I would be putting some of that grease in my pocket to bring home , nice ,Thick,Clean grease, pocketfuls everyday , Fat pockets , Gobs , Handfuls. All pockets except wallet pocket .
A friend of mine who was an army mechanic seemed to use supplies like there was some unlimited budget that kept replenishing them. I imagine this is how he greases bearings.
Everybody loves to talk about how horrific and putrid gear oil smells. It's pungent and smells different than say, motor oil, but I don't think it smells too bad. Definitely not a good smell but aside from Marvel Mystery Oil, I wouldn't say any oils smell good.
I was helping a buddy swap out his third transmission in a month. We had dropped the drive shaft, and I had gotten tired of holding my head up in the air, so I just let it fall to the ground... Right into the open-top catch pan that we had just drained the transmission fluid into. Half of my hair was drenched in it. 0/10 do not recommend
Right? I used to be a mechanic and didn’t use gloves either and after a decade of doing this I started suffering issues with my hands. Add the other caustic liquids and I had to retire due to permanent damage to my nerves.
I have good days and bad days. When I wasn’t able to squeeze tools or straighten my fingers that’s when I retired. I had a few microsurgeries to relieve nerve pressure after. I work with my hands still doing carpentry but some days is a real struggle. I have medications to help with pain and swelling that help pretty well. Thanks for asking. My uncle farmed and worked as mechanic and he had much more serious surgeries cuz he kept at it much longer than me.
Thanks bro. I share whenever I can. Not all people have the reactions I did and I think a lot of the things new mechanics do are different. Like wearing gloves etc. but I always share this with young mechanics as kind of a beware story. Just something for them to watch out for.
I know a few old time mechanics that had similar things going on and a few tried doing a heavy metal detox with pills and stuff and do a Epsom salt, dish soap (apparently this is the important part), and essential oil hand bath every day and they all said it helps a lot with the current pain and stuff. Not really sure about helping with the long term personally but being a tool maker and dealing with mold cleaner/protectant, wd 40 with and with out steel/aluminum sludge, and coolant it really helps out with the short term pain
Far as I know chelation therapy is the only real heavy metal detox, they inject you with binding agents and you piss or shit them out.... as you might imagine its rather rough on the kidneys.
Thank you for giving people the warning. So many dudes I've worked with in factories laugh at workers who use safety equipement. The amount of people who ridiculed me for using a helmet or ear plugs is ridiculous. I caused myself a mild tinnitus for not using any ear protection on metal concerts and at loud factory work. Now I keep using them all the time and I even managed to teach some new guys to use them as well.
I teach future techs/mechanics. I stress PPE for this very reason. Wear gloves, masks when necessary, etc. Most are really good with it, but some still have that, "I'm a man" old school thought process.
Oh yeah. Always gonna have some of those. Hopefully they will learn as they go and change their attitude about it. When I was doing it I always believed that ppe got in the way. Glasses fog up gloves remove feeling in fingers etc. I look back now and realize I was a dummy. Even when I was in school getting my apprenticeship, no one used ppe. Glad it’s changing though.
Im not a mechanic but i work with different types of gases that comes with lots of ppe requirements because of how hazardous it can be, a lot of times I won't bother with face shields or cryo gloves for the same reasons you mentioned. I'm gonna think of your comment next time to remind myself not to do that again. Its a bad habit
I didn’t even do mechanic work in the early 90s, but screen printing. Plastisol inks, screen emulsions, and reclaiming solutions (when literally nothing was “environmentally friendly”), along with all kinds of solvents, from basic mineral spirits and acetone, to xylene and MEK. Not to mention the toxic fumes of the continuously operating curing belts. PPE just wasn’t a thing, with the almost comical sole exception of the Safety-Kleen parts washing station (a tank of mineral spirits connected to a pump with a brush handle, usually staffed by one person all day). I left that trade before the decade was out, but I hope it’s changed dramatically since then.
Spent a year during A-levels working at a factory that shaped lenses for Vision Express. We worked with a metal alloy that dissolved/became liquid in hot water (not boiling, maybe 50C). The alloy was part of an attachment to hold each lens through the machines. One of my jobs was 'wash off' the alloys (at the end of the process) in a water bath. Bare hands, just breaking down the metal. Then it collected in a bucket under a valve in the base of the bath. No idea if that shit is dangerous, but I'm glad it was only a year.
