I pack everything by hand that I can get out of the machine. I bought a packer once many years ago and hated it cause they are impossible to keep dirt out/off of them and they waste a lot of grease that ends up on your hands anyway. You need a packer for every different type of grease ya got too, so I will never use them.
To reach under the seal lips on bearings that will cost me money if I try to remove them... I use a needle injector (cost about $6 or so) to load bearings with fresh grease. If I can get to the opposite side seal I'll poke a needle under that seal lip farthest away from my injector needle and flush out the old grease as its' getting pumped full of new.
If a bearing has steel shields/seals on them (no room for a needle injector) that are crimped on permanently, I'll sand off a spot on each side and drill a tiny hole in each of the shields and pump them full of grease. The sanded holes are then wiped clean with alcohol and capped with either JB-Weld epoxy or 3M Weatherstrip adhesive.
Nowadays, every new bearing is sold empty (and every brand new machine has empty bearings on it!), so I always wash out the Yak-Fat they ship the bearings with, and repack them with my own known-to-be-good grease.
To reach under the seal lips on bearings that will cost me money if I try to remove them... I use a needle injector (cost about $6 or so) to load bearings with fresh grease. If I can get to the opposite side seal I'll poke a needle under that seal lip farthest away from my injector needle and flush out the old grease as its' getting pumped full of new.
If a bearing has steel shields/seals on them (no room for a needle injector) that are crimped on permanently, I'll sand off a spot on each side and drill a tiny hole in each of the shields and pump them full of grease. The sanded holes are then wiped clean with alcohol and capped with either JB-Weld epoxy or 3M Weatherstrip adhesive.
Nowadays, every new bearing is sold empty (and every brand new machine has empty bearings on it!), so I always wash out the Yak-Fat they ship the bearings with, and repack them with my own known-to-be-good grease.
