I am forever puttering around my garage, tinkering with this, fixing that. Whenever you're working around a shop, one of the things that is always in short supply is rags. Rags to clean with, rags to wipe your hands, rags to wipe down parts, to clean guns, to use for any manner of shop related work. I'm a frugal sort and I won't spend money on rags. Back years ago, I used old worn-out Curity diapers. Those things are like hen's teeth and expensive collectibles nowadays.
Tee shirts are a usable alternative and once a year or so I'll cut up a bunch of old tee shirts to make shop rags. Worn out, thread bare, stretched, stained, faded, they make great shop rags. I can get eight rags from each tee shirt. Four from the front, four from the back. Seven tee shirts gives me a stack of 56 shop rags and I'm good for another year.
When I go to Wal-Mart this afternoon I'll need to pick up some new tee shirts.
2 comments:
I used to work for a machine shop that had a shop rag laundry service. Every Monday, you got a fresh pile of red cloth shop rags, and every Friday the shop swamper would come by and collect your greasy rags to turn in.
After that, I never could get used to using old t-shirts or torn up dishtowels. I went out and bought a couple of dozen of the red shop rags, and wash 'em once a year whether they need it or not!
Several years ago the missus and I were in the Wally-World near Wenatchee, WA where I saw a shelf of bundled white 100% cotton terrycloth wash cloths. As I remember there were 30 in a bundle for the magnificent sum of $2. I went for broke and bought ten bundles. I still have three or four unbroken bundles, have given a few as birthday gifts and there's enough of 'em around that my shop looks as if a blizzard hit. They're very good as washcloths too, as so far as I can tell they're identical to hospital washcloths. Thick enough to soak up all manner of stuff, thin enough to get into nooks and crannies. And they feel good to wash with. (Not many shop rags can claim that.)
Gerry N.
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