Cleaning Cleaning Rags

[jsburger]

Our house is one of those leftist conspiracies... trash is frowned upon. Of course, so is screwing up the washer.

Thanks for the ideas.

I worked in a machine shop years ago and I know they had some way to clean rags, but it probably involved chemicals that make body parts fall off. Smelled lemony, though.

---JC

Most likely a commercial supplier/launder and did an exchange on a scheduled bases, I bet they where blue or a faded red.

When I worked as an AF civilian after I retired from the AF we had large aluminum (6x6x4) containers to put used rags in. A rubber sealed door. Then we had bins with clean rags. All manner of cotton material.

[ERLover]

@ John B, > "When I worked as an AF civilian after I retired from the AF we had large aluminum (6x6x4) containers to put used rags in. A rubber sealed door. Then we had bins with clean rags. All manner of cotton material."

I hope it was safety rated for oily rags, I am sure it was, with a rubber seal.

[charlese]

Like jpg, I use blue shop rags that come on a roll. Hate to have ANY dirty rags sitting around in my shop. These blue rags can be found in Wal Mart and any of the big box stores. When on sale, I buy large packs of them.

Also available are "rags in a box" These are usually white, but are also strong and soft, like the blue ones. My only issue with the white ones is the box. It takes up room needed for other uses.

Both of these disposable rags are found in the paint department.

[jsburger]

@ John B, > "When I worked as an AF civilian after I retired from the AF we had large aluminum (6x6x4) containers to put used rags in. A rubber sealed door. Then we had bins with clean rags. All manner of cotton material."

I hope it was safety rated for oily rags, I am sure it was, with a rubber seal.

Yes.

On active duty on the flight line everything is accountable. If you needed rags they were checked out from the support section (tool crib) in a zip lock bag. Each bag had 5 rags in it. At the end of the day the bag was checked back into the support section. If there were not 5 rags in the bag a lost tool report was generated and a search was conducted. It got pretty sticky if the rag was not found.

[ERLover]

@ John B, > "When I worked as an AF civilian after I retired from the AF we had large aluminum (6x6x4) containers to put used rags in. A rubber sealed door. Then we had bins with clean rags. All manner of cotton material."

I hope it was safety rated for oily rags, I am sure it was, with a rubber seal.

Yes.

On active duty on the flight line everything is accountable. If you needed rags they were checked out from the support section (tool crib) in a zip lock bag. Each bag had 5 rags in it. At the end of the day the bag was checked back into the support section. If there were not 5 rags in the bag a lost tool report was generated and a search was conducted. It got pretty sticky if the rag was not found.

John why the rag accountability? Make sure one did not end up in an engine? Ohps, just saw the answer in your post.

[jsburger]

@ John B, > "When I worked as an AF civilian after I retired from the AF we had large aluminum (6x6x4) containers to put used rags in. A rubber sealed door. Then we had bins with clean rags. All manner of cotton material."

I hope it was safety rated for oily rags, I am sure it was, with a rubber seal.

Yes.

On active duty on the flight line everything is accountable. If you needed rags they were checked out from the support section (tool crib) in a zip lock bag. Each bag had 5 rags in it. At the end of the day the bag was checked back into the support section. If there were not 5 rags in the bag a lost tool report was generated and a search was conducted. It got pretty sticky if the rag was not found.

John why the rag accountability? Make sure one did not end up in an engine? Ohps, just saw the answer in your post.

Yes that is why. To make sure nothing was left behind somewhere in an aircraft that could cause damage or loss of life due to a crash. The technicians sign out their tool boxes at the start of the shift and do a 100% inventory. Another 100% inventory is accomplished when the tool box is turned in. By regulation the technician is supposed to do an inventory after each job is completed also. Imagine you worked on 5 or 6 aircraft on your shift and you don't discover a missing tool until the end of the shift. Where do you look? Every where you were with that tool box during the entire shift. Sometimes it takes hours. The aircraft all get impounded until the tool is found.

It is not only tools. If you drop a nut or washer or something in an aircraft you search until you find it no matter how long it takes. One only has to do that once to become very careful.

[ERLover]

John is that practice in the commercial aircraft industry?

[jsburger]

John is that practice in the commercial aircraft industry?

I have no idea but I certainly think something similar is in place.

Another thing that occurs when a military aircraft is involved in an incident/accident is the aircraft and all it's maintenance records are impounded. Any maintenance person who signed off a discrepancy in the aircraft forms is interviewed depending on the nature of the incident.

One thing I have always said is that I would rather fly on a military transport aircraft (I have been around the world more than once on them) than a civilian aircraft since I know how the military aircraft are maintained. That is not to take anything away from the civilian aircraft industry just something I always said for no particular reason other than familiarity with the aircraft I have flown on. C-141, C-130, KC-135, KC-10, C-5 and F-16.

[oldiron]

I too like and use the blue shop towels on a roll. I do use cloth rags as well however,They get tossed out once too dirty to use.

Mike

[robinson46176]

A good neighbor likes to wear his Tee shirts until they are about 50% hole area (air ) and 50% cloth in various levels of thinness. Really useless for rags.
Diana will not let me do that (takes after her grandmother ). I go through a lot of Tee shirts on the farm and in the farm shop, they have a rough life. Lots of greasy dirty work and clothing damage from snags, welding sparks, rolling around on the ground. Once something happens to a shirt or the collar starts showing a little wear it is quickly retired to "rag" status. She washes them and boxes them up and sends them to the farm shop. I get a few "new" Tee shirts along but about 90% of my Shirts, especially work shirts, come from Goodwill, yard sales and really good sales on new ones. It keeps her busy since they have to be size 2X and can be a little harder to find.
A good % of the rags do get washed and used again but normally after I have hung them out in the weather on a line for a week or so. Sun, wind and rain gets rid of the gommy stuff while they are hanging out. Then they go back to the house to be washed as a batch alone.
I come from a long highly dedicated line of pack-rats. This house and more buildings are packed full of "stuff" my folks acquired from the estates of about 5 other households like childless aunts and uncles, my grandparents and a family friend. As Diana and I have sorted out everything (we will never get done) we have donated any good clothing but anything appropriately tired has gone to the "rag boxes". I won't be running out anytime soon.
In the wood shop I tend to lean toward the blue shop towels. For disposal they go into the big wood-burning furnace. If it is operating they go poof and disappear. If it is off like now they just lay there with any fumes venting up the chimney. If they were to self combust, no big deal. Very strong and safe fireproof box. I don't really use all that many anyway. If a small pile forms I just toss in a match.

One handy item in the stuff is that we have a "lot" of used bed sheets in sound but slightly worn condition. They sure work great as machinery dust covers. As an example I have a number of specialty sewing machines, some pretty expensive. they don't need to be getting a lot of dust in their innards.



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