Lets see your SHOPRAGS, no really

Fudge · Apr 22, 2010

I'm serious here.
Most of my rags I'll bet are from the 60's. My dad bought old ones from a laundry service and kept washing them. They have a real distinct smell. My wife calls it the garage smell. Kind of a burned metal petroelum smell. My dad only works in wood now so a few months ago he gave the box of rags. They say smells are your stongest memories and I'd have to agree every time I smell one it takes me back in time. The other three are show shop rags that are in a glass display case or bar if you will.
So anyone else not throw them away or use paper towels?

Fudge · Apr 23, 2010

212 looks and no posts or comments? WTF guys?
Always remember" Every day is safety day" Red Star Industrial circa 1969

jwhcars · Apr 23, 2010

I throw away or burn my oil,gas,pant thinner rags. I think the rolls of blue shop towels has killed the cloth rag.

bondsman · Apr 23, 2010

The cloth rags have changed within the year at my local advance auto. I used to buy the red ones, but now they are so thin and not really absorbant. You can even see through them. The blue shop paper towels are all I use now. And old t-shirts.

denis4x4 · Apr 23, 2010

Ran across a deal at the local hospital on blue towels that were no longer able to be sterilized in the autoclave. Five bucks for 20 or 25 rags a little bigger than a shop rag

Cameronl · Apr 23, 2010

I built this dispenser for the Scotts Box o' Rags paper towels.

BioHazard · Apr 23, 2010

I got a ton of white cotton rags at Costco for like 8 bucks. I've got a 5 gallon bucket full of new clean ones, another bucket full of clean but stained/torn rags, and another bucket for dirty ones to be washed. If I do something really messy I just use one of the pre-stained/torn rags, and throw it away...a stack of rags might last a year. Kinda like underwear.

warmpancakes · Apr 23, 2010

guys hit the salvation army around here they do 5 bags for 5 bucs so figure 30-40 lbs of old towels wash cloths etc, I stop at coin laundry on the way home 1.00 for detergant and 1.00 for bleach usually under 10.00 for a huge pile

strnge · Apr 23, 2010

Bought a 10 lbs bag full of white shop rags. I was disapointed when I opened the bag. Half the cotton on the rags was missing.

Dan in Pasadena · Apr 23, 2010

Fudge, what's the deal with those rattle cans being stored upside down? Does it actually make any kind of difference?

Fudge · Apr 23, 2010

Not my garage thats Camronl''s I wondered the same thing though.

nate379 · Apr 23, 2010

If made my head hurt for a bit, I thought the whole pic was upside down! :bounce:

chopper1 · Apr 24, 2010

Dan in Pasadena said:
Fudge, what's the deal with those rattle cans being stored upside down? Does it actually make any kind of difference?

I store paint in bottles that way, it keeps the air from getting in and drying out the paint. Not sure air would get into spray cans.

gunguy · Apr 24, 2010

Sorry to go off-topic, but I agree with the smell comment. The smell of musty canvas always reminds me when my dad, brother and I would hit the old army-navy surplus stores looking for camping gear. Weird I guess, but those were some good times.

Respectfully,

Jim

premierplayer · Apr 24, 2010

Dan in Pasadena said:
Fudge, what's the deal with those rattle cans being stored upside down? Does it actually make any kind of difference?

+1, inquiring minds....

and just how are those cans hung/attached?
magnetic strip?

Ran across a deal at the local hospital on blue towels that were no longer able to be sterilized in the autoclave. Five bucks for 20 or 25 rags a little bigger than a shop rag

The blue towels come in suture kits, I miss my friend Dr J. (he moved) he would always keep me hooked up.

texasOFT · Apr 24, 2010

When you wash your rags ask the laundromat attendant if they have any soda ash. Looks like detergent but works great on removing oil & grease.

TheNerd · Apr 24, 2010

I get pretty much an unlimited supply of surgical towels. They are not all that obsorbant, but better than a paper towel. Once they get too dirty I toss them and get some fresh ones.

They have not been exposed to anything, just opend and not used, I still wash them first.

Strouty · Apr 24, 2010

Cameronl said:
I built this dispenser for the Scotts Box o' Rags paper towels.

Why do you hang your spray cans upside down?

Fudge · Apr 24, 2010

Strouty said:
Why do you hang your spray cans upside down?

If you look at the second and third in the row you can see a ring at the top of the can. I can only assume they are on some sort of peg hook. Why upside down though I do not know.

