Oily rag disposal

[Qapla]

...Hard to justify washing and reusing cloth towels when my outlay for disposables is only $4 a year....

If I am just cleaning up paper works just fine. But, when I have to clean something off with some sort of solvent (diesel, gas or whatever) paper towels just don't do the job - at least non that I have ever used.

If the resulting rags are still worth saving, cleaning will be in order. Also, some of the clothes we wear when doing some of that work get just as dirty as the towels/rags and may leave a residue in the house machine. So, having a "rag washer" comes in handy.

 

[Bird]

I kept a big box of disposable "rags" in the shop; still do, in fact, except now it's a plastic bag instead of cardboard box. And the rags are our worn out clothes that my wife or I cut up into smaller pieces.:laughing: Those rags never get washed; just disposed of when they get dirty. But now I don't use many "rags" because I have two paper towel dispensers in the shop; one for Visa paper towels just like we use in the house, and one for the blue "shop towel" paper towels. I also keep a roll of those blue ones in the car and a roll in the pickup.

 

[Tollster]

I too toss em in the incenerator, but typically don't lite em off till there is leaves or limbs to burn. Typically I don't use more than 2 blue shop towels, and they are not soaked. If I soak em I burn them.
I never leave any soaked rags in the shop, particularly the boiled linseed oil rags I use on the tool handles, I know they will spontanously ignite.

 

[5030]

I kept a big box of disposable "rags" in the shop; still do, in fact, except now it's a plastic bag instead of cardboard box. And the rags are our worn out clothes that my wife or I cut up into smaller pieces.:laughing: Those rags never get washed; just disposed of when they get dirty. But now I don't use many "rags" because I have two paper towel dispensers in the shop; one for Visa paper towels just like we use in the house, and one for the blue "shop towel" paper towels. I also keep a roll of those blue ones in the car and a roll in the pickup.

Bird...

The blue roll rags aren't absorbent or soft enough for my use. I'm wiping precision surfaces all the time and paper towels are out because of the lint. yes lint is actually a couple tenth's in thickness and a no-no.

I got into the Maytag ritual with my car wash drying towels and expanded into shop rags. I tried the shop rag route in the wife's washing machine one time and one time only. The Aiken Chemical Purple power (manufactured in your neck of the woods by the way), really cuts grease, even the rags I wipe excess and old grease from fittings with.

The old Maytag wringer will run (agitate) as long as I wish it to, I can load it and let it run 3 hours if I want to, but usually 30 minutes is enough.

If I had a dry cleaning setup, I'd do that. Drycleaning certainly cuts grease, it's Stoddard solvent.

 

[Bird]

I'm not doing anything anymore that requires that kind of precision. Of course I use those paper towels more for wiping the perspiration off my face than for anything else. I usually carry one of those blue ones in my pocket when I'm mowing or using the string trimmer.

 

[deereman75]

my father and I do a lot of wood working, so there are always lots of linseed oil soaked rags. We always lay them out flat, never folded, so that they can't self ignite.

 

[Soundguy]

i used to toss my oily rags.. or try to wash them. now I store them in a bucket with a lid. whenever I need to long term store a part, I grab a oily rag.. wrap the aprt.. toss in a ziplock, and tag it as to what it is, then shelve it.

soundguy

 

[CompactTractorFan]

I have a recreational firepit that I use also for burning oil soaked materials, I should have mentioned that the majority of them are paper towels and not cloth rags. My wife would have a FIT if she saw me putting oily or greasy rags in the washer. In the past I have tried soaking oily rags in a strong soap solution and then power washing them, with middling success, so I basically just use cheapo paper towels most of the time.

Oh, OK. It's probably not that big of a deal to burn the towels. I figured you were burning cloth rags, which would probably be a pain...

 

[Sammy the red]

I am absolutely not passing judgement but I wonder what does more damage. Oil in the air or oil in the water.

I would guess burning would be better but then you have lost a good rag that needs to be manufactured so maybe making more pollution.

Carl

Rags come in all shapes and sizes.
Old T-shirts.
Old shirts.
Old under shorts.

 

[Renze]

I use them to light the shop heater. actually i burn all my shop trash that fits through the hatch, in the shop heater.