Are they ever big enough?

[SouthernChap]

Was sadly disappointed last time I went to replenish my favorite hand cleaner. Boraxo Powdered Hand Soap. Been using it since I was a kid (Dad was a mechanic, Gramps had a body shop - so grew up with Boraxo and Lava bar soap). Appreciated that it not only didn't leave a fragrance, but actually neutralized the smell of cutting oils, et al. According to the interweb, Dial no longer makes Boraxo hand soap. Still available as stock gets chewed up, but everyone is now gouging for it. Wishing now I'd bought a case of it. Just using Dawn dish soap now.

Don't care for the smell of the Orange stuff - especially the Cherry ZEP.

I like the smell of cutting oil, and way oil; hell even 3-in-1 is quite pleasant.

Just looked up Boraxo and there's a close equivalent available called Borolan. Have you tried that?

 

[Red96]

I looked into the Borolan. Could only find it in 5 gal pail for $100+. Maybe if I did this every day for a living, but as it's a 'hobby', I just can't justify it for hand cleaner... I think I was paying about $4 for a 12 oz shaker can of the Boraxo and it would last for a couple of months. Now if you find somebody that has it in stock it's more like $40-$50.

I've got bar stock and tooling to pi$$ my money away on instead! Honestly, I don't mind the smell of the oils much either. But the missus, whelp, that's a different story!

Appreciate the suggestion though, SouthernChap!

 

[woodchucker]

I like the smell of cutting oil, and way oil; hell even 3-in-1 is quite pleasant.

Just looked up Boraxo and there's a close equivalent available called Borolan. Have you tried that?

As a kid we always had Boraxo at the slop sink for cleaning up. I liked that stuff. I forgot about it. When I started working on my car my dad switched to goop then goop with pumice, then gojo... and on and on.

 

[Provincial]

Amazon has 5 lb. boxes of Boraxo. I bought one in October of 2021 and paid $13.25. I just checked, and they have it available for $182.02 from a different source. The listing I bought from says "unavailable."

Amazon does offer Borax Powdered Hand Soap in 5 lb. boxes for $34.99. More than 2-1/2 times what I paid a little over two years ago, and for generic. I'll probably buy this when my box runs out. I really like Boraxo, and it gets my hands clean with no residue or smell. Even at the higher price for generic, it is probably cheaper than liquid hand cleaners on a per-use basis.

 

[vtcnc]

Cleaned up the thread and locked. Also, this went from a post about machining a hard to fixture part on a lathe and we ended up hijacking on the topic of gloves and soap. A moderator may end up deleting the entire thread since it is all over the map.