Waterless hand cleaning station?

[Captain Spaulding]

No water in my shop, though there’s a hydrant in the yard that I can swing by on my way to the house. Not planning to bring water inside as it’s not heated all of the time.

I’ve been entertaining the idea of a station with a roll of paper towels, rags, waterless cleaner and a bucket for used gloves and paper towel trash. As is, I grab the hand cleaner from the shelf, go grab a rag, clean up and head for the trash. Anybody do anything similar?

 

[Yankeefarmer]

I just use Tub O’ Towels. Sometimes I follow up with a paper towel or clean rag to dry my hands afterward, but they dry very quickly without a wipe.

 

[vwpieces]

No water in my shop. And since it's warming up, I just put a 3gal bucket back in the shop. Use it for cleaning (rinsing) hands, change it out every few days. Shop is 20ft from house but still clean up a bit before going in house.

regardless, most hand cleaners can be used without water. Fast Orange can and I keep a travel bottle to take with if needed.

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

I’ve occasionally used the ‘orange’ Snap-On wipes - that nowadays are available from quite a few brands. I‘ve also used, even more sporadically, alcohol based hand wipes/ “no-water-needed’-cleaners. No matter what product, when I do it too often I pay dearly for it with dry & cracked skin - worse in winter than summer. So I really try not to use them and stick to a designated hand cleaning paste from my industrial supplier & rinse. Very little water to rinse off needed, a small container and bowl would take care of that in absence of tap & sink.

All that said, I have heard very, very good things about these wipes: https://www.bigwipesusa.com/
( UK / EU https://www.bigwipes.com/ )

But I haven’t tried them yet personally.

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[jblnut]

A neighbor has a small sink with a container above that he keeps clean water in and a 5 gal pain under the sink that the dirty water drains into. His shop isn’t heated all the time and he says it works great. Fill the clean tank when empty and empty the dirty pail when full. Easy peasy.

 

[Stick-man]

I have water run to my shop, but I'm in the process of installing the walls and plumbing fixtures. Currently I use scrubs in the tub. If my hands get really bad, I like the NAPA cream waterless hand soap. Back when I just had a work yard, I had a 30 gal plastic drum, on a horizontal dolly, with a push spigot. I used that for over 15 years.

 

[TRWham]

... Anybody do anything similar?

I certainly do sometimes, but have no dedicated station for the purpose. The hand cleaner is on top of a metal cabinet in a pump dispenser and a Wypall towel dispenser is mounted on the wall by theoverhead door and a trash can sits between under the work bench. This is an attached garage so water is just inside, but it's not always necessary.

 

[tncatadjuster]

Cheap hand lotion for the last 20 years, beats the smell of waterless hand cleaner. If extra dirty printer paper before paper towl.

 

[txvwnut]

I have water in the shop, sort of, but use Grime Boss wipes.

 

[AC-WC]

I use GOOP and the blue disposable paper towels to get the worst off my hands. I usually end up washing my hands with Orange cleaner back in the house. Sink is less than 20 ft from the garage so unlikely I will ever have water in my garage.

 

[PWC Repair]

I just take off my 5mil nitrile gloves and throw them in the trash.......hands clean!

 

[bwringer]

I just take off my 5mil nitrile gloves and throw them in the trash.......hands clean!

Yeah, but what about my wrists, elbows, eyebrows, navel, neck, forehead...

I generally use wipes in this situation. There are many brands out there and so far I can't tell much difference.

There is one exception: a friend gave me a container of Blue Monster brand citrus wipes some while back and they were fantastic, but they're ridiculously expensive for us mere mortals; about $25 a container, vs $10 - $15 for lesser brands.


This is a random memory, but many many moons ago, there used to be a waterless hand cleaner that squirted out of the tube with a fairly normal consistency, then would sort of get sticky and gluey as you rubbed your hands together. When it had more or less solidified, you rubbed and peeled it off and your hands were magically clean.

It actually worked very well, and somehow didn't yank all the hairs off your knuckles, but it was a very bizarre experience and didn't seem to catch on. I carried some in my car for those impromptu al fresco wrenching sessions.

Or maybe I'm hallucinating. But someone in this crowd has to remember this stuff too.

 

[NUTTSGT]

What about moving the yard hydrant next to the garage ?

 

[Stuart in MN]

Sporting good stores sell little self contained sinks for camping, some of them are fairly inexpensive. I just looked online and see Home Depot, WalMart, etc. sell them too.

 

[CJM8515]

either a bucket you have water in, some sorta gravity fed water source or you do the hand cleaner and towels method and wash up fully inside. i suppose a 5 gallon water jug and some sorta sprayer with a bucket could work well. for years i used diluted simple green in a spray bottle and rags too.

me, i wear gloves as much as I can. otherwise tub of towels and wash up better inside

 

[Chipm]

I use Wypall hand cleaning wipes in a bucket. They work great, and unlike a hand cleaning station you can take the bucket with you when you pack for a road job.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

I just take off my 5mil nitrile gloves and throw them in the trash.......hands clean!

If the reached my shoulders, that might work. I inevitably end up with grease at least up to my elbows or torn gloves .

 

[bluedog225]

Or a 5 gallon jug with a foot pump if you can drain it.

I got a little foot valve recently. You step on it and it turns on the water. Pretty handy.

 

[PoorUB]

Tub of Towels here. The hand washing station is where ever the Tub of Towels is at.

 

[KFBR392]

I’ve been known to dunk my hands in my big 30 liter ultrasonic cleaner, which is filled with Simple Green, and wipe off on a random shop rag. I also have a spray bottle of 91% isopropyl alcohol at my bench that is for general purpose cleaning that I’ll spray my hands with and wipe dry on my shop apron. Whatever is at hand that is safe on skin. These two will clean anything off your hands.

 

[charbar]

I keep a container of Goop hand cleaner and whatever brand of hand towels I happened to see at the store in my work truck.

Goop works better than most stuff I've used but it leaves my hands feeling kind of gross and it smells weird so I try to at least splash a little water on my hands after the Goop.

Honestly a brakleen soaked blue shop rag is what I use 99% of the time. Gotta die somehow right?

 

[Captain Spaulding]

When I was young, I would sometimes ride with my grandma to pick up my grandpa from work at the railroad shop. I’d go into the coat room where they kept their coats, yard gear and lunch buckets and carry my grandpa’s lunch bucket to the car. The smell of Goop was everywhere as those mechanics and machinists had just washed up at the end of their shift. I never use it without going back in time a little.

 

[Hank11]

I like these:

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crocodilecloth.com

But someday I will have water in the shop.

 

[LOW1]

Any possibility of putting a second hydrant inside the shop with a gray water pit for draining it?

 

[slim39]

When I was young, I would sometimes ride with my grandma to pick up my grandpa from work at the railroad shop. I’d go into the coat room where they kept their coats, yard gear and lunch buckets and carry my grandpa’s lunch bucket to the car. The smell of Goop was everywhere as those mechanics and machinists had just washed up at the end of their shift. I never use it without going back in time a little.

I use go jo don't need water Slim