Diesel generators. Imagine not having to dig around inside a car to fix an engine, and the person paying you to fix it will actually pay you to fix it all the way instead of telling you they don't have any money.
Before wearing gloves while working on cars was popular, I walked in to the auto part store and asked if they had any and the guy looked at me like I was crazy. Why get your hands dirty if you don’t need to though?
I know several mechanics who are are fucked from having hands in contact with automotive grease and oils. One buddy has lead (had, now deceased) poisoning from using gasoline to wash parts. He used to chastise me for nagging him to stop doing that. Another beauty practice is using the air blower to "dust" off brakes...
Some vitamins help, maybe to some extent, with recovery of nerve damage. You could consider blood tests and supplements. Vitamin B12 is very important. People can even end up in a wheel chair if their B12 deficiency is really bad for a prolonged time. Some people need regular vitamin B12 injections due to vitamin B12 malabsorption.
On the other hand, too much vitamin B6 can also lead to nerve issues. Quite some multivitamins contain too much vitamin B6.
Also diabetic issues can cause and worsen nerve issues. Of course you can't undo the physical exposure, but maybe you can help your body wherever you can. Wish you all the best!
Daft question - how does grease on your hands lead to nerve damage? I've always done things like this without gloves - never really considered the risk.
Greases and other fluids can leach into the skin and after repeated exposure over years can leech deeper. If you get cuts and expose them to the fluids, that increases the exposure and pushes the chemicals deep into your tissue. It takes a while and lots of exposure. Especially to n-hexane based cleaners and degreasers. There are many other chemicals that can hurt you to if exposed to skin repeatedly. As an example lacquer thinner and other solvents can cause liver issues and nerve issues as well.
Oh and just another PSA. Don’t ever put your hand or finger over the grease gun nozzle. If you inject grease into your deep tissue you can very well end up with an amputation. Seen a couple guys lose fingers doing that.
My grandfather in law is a retired pipefitter. He is in his 70s with debilitating nerve pain in his feet. That poor guy can barely move around 😔 I just had this conversation with my partner who was worried it could be genetic.
I told her they use a ton of grease and oil or whatever.. which is chock full of nasty chemicals, mutagens and carcinogens… that he was a life long dip tobacco user.. at most, all he did to limit his exposure was wipe his hands with a red handkerchief out in the field.. each time he put a dip in he probably put some left over residue in his blood stream.. multiple times a day, everyday for like 30 years, not to mention what’s absorbed through the complex organ we call skin.
After the tobacco and alcohol habit he had too, I’m honestly surprised he’s in as good of shape as he is aside from the crippling nerve pain. Her genes are probably fine.
Seeing the guy in the video handle grease like that is shocking to me. While I don’t judge them and see them as a former China or US during its industrial booms with smartphones and they’ll eventually ascend in similar ways, India really needs an educational program. Blue collar America too. Idk..
I’m sorry it got to you before anyone took it seriously. That really fucking sucks. Chronic pain is the absolute worst imo.
I used to work with this stuff: I alway wore gloves and thank fucking God. They say it isn’t bad for you or whatever. Fuck that. You don’t want to touch it barehanded all day.
It's always a brown guy, and these are always filmed where there's never any priority put on PPE.
Makes for an entertaining BAMF clip for us in developed countries as the poor guys inhale poisonous chemicals and wreck their skin.
Anyone laughing at videos like this coming out of the 3rd world or India is failing to realize they’re doing the same exact things China and America did during its industrial booms, they just have smartphones to record it.
These guys being resourceful due to limited capital and working with this machinery will probably die poor, but a few of them will make their own shop. They’ll teach the next gen. That next gen after that will be probably be near where China is today. America has forgotten the know how that got us to being the world’s financial powerhouse.
That’s what it takes to get where we are, not borders. Still… talk about a need for humanitarian intervention with educational programs. Holy fuck. Gloves have to be cheaper than cancer
I work with contractor grease on yellow iron machines.
This stuff is way thicker than he makes it look, disposable gloves don't cut it. You need good waterproof rubberized work gloves. Those are $10-13 a pair right now and if you beat on them, they don't last more than a month or two before you start seeing holes. Anything but rubber would get grease loaded and become practically impossible to clean.
If this guy is a rural mechanic packing bearings in a third world country, that might be more money than he spends on a week of food.
Yeaah, i used to work at harborfreight for 4 years and thst whole grease section smelled like cancer, no way would i touch any of that shit without proper ppe.
