Rags

[dlane]

Hi all , a while back I purchased a bunch "200" terry cloth shop towels , and some blue shop rags .
Ied like to get them clean again, they are mostly oily, greasy, don't want to use my washer or laundry mat
I tryed a local uniform rental company they wouldn't do it. Dumping oily water onto ground here no good.
I do use the blue paper rolls but rags are better.
Any suggestions

 

[JimDawson]

Your real problem here is the waste water. Flushing it down the toilet might be the best way to get rid of it. Another option is to capture it in an open top container, set it out in the sun to evaporate, then package the dry sludge and put that in the trash. We used to do this with an electric fired wastewater boiler in an environmentally sensitive area.

You can pre-wash them in a bucket using Awesome then throw them in a top loading washing machine again using Awesome. The new ''green'' front loaders that use about a cup of water per load won't do the job. That will keep the washing machine from getting greasy. (I would run a load of dark before I ran a load of white ).

Maybe pick up a used top load washing machine, one that actually uses about 30 gallons per cycle?

 

[4GSR]

Tale them to the local laundry mat and wash them. . I do the similar thing too. I try not to let my shop rags get that dirty. I have recycled paper towels (Bounty) from the house, from drying hands, I use for the really nasty stuff. Afterwards, they go to the garbage can. So far the "green" people haven't come looking for me.

 

[brino]

Hi Derrick,

I have never found a good solution for this problem with rags or with my cover-alls.

For rags I typically start with a clean one and use it for a job until it "graduates" to a "slightly dirty rag". The slightly dirty ones get used for first-layer degunking, etc. and then "graduate" to "dirty rags" at which point they get used for jobs like cleaning oil spills off the floor. Then they "graduate" to the garbage can. Note I keep old oily ones in a sealed metal bucket away from "flammables" until garbage day when they get taken to the curb.

It is rather less formal than suggested above.

Similarly for my coveralls I have a few pairs that "graduate" down the line of filth. The last step is usually changing the oil or dumping transmission pan before they are used-up.
Luckily I simple ask for another pair for my birthday, or x-mas, or fathers day, etc.

I learned early in my marriage not to try washing them.
That first time I spent too much time washing out the inside of the washing machine!

-brino

 

[dave_r_1]

My dad was a heavy-duty mechanic, so he always had pretty dirty/oily clothes to wash. For maybe 30-40 years, we had a old top loader manual machine (as in, put the hose from a tap into the top to fill it, then pull the lever to engage the impeller for an hour or so, then unhook the drain hose and put it in the floor drain, repeat a couple of times to rinse, then feed the clothes through a double-roll squeezing mechanism to get most of the water out before hanging them up on the clothesline). Then we the 'good' washing machine with a new one and used the old 'good' one for washing them...

Good times...my fingers are a little flatter/longer because of that machine.

 

[Billh50]

I try not to let the real rags get too dirty or oily. That way I can take them to the laundromat. I use the boxed rags for the real heavy stuff and then just toss em in the trash.

 

[RJSakowski]

I use the grading system as well. There are clean rags and oily rags. For the really messy jobs, I use paper towels and "recycle" them in the wood burning furnace. There is usually not enough oil in a used rag to worry about contamination of ground water, etc. I use an industrial degreaser intended for pressure washers. I have a sink set up in my shop so I don't mess up the household sinks.

 

[george wilson]

i remember those old washing machines. and,anyone who had one considered themselves lucky back then!

 

[kd4gij]

If I need to clean some shop rags. I put them in a 5 gal. bucket with hot water and dawn dish soap.

 

[TommyD]

I use old shirts and socks for my shop rags...no undies though. Like brino, I put them through progressions until they are so used up and they get deposited in the garbage.
I went through a similar problem at the skool I work at, my previous boss bought rags and buying them after the previous bunch got used up. I have a metal container with a top about 5 gallons in size filled with old rags and no way to wash them. I think when i (hopefully) get another contract for the Fall semester I'm gonna pitch them in the garbage. I buy boxes of paper shop towels to get away from this problem