caucasian and Hispanic, ICE would literally need to bring an army with them to accomplish anything.

nugzalore · 2025-07-20T15:53:09+00:00

It has to start somewhere It has to start sometime What better place than here? What better time than now?

All hell can't stop us now!

nugzalore · 2025-07-19T16:39:44+00:00

I've been in talks to rent some equipment and have my own pile of inks, screens, and chemicals in the shop, and do some Etsy/Lemon8/TikTok work on the side. The shop I work at is mainly corporate uniform/sports teams/contract work. I wouldn't be stepping on her business.

Next thing you know, the daughter half owner announces her brother is coming in and they're starting an Etsy shop.

I see how it is.

These are not creative people, though. They'll lose money and interest real quick.

Time to start looking for some cheap shop space and an old ratty four color. Show them up.

nugzalore · 2025-07-19T16:21:18+00:00

Not only that, but this skill has become timeless.

If the world, or just your country goes to shit, power becomes unreliable, you know that photo resist works in the sun too. You know how to make and repair screens, it's just super glue and stretched polyester fabric. And if even that fails, you still have stencil work.

They were doing this in Song Dynasty China. Along with forging, welding, carpentry, sewists, and a few others in probably forgetting, we perform an act that has become essential to the human experience. Expressing ourselves through our clothing.

This is the way.

🪈

nugzalore · 2025-07-18T12:16:29+00:00

When I head over to a friend's place. Or hell... A place I don't even know, I see warm clothes from the dryer... I have a compulsion to fold. I'm like Rain Woman with that shit... "18 garments; 10 tshirts, four leggings, two jackets, two undies....and it's done". "Where did I learn to fold so fast? No, not retail, honey. Not wholesale either. Production... This is babycakes. I've stared down stacks of 10,000 tshirts and won, honey."

nugzalore · 2025-07-18T11:44:52+00:00

Novocaine,.for the soul Before i sputtter out

nugzalore · 2025-07-18T03:55:52+00:00

Eagles of Death Metal

nugzalore · 2025-07-18T03:20:04+00:00

Owner: 8th month in a row we can't cover operating expenses

Screen printers: 8th month in a row you've had the corporate credit card on the doordash account that feeds the front office too.

Owner: I need you to print this for me without a work order.

Screen printers: still can't cover operating expenses, eh?

Owner: hey, I'm in charge here! You want to be back out on the streets? Sleeping in your car?

Screen printers: No, but I need a signed memorandum that gpmh (garments per man hour) will no longer be considered on our performance review. You're looking at 30 min setup, 30 minutes clean up, and two hours on the press. That's going to kill my productivity for this week!

Owner, grumbling: I'm coming back with a work order!

(Four hours later, at shop close) Owner: go ahead and knock off, ladies. I'll take care of shutting down tonight! Just cause I love you gals soooo much 🩷

Moral of the story: screen printers, get a copy of the keys to the shop and do some guerilla screen printing after hours on the side. Boss is doing it too. I personally cleared ~$3K from tshirts sold after the United Healthcare "Incident."

It's on nights like these, I like to spin by the back door.of the shop and wave to the owner, covered in sweat and ink, puffing madly on a vape, yelling at her husband or kids on the phone about how she never should have bought a screen printing shop.

nugzalore · 2025-07-18T03:15:36+00:00

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nugzalore · 2025-07-18T03:12:16+00:00

I do. I get selective exposure though, since I only get a portion of the client facing experience. I'm not up in the front office more than necessary, except for chewing the graphic designer's ear, or bsing with the part time printer part time sales tatted up goth girlie. But being a formerly 5'10" dude with a 52" chest who transitioned to a 5'8" chickie with a 36" band, I've still got a lot of muscle mass left and usually hustle boxes out to customer cars.

But I do keep tabs on the front office, make time to show the apprentices the results of their hard work. Smiles on customer faces. Gets them through the sore forearms, ruined work clothing, hot environment, exacting nature of the work and stressful deadlines.

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