Redneck tech: Favorite floor cleaner, bondo dust, sawdust, kitty litter or oil dry?

I was just out cleaning up the spilled vital fluids from under the roadsters first fire up from yesterday, and laughed at myself for sweeping the bondo dust out from under the improvised work bench holding the sheet metal parts to use as oil dry. So, while I'm waiting to call the trailer axle builder guy to give him the dimensions for the Spartans new axle, I thought I'd start a little poll; What do you use?

Here at FlynBrians garage, there's usually an ample supply of bondo dust. If there isn't, I have a box of sawdust, there's usually some silca sand blown up on the apron outside the doors from sandblasting, and as a last resort, I keep kitty litter in the "clean" garage attatched to the house to sop up the gear lube the wagons diff leaks out. Each has it's own merits, the first of course being free , the second most being absorbancy, the third being, well, there isn't really an third, free is the main thing.

So, vote early, and vote often...

1) Oil dry

2) Kitty litter

3) Bondo dust and general dirt from the garage floor

4) I don't clean up...

 

lol i have also used old news paper to clean up oil spills

 

Carolina Creepers aka sheets of Cardboard clean up oil spills pretty good.

 

I use sawdust, works great! but it's not an option up above!

 

Bondo dust soaks up oil like nothing else!! How many body shops have you seen with oil stains on the floor?

 

After the oil is cleaned up, I wash the floor with Tide laundry soap and water. You would be surprised how clean this will get your floor.

Wet the floor, sprinkle laundry soap, go over your floor with a shop broom, hose the suds out. No joke, this will make your shop floor look new.

 

I use Tide in the drive after oil changes since filter is over crossmember in new Ford trucks. I sprinkle it on dry and leave it.

 

+1 on the sawdust.

I have a plastic bag filled with 'dust for spills.
Anytime I try my best Norm (Nawm) Abrams imitation,I sweep up the sawdust and save it for when I work on the car.

 

Since I'm building a woodie, I have ample sawdust available and it works pretty good.

Here's another one - very seasonal, but it works....SNOW. Just throw a couple shovels full on the floor and sweep. The moisture really picks up the dust and the floor ends up really clean. Dispose in an environmentally friendly way - throw it in the woods.

 

+2 for sawdust

 

+3 for sawdust, but Tide for the spots on your driveway

 

I try not to keep sawdust anywhere in the garage because I am afraid it's going to light the whole place up.

 

cool i am gonna try it tonight! thanks

 

My neighbor is a wood worker so I get his saw dust and mix it to just damp with some kerosine, picks up dust and cleans up oil.

 

I work outside, i do the enviromental thing and let nature clean up the oil

 

I've found that the ashes from my wood burner work pretty good.I always keep a 5 gal bucket full around.

 

The local parts house sells 50 lb sacks of oil dry for under 10 bucks but I have been known to grab the sack of kitty liter when the need arises.

 

I'd have put sawdust in the poll, but there were only options for 4 choices, and I thought just leaving the "not cleaning" option was funny. We've all seen old shops where the grease and dirt sort of makes it's own grimey level floor.

 

sawdust...lol

 

2 nd fireplace ashes

 

Kitty Litter - buy the cheapest you can find - usually the store brand.

 

Real Oil-Dri, the kind that looks like the particles are way too big. I just keep a quart-ish on the floor and move it to wherever today's spot is. Bout the only time it ever gets wet enough to throw away is when catastrophy strikes and you're putting the stuff down to act as a dam around the expanding spill.

The snow absorber mentioned can work pretty darn good. Bout the time it slushes up it also becomes real abrasive and digs out a lot more than water and a broom otherwise dig.

 

same here

 

Wow, you guys are serious! Tide? I need to become more concerned about the appearance of my garage

 

You guys are high tech. I use dirt, dry dirt, works OK. Price is right. Sweeps up nice.

 

free sawdust from the cabinet shop next door

 

I'm a 99. cent store Kitty litter guy myself, and then to get a little exercise at the same time i take a 2x4 block and scrub the stuff in good where the granules turn to a powder, sweep it up, and your vertully(sp) oilless! Works real good.

 

Kitty litter. I scored an old 2 brush kitchen floor polisher that I use with dish washer powder. Wet the floor down, sprinkle the powder, run the polisher, and hose out. Floor winds up like new. Layed down 2 coats of gray Commercial Bridge Paint on the floor, 10 or so years ago, and the floor still looks like new...

 

Dirt and grease build character. Be traditional, leave it there and let the floor develop "Patina".

 

My buddy bought a repair shop that had years of built up grease and oil. It was almost a 1/4" thick in spots. He used oil dry. He built a shop floor cleaning tool. He used a 4X8 solid core cinder block lying on the flat side. He bolted on a long handle using some band iron. Sliding the cinder block back and forth across the floor grinds the oil dry into dust. The grinding action actually cuts into the thick build up with out a great deal of effort. It did not all come up with one application but over a few weeks of repeated applications you could actually see the concrete again. Eventually it was clean enough to paint. The before and after was quite impressive.