What kind of soap or powder do you use for very dirty hands

The original(blue) Dawn works for organic greases, medium well for petroleum-based crud. The orange-based hand cleaners work pretty well for most automotive crud, with or without pumice, if I need really clean hands, I'll do some hand laundry using clothes detergent and some red shop rags. Nothing removes MoS2 from hands except time, ditto graphite. I'm not a big fan of gloves for mechanical work, can't keep hold of wrenches or parts and my hands inside become very slippery with sweat. Same with any type of coating or hand creams. Nothing like squirting the one and only nut in existence down into the guts and then trying to fish it back out. Only time I really take to gloves is repacking and installing CV joints and I thankfully don't do that more than once a decade. I have used some stuff called Krud Kutter for various cleanup tasks, it works pretty well on hands but contains diluted lye, so will dissolve your skin eventually. Lowes has carried it, have seen it elsewhere, too. They think very well of it, so I haven't bought much of it lately. It's a purple stuff replacement, only it works better. Works well for cleaning off greasy fingerprints from fresh latex paint.

Stan

Oops, I forgot lemon juice, which is especially good for removing fishy odors.

-- Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"PrecisionmachinisT" on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 23:17:59 -0800 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

We had a small (and I do mean small) washer for the shop rags. Fill it up with water, plug it in to heat (I once forgot and left it a bit long. Almost boiling water sure removes a lot of grease and gunk all by itself), run. Tip over to empty water, and rags, hang 'em up to dry.

Whole thing was about waist high, and about "a cubit" square.

>

I use Boraxo hand cleaner, the white powder (pure borax), not the orange stuff. (Beware, "Boraxo" is a brand name, not a substance.)

I bought a wall dispenser made by Dial (of soap fame), and mounted it on the concrete wall above the shop sink. All metal; works quite well. But use all four mounting screws, as the back metal is thin, and will bend annoyingly if not fully fastened to the wall.

Joe Gwinn

I've always used a mix of Limoline and baking soda, but fresh-water fish smell nice to begin with.

This is THE VERY BEST I have found!

I've got it from body shop suppliers, Sherwin Williams and from Advance and Auto Zone stores.

I like the orange lava, and we have TKO knockout at work that does a good job. Main thing is to know when to put on the water. The orange lava and gojo type cleaners must be rubbed in dry, working until you get everything scrubbed, and then you turn on the water and start rinsing. If you wet your hands before putting on the soap they just don't work. The TKO Knockout is just the opposite, you must wet hands first then apply soap, then it works great. If you start dry it's useless. So try your soap both ways.

Sometimes, I find it very difficult to clean up my hands after handling some dirty stuff. Dishwashing Soap and orange lava do not seem to work very well. Is there anything better. A powder or different soap or whatever.

Thanks

There is another option. My daughter brought some "Crazy Soap" home. Just little motel-sized sample bars, but a whole box of (like) 36 of them. I've got to tell you, that stuff _really_ "cleans like crazy!".

It will remove paint, grease, aluminum swarf, and almost anything else I usually get into. It's gentler than Lava on the skin, and works to remove stains and dirt from clothes, too. No pumice, which I HATE the feel of. I won't use the pumice GOJO, and the Orange Smooth version is a little hard to find 'round here (which I do like).

(no association with the Crazy Soap product, but I do have 20 more of those little sample bars still left! )

LLoyd

Den 24-02-2012 06:29, Ignoramus19207 skrev:

Go to the nearest grillbar and order half a fried chicken with french fries. Eat it using only your fingers and your hands will be almost clean when you are through the meal. Do not think of where the stuff went ;-)

Here in Denmark we have 'Plum'. It is some kind of soap/detergent or whatever mixed with really small polyurethane balls. Works like a charm if you just wash your hands in normal soap after using it.

Yep, Fast Orange or the Harbor Fright equivalent, "Orange Goop".

"Ignoramus19207" wrote in message news:Q9mdnYKEyLClvdrSnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com...

If they are really bad I use Gunk, followed by Castrol SuperClean and then Dawn. In dry weather I have to apply hand lotion afterwards to keep my skin from cracking.

jsw

LOL! Good one, Uffe.

Man! They're putting poly in everything nowadays.

-- Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

I use _Permatex Fast Orange_ with pumice.

stuff works amazingly well.

They are also excellent when changing oil and other messy work.

I'm inordinately pleased with myself when I remember to snap on a pair and mildly astonished at how clean my hands are after some really dirty jobs.

--Winston

back in my mechanic days, my magic formula was a paste of Borax (NOT boraxo) and Ajax dishwashing liquid, used with a hand brush. I'd follow that with a small amount of vaseline. It got my hands clean and the vaseline kept the skin intact - without it, my skin got so dry it would crack.

I'll second the brush. I find using a small brush more important than the kind of soap. If I know ahead of time that I'll be getting my hands really dirty I'll set out a ~5 gallon bucket of water, my brush and bar of soap. By the time I'm done the water is warm and the mess I always end up making, washing my hands and arms will be outside not in.

A small brush similar to these:

Some sort of hand cream/lotion is a must too, especially after using a brush...

--=20 Leon Fisk Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b Remove no.spam for email

This is the current model of the brush I use - mine is probably 40 years old and still going strong.

and again, I always used a small drop of vaseline after the brush.

My local NAPA dealer has it in gallon jugs. I keep one in the house & one in the shop. :)

Dawn dishwashing detergent works very well on greasy hands. After I get the grease off, I use a bar of Lava soap, and that gets the remaining black off. I some times need to use a hand brush with the Lava to get all the dirt off.

RWL