zmotorsports
ALLIANCE MEMBER
A couple of guys I work with and I were discussing shop towels today as our uniform company was picking up soiled shop rags and leaving clean ones. They asked me what I was using at my home shop and whether or not I cleaned my own or had them laundered. It got me wondering what the consensus is on the forum. What does everyone use for rags/towels in their shops.
I will start. At work we have used the red square cloth shop towels even back when I started 25+ years ago. The laundry company that did our uniforms and rags at work made me a pretty good deal on an exchange program for home. I did this for several years until I realized how hard it was to keep the red fibers out of components like hydraulic pumps and such as work. I would clean parts and lay them out to be reassembled on clean red shop rags. Then upon installation it seems as though I was spending at least that much time again, spraying down the parts and blowing them off with compressed air to get rid of the red fibers. I also started to notice similar issues when doing automatic transmissions at my home shop.
I started using just regular paper towels when performing these specific tasks to eleviate the possibility of getting these fibers into the components. Then one day it hit me why am I going through this extra work when I should just use heavier paper towels and not have the expense of cleaning the red ones.
So about 15 years ago now I bought a couple of those Tork center pull dispensers and have one at each end of the shop. This is the style.
I fill them with the Kimberly Clark Wypall blue heavy duty towels that I buy from my local NAPA. I purchase them in the two packs that are shrinkwrapped together and get a better price on them.
I then also buy a case at a time of the smaller Kimberly Clark red Crew Chief ones in the box that pull out. These work great in the enclosed trailer, in the coach, the back of the Jeep and on my lower shelf of my toolcart for when I am in between the two pull dispensers and need one as my trusty Snap-On toolcart seems to be always at my side.
So let's hear from everyone else. What do you use?
Mike.
I will start. At work we have used the red square cloth shop towels even back when I started 25+ years ago. The laundry company that did our uniforms and rags at work made me a pretty good deal on an exchange program for home. I did this for several years until I realized how hard it was to keep the red fibers out of components like hydraulic pumps and such as work. I would clean parts and lay them out to be reassembled on clean red shop rags. Then upon installation it seems as though I was spending at least that much time again, spraying down the parts and blowing them off with compressed air to get rid of the red fibers. I also started to notice similar issues when doing automatic transmissions at my home shop.
I started using just regular paper towels when performing these specific tasks to eleviate the possibility of getting these fibers into the components. Then one day it hit me why am I going through this extra work when I should just use heavier paper towels and not have the expense of cleaning the red ones.
So about 15 years ago now I bought a couple of those Tork center pull dispensers and have one at each end of the shop. This is the style.
I fill them with the Kimberly Clark Wypall blue heavy duty towels that I buy from my local NAPA. I purchase them in the two packs that are shrinkwrapped together and get a better price on them.
I then also buy a case at a time of the smaller Kimberly Clark red Crew Chief ones in the box that pull out. These work great in the enclosed trailer, in the coach, the back of the Jeep and on my lower shelf of my toolcart for when I am in between the two pull dispensers and need one as my trusty Snap-On toolcart seems to be always at my side.
So let's hear from everyone else. What do you use?
Mike.
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