This isnt' especially hot rod related but the answers (if I can get some ) may be of use to others. My house washing machine took a dump today, so we replaced it but it got me thinking about washing my shop towels. I've got a home shop with a bunch of commercial towels from various services over the years and don't want to use a commercial service again. Once and a while I have used a buddy's service but don't want to rely on that. I'm thinking I can get the old washer working, at least enough to do a load of towels once a month or so. I don't have hot water in the shop and will use the wash water to water some trees. What's a good soap to use for this that will work in cold water and not kill the trees? Thanks.
I think you're seeking the impossible-the kind of stuff that gets on shop towels needs the strongest detergent and the hottest water to remove it. Take them to a laundramat-just don't let the owner or custodian see what you are doing.
I think good old fashioned Goop handcleaner (the white stuff without pumice) has always touted that they get even the nastiest stains out. Chuck some in with the laundry. If it ruins your washing machine, well, you're not out anything really, right? AS far as killing the trees ... well, the handcleaners are essentially just white grease, right? It's a petroleum product, which comes from crude, which comes from the earth which comes from dead dinosaurs and other organic materials which ... aww fuck it. It was worth a shot anyway.
Hot soaking will help a lot, but I think you are hoping for free '32 3 windows and roadsters, delivered if you think you can dump the rinse from shop towels on growing plants and expect them to live...
I use laundermat machines, and I think just the dirty shop water wou;d be enough to kill plants. I wouldnt worry about the soap.
at a detailing shop i was at about 13 years ago, the boss inherited his mothers washing machine, it was a old wirlpool or something with a power ringer, he used to come in sunday morning and wash all the rags and put them through the ringer and hang them out to dry, the machine was indestructable, he was using waterbased alkaline degreaser, all the new machines now seem to have biodegradable parts that dont like heavy chemicals but this thing could take anything, also, when i was a detailing products rep i used to sell a all killer no filler industrial washing powder, it was in quantities of about 20kg, mainly for rags as it was cheap, strong, made colours fade and had no fabric softener.
Yeah, I may be whistling up the wrong tree here (whatever the hell THAT means) but it's worth a try. I don't like using public laundry facilities like I did when I was younger and didn't care as much about other people. How'd you like to put YOUR clothes in that washer after a bunch of greasy rags? Doesn't seem fair. How about something like OxyClean? Seems like in this day of green this and renewable that, there would be something on the market that would just eat the grease and neutralize it.
uh,...I use hot water & a little extra liquid WISK detergent. It does good. The water drains on the grass and it's really green. The not so new machines use a lot of water. "The solution to pollution is delusion." Lucky667
Some years back a couple of my friends had a motorcycle shop as a sideline extra job. They used commercial shop rags "borrowed" from their day job. In those days many coin laundries had no late night attendant, and when they got up a big bag of dirty rags they would go to the coin laundry, use several washers to wash, then pile them all in one of those huge gas dryers. Feed enough money in to dry the rags and head for the nearby bar to have a few beers while the rags dried, return and bag up dry rags and leave. One night they returned to find the parking lot full of fire trucks and cop cars all over, red rags all out in the lot and the front window blown out of the laundromat! The rags weren't completely free of petroleum, and when heated up they blew up! Needless to say, they kept driving and had to renew their efforts on getting a new supply of rags. Dave
No Shit!! I guess it not 50's enough to actually give a damn about other people or what goes down the drain!!
This is getting weird.....can't ya just buy some new rags and then water your trees with a garden hose like everyone else? Then make some floor panels out of the old washer. Use the tumbler for a back yard burn barrel and roast some squirrels that fall from the trees ya just watered..... Better than trying to wash old rags, where's the fun in that.
If you wash em at home, wash em twice. Second cycle is as much for the machine as your rags. IMO red rags have a real limited range of use if you don't have a pro service. The wash concerns with fumes and grease in your home washer make them generally unappealing. Plus you aren't really supposed to wash em after true grease, narrowing the range further. Hate to do it from a trash generation standpoint, but there's a whole lotta reason to use heavy paper shop towels for the bulk of it and just throw away the red rags when they're done. They're cheapo cheapo. Proper detailing towels are worth washing though.
