17 Awesome All-American Inventions for DIYers

GRACO: A CHILLY INSPIRATION

Russell Gray figured there had to be a better way to lubricate a car on a cold Minnesota winter day. The freezing temperatures made hand-operated grease guns nearly impossible to use. So in 1926 he designed a grease gun powered by air pressure and sold it to service stations and others in the automotive industry.

Gray Company Inc. quickly became a leader in the industrial fluid-handling business.The company produced its first paint pump in 1948 and developed the airless sprayer in 1957. This tool revolutionized exterior painting and made Graco a name familiar to every pro painter and many a DIYer.

Today Graco makes equipment for a wide range of industries. Its products pump fluids into cars, apply foam insulation to walls and dispense composite resins into molds?they even pump tomato sauce onto pizzas.