Coach James · Apr 24, 2010

Musty canvas and gun oil reminds me of when I was a little boy in my dad's shop. He was a career soldier and had accumulated lots of old army stuff. Canvas tarps, pup tent, leather holsters, slings etc. Good days.

I have cut back on the red shop rags since they got so thin. I use blue paper towels and t-shirts I get from the lost and found box at our gym. When the t shirts are dirty enough, I toss them in the landfill.

Coach

Cameronl · Apr 24, 2010

Strouty said:
Why do you hang your spray cans upside down?

NO reason other than the clips are designed to hold cans by the lip. For spray cans with caps, that means upside down.

1984GMC · Apr 25, 2010

just some info. Buying the blue towels in several single packages gets you more towels for less money that buying the big box o towels.

NUTTSGT · Apr 25, 2010

I use blue paper towels 99 % of the time. If they've soaked any fluids (other than water) or brakek-leen, I pitch them into the woodburner.

For those of you still using "rags" where are you keeping the used ones in your shop ? You do realize they are a fire hazard. Do you have a metal can or something similar ?

Stephenw · Apr 25, 2010

NUTTSGT said:
For those of you still using "rags" where are you keeping the used ones in your shop ? You do realize they are a fire hazard. Do you have a metal can or something similar ?

http://www.shopngarage.com/forum/index.php?topic=46.0

Fudge · Apr 25, 2010

NUTTSGT said:
I use blue paper towels 99 % of the time. If they've soaked any fluids (other than water) or brakek-leen, I pitch them into the woodburner.

For those of you still using "rags" where are you keeping the used ones in your shop ? You do realize they are a fire hazard. Do you have a metal can or something similar ?

I keep the dirty ones in a five gallon bucket, out of the way of sparks and such. Yes they are flammable but I don't do wordwork so I really dought they will self combust. Motor oil isn't really known for catching its self on fire, the way solvents in a wood shop are. I have been half assed looking for a fireproof can to put them in. I would really like one of those nice trianglular ones that we had in HS shop class, but like everything else I'm to cheap to buy a new one and haven't found a used one yet.

I can't believe I'm still the only one with real rags and the only one with "show" rags. The three in the case all have little stories . The backyard believers one was given away at a car show to all the participents, The Swanx Vallejo one is my car club, the guy that printed our shirts gave us a stack of rags one time, and the Garage Magazine one was given to me by the editor of that magazine years ago when it was just a start up mag.

Anyway hope you all are having a good weekend. I'm gonna go play in the garage now.

BioHazard · Apr 25, 2010

Oily shop rags will not self combust, especially stuff like motor oil or other lubes. It is a lot of various wood finishing materials and solvents that have a tendency to self destruct.

Plus if they're THAT oily, it's probably time to throw it away.

Charles (in GA) · Apr 25, 2010

Here is a thread on cleaning shop rags.

I have hundreds of commercial shop towels/rags.

And here is a pic I posted there of how I clean mine and two containers full of them. I store my clean ones in the Rubbermaid type containers, one for very clean shop towels (container on the right) I use for car polishing and such, and one for general purpose light oil, dirt, etc (box on the left). If it gets real messy, I use material from my scrap rag box, old T-shirts, cotton socks and underwear culled while was folding and putting them away, and cut up pieces of old blue jeans, etc. I also have a box of "grunge" rags that I wash, but don't expect them to come free of oil, grime, etc, or have holes in them, deteriorated, etc.

Here are a couple of pics of some unique shop towels. My Grandfather worked in the Santa Fe roundhouse in Temple, Texas, for 50 years, retiring in the mid '60's as a Foreman. Sometime in the middle to latter '50's he gave my mother a handful of then new Santa Fe shop towels. For many years my mother kept them under the kitchen sink and used them for all kinds of cleaning. Eventually they wound up in the shop rag bin and I used them for years, until finally in 2003 I found some of them in a display case in the museum in Temple (old two story art deco depot building) and realized I should preserve them, so I took them and washed them in the house washer one last time and put them away in a zip lock bag. Those rags got a good 40 years + of use and held up well.

I have a steel flammable rag can, foot pedal operated lid, with air space under the container by design, that I keep dirty ones in until I launder them.

Charles

Fudge · Apr 25, 2010

Nice Charles Thanks
WIPE OUT AXY DENTS

Lets see your SHOPRAGS, no really

Well-known member

Attachments

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Banned

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Banned

Member Emeritus

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Banned

Super Moderator

Well-known member

Well-known member

Banned

Well-known member

Attachments

Well-known member