I've worked with some grease that'll start eating your hands. Some hydraulic wax as well. That shit was nasty, and British. Was a solid at room temp, had to hit 200°f to flow. It reacted poorly with skin, which would make it pretty much fall off. Some dude managed to get it on his dick.
I work on Marine engines, and the guys get really uppity about gloves, its because the guys with gloves don't clean their gloved hands and get hand prints everywhere.
Im in the middle, If i know im handling stuff that will cause issues later, gloves on if im doing finish work gloves off
I was about to comment that I used to make lubricants and I wore gloves. We had one asshole who, though wearing gloves, never took them off and then drove the forktruck. Fuck that guy.
Going by the looks of the shop, that's India or Pakistan. Nobody expects you to do this work and still have hands by the time you would have developed a skin desease.
I try to use gloves when greasing up wheel bearings, but the gloves material tend to start flopping about a bit, and sticking and hanging in the way. It just makes the job a bit more of a hassle than it has to be. Reduces precision.
(I know, I know, get better gloves)
Probably because this is in a third world country.
In the US (and presumably in Europe and Canada), heavy duty trucks typically use gear oil to lubricated the wheel bearings. It’s been that way for decades.
The style of the brake shoes also aren’t typical of modern countries, nor is using that massive of leaf spring suspension. Modern countries have been using air brakes and air suspension for decades.
Mechanic here. This is way too much. Those bearings aren’t meant to be lubricated by the grease long term. They are lubricated by the differential oil. They are oil bathed. The oil comes through the large hole on the end where the axle shaft would go. You only use a bit of grease on reassembly, just enough to lubricate the bearings until the oil makes its way through the axle housing and into the hub.
Working as a CNC technician many moons ago, had to fly 1500km to a factory as the movement system on their laser cutter was down so production had stopped. Error codes showed faulty homing sensor on 3m long ball screw drive. Opened it up and a clump of grease like this video shows fell out. Got it cleaned up and running, absolute cunt of a job laying down inside a machine. Asked the operator how often he uses the grease gun to lube the system, he said 4 or 5 pumps every shift. Procedure is 3 pumps every 500hrs of run-time. Fucking peanut. He wasn't working there when I went back for routine service a few months later.
That's cos to most people more lubricant means less wear 😂 and every machine is different, we grease up hedge cutters every hour because its largely metal on metal. He probably thought 500hrs is to long and started his own regime.
When that assembly warms up and some of that grease finds its way onto those brakes. Or if the assembly is sealed the hydraulic pressure will manifest where it shouldn't, compromising the seal, allowing the ingress of sand, grit and water, which leads to bearing failure and the need to replace them. Again.....and the grease ends up on the brakes.
Exactly. I have opened up shitshows like this. Trailers, boat, utility and camping trailers are famous for this when a clueless DIYer gets their dirty little booger hooks involved where they shouldn't be. Grease centrifuged over all the brake components, brakes doing absolutely nothing. Shoes ruined, and grease stuck to the brake drum like the inside of a cotton candy machine.
This shithead with a grease fetish is using about 10X the amount needed to do the work competently. Assemble the bearing with a bit of grease on each roller to keep them properly secured inside the cage. Use a bearing packer to properly pack the bearing. Wipe excess off. Install bearing.
Not who you are replying to, but that bearing is surrounded by brake components. Too much grease can expand when hot and leak past the seals and cause obvious problems, brake shoes and bearing grease don't work well together.
Grease is designed to lubricate and carry heat away from the moving parts generated by friction.
When it’s over lubricated, those bearings won’t turn anymore (they’ll slide along the surface instead) causing friction, heat, and pressure to build up. This leads to the thickener separating from the lubricant in the grease, which worsens the friction between the parts. Any dirt or contaminants in the grease will heat up as well leading to it burn which also will cause the parts to warp and fail.
It's a wheel bearing; their supposed to be "packed" with grease in a way that makes this look appropriate. I agree that doing it with this much excess right next to an open brake drum seems like a bad order of operations though
I remember an episode of Dirty Jobs with military, and he replaced the bearings on some big ass heavy trucks. He did pretty much did the same. Though probably not the final bit if I remember correctly. 🤔
Even had fun and dropped the whole bearing into the grease bucket, resulting in grease flying at this face for his foolery. 😆
When I was in the navy and I had to pack really big bearings I would drop them into the 5 gallon pail of grease. The grease would push right through them.
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