Yeah great - so when some unassuming single mom or working class stiff trying to wash his/her clothes because they can't afford a home washing machine comes into the laundry to use the machine after you....they end up with grease from your "car hobby" on their clothing that they will have to wear to work the next day or send their children to school in. What a selfish inconsiderate perspective there. At least WalMart is open, a 12 pack is under $10 most places, and UFC fighting is still on television - life is good for my fat lazy countrymen.
I may have to make some concession for the hot water part. Does any of the grease end up in your lawn? I really hate to track that into the house. Of course, I'd only be doing it once and a while, so it may not be that big a deal.
If I don't figure something out, I'll use the old washer parts for something, I'm sure. The tumbler would make a good composter and the motor is still good. I hate throwing away something with use left in it, including the red rags.
I wouldn't wash them in the house washing machine, any more than I'll do it in a public laundry. I used to wash the white cotton detail towels, but you'd be surprised on how much grease they pick up, especially if you have some help that doesn't care as much. I've been using paper shop towels for the heavy grease and silicone for years.
Yeah guess I didn't really consider other people. I just kinda thought you wash the rags, and then just run an empty load to clean the machine. But yeah you do make a good point. My bad.
Ive been getting my rags from a hospital. They restock the rooms for each patiernt. They come in packs of 6. Say they use 2 for a procedure, the other 4 are unused and pitched. Some hospitals will give you those extras. Bigger than the red towels, and thicker too. Plus, mine are a manlier blue instead of the pinky-red.
Way cool. Great to see someone admit a mistake and mend their ways. But be careful with that maturity/personal responsibility thingie. Before you know it, you'll stop flipping off morons in traffic.
Good 'ol Harbour Freight sells 'em plenty cheap. In a pinch I used to soak rags in solvent and agitate them by hand (with gloves) then wring them out and let them air dry. At that point, if you have an old wasing machine you can wash them. Remember that the electric motor under the washer does create some sparks.... .
used to pre soak them a lot to get some oil out, a real mess to wring out by hand the gas dryers in laundromat really made them smell, they finally figure out what I was doing and really did not approve got old , cut down on mechanic work and throw most rags in stove now or usepaper or towels, leftover restraunt napkins, still scroungy!!!
I first soak them in a 5gallon bucket w/hot water & a double shot of Mr Clean for about 2-3hrs. While they soak I'll take a broom handle & stir them up a few times back & forth. Then I drain off the water & fill the bucket again for a rinse, then into the washing machine they go w/hot water again. I do add extra soap to the washing machine and do an extra rince. I have never had a problem doing this and the machine never smells like oil/grease. But then again the REALLY REALLYgreasey ones are always thrown away so my wife doesn't have a reason to hand me my ass for fucking up her work clothes...joe
Look around gents. A couple of laundromats here have machines that are marked "greasers only". On second thought, maybe those are for --no, I won't say that
I used to wash shop rags.....Now I ask my wife's friends for their old worn cotton towels,T shirts,sheets, that sorta stuff.I got more than I need cause their husbands/boyfriends don'r work on greasy junk.
I had a buddy who had a vintage gasoline powered washer / ringer. It was a HOOT to watch him wash shop rags! Gary
There's a lot of data on that. A bale of rags from goodwill cost us less than any maintenance program for washing them. Check it out. I recycled all my rags that didn't get too oily, washed them with my work clothes and threw all the rest that had metal shavings, paint or grease in the trash. Now that I'm retired I wash them in gasoline and pour the gas down ant hills. Do my part for the environment by lighting a match to it so it don't soak into the aquifer As for doing them at home? I piss off the wife by mistake, not with something that obvious, consider smudging up her washing machine a last resort .
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