Hand Cleanser & Other Tools

Yes, place your time and money saving tips here.Nothing illegal or dangerous please!Motoring related only please.

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Hand Cleanser & Other Tools

Post by Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur »

a wee tip to share when you've spent a few hours in the engine bay & your hands are black...

...I used to use straight washing up liquid, but have now found that its much easier to squeeze a bit of Diesel into your hands from a small bottle, rub hands together, then apply washing up liquid as normal.

Readilly available, dirt cheap and effective.


Also, just while I'm thinking about tips.... other things I've tried recently and found to be really good

6mm Spot Weld Drill: surprisingly effective, quick & easy.

Polycarbide Abrasive Disc: better than a rotary wire brush for removing paint, rust, etc

Ultra Thin 1mm Cutting Discs for sheet metal, eg welding, I've used a few of em now, much cleaner cut than the thick ones, specially useful where you can't easily get behind it to file it off

M3 bolt welded to the new section for 'pulling up' two thicknesses of metal to plug or lip weld it, including in eg, a box section where access to the rear is impossible (head ends up within the box section, rest is ground off). I tried an M6 first, far too big for the job, cheap n nasty M3 is sufficient.

A couple of these last suggestions I tried having read them first a well known Classic Car magazine. Most expensive of them is £4 from the usual well known auction site. All tried out on my 405.

Will soon be trying out a Fireproof FIA twin layer 'Nomex' Balaclava (marketed to Banger Racers & the likes) in conjunction with a 'non-full-face' welding mask, for my first 'on my back' welding experience. Expect it'll be fine. More than I can say for my NS Cill, what started out as a little hole has grown to approx 10cm x 20cm, three layers and 5 different repair sections! Good job I'm too fussy to take my mate's advice to 'plate it'. Half way through the job, might post pics when its finished.
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Re: Hand Cleanser & Other Tools

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

My Mum found that Imperial Leather Orange handwash got the smell of diesel off your hands very quickly. The downside is that your hands now smell of oranges!
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Re: Hand Cleanser & Other Tools

Post by CitroJim »

No, NEVER put diesel on your hands... Diesel for some people can cause nasty contact dermatitis... It is dangerous... The kind of dermatitis it can cause can be hard to treat. I only ever work on diesel systems with gloved hands... heavy-duty Nitrile and not latex as diesel (and other oils especially LHM) attack latex.

Ditto washing up liquid. It is very harsh... Effective maybe but hellishly bad for your skin when applied neat or nearly so...

I speak from (literally) painful experience...

Use Swarfega or another hand-wash recognised as safe on human skin and condition your hands afterward with a good moisturiser.

Also, always wear protective gloves and keep skin contact with oils and the like to the very minimum. Used engine oil can be carcinogenic.

Sorry to come down heavy on this. All your other tips are excellent.
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Re: Hand Cleanser & Other Tools

Post by Stickyfinger »

Agree Jim, 100% fyi....a sterile version of Swarfega is used for dirty wound cleaning using absorbent wipes.

For me, powdered latex gloves are a big no no, I use dry blue nitrite ones with "work gloves" over them until I get to the small bits.
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Re: Hand Cleanser & Other

Post by white exec »

I'm a fan of clear clincal vinyl gloves, which I now order via our vet (!) at about €9 for 100. Don't snag like latex gloves, but give good fit and touch.

Endorse all of Jim's cautions about contact with oils, solvents and fuels. Would also add to that list standard Swarfega. Swarfega was originally marketed as a vinyl upholstery cleaner in the USA, but became used as a hand cleaner. Over 40 years ago, the American health authorities put it on the no-no list. It is known to cause varieties of dermatitis and skin sensitivity and rawness.

Better to use more gentle hand cleaners based on coconut etc. Printers use a product called Really Works to remove ink. I have a large tub of a fabulous hand cleaner by Quimi Karry S.L., called Pasta de Manos Blanca. Unlike Swarfega, which for me lost its cleaning ability if used much more than once in a day, the Pasta Blanca just goes on working, and is extraordinarily effective and gentle on the skin. It doesn't contain the problematic poly-beads.

I also find it important to keep LHM well away from my lips (by accidental hand contact), where it not only tastes awful, but can throw up a sore really quickly.

Agree about those 1mm cutting disks. Since a friend introduced me to them, I don't think the hacksaw has seen any use whatsoever.
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Re: Hand Cleanser & Other Tools

Post by rushman1uk »

No, no diesel on your hands! I speak from experience of working on a diesel engine over a few days. Now I use gloves & if I need to clean past my gloved hands, swarfega which I find ok on my skin or a mild soap but need to clean over & over and that never always get's rid of the ingrained dirt.
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Re: Hand Cleanser & Other Tools

Post by elma »

Definitely no diesel on hands, it strips out the natural grease from the skin and prolonged exposure can lead to serious illness.

Latex gloves are a no no as well, prolonged exposure can cause people to develop an allergy. Then you have trouble buying things like socks. This has cost the NHS a fortune and is the reason they (and I) now use Nitrile gloves. Bodyguards are a good brand, the blue ones, I put them through a lot and they rarely tear.

Swarfega just doesn't do the job, leaves loads of dirt in the indents of my fingerprints. I like Debclean or Deb grit foam it might be called. It's the gritty Citrus one made by Deb, seems prity standard in industry now. They use it in Jaguar Land rover, Honda and my old work.
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Re: Hand Cleanser & Other Tools

Post by Sloppysod »

I agree with the above regarding hand cleaning, but I have found that adding sugar to normal soap helps........

As for helping hold thing together while welding etc have you seen these
Image
they are what the aircraft industry use, single sided panel clamp, you drill a hole, hold the base and turn the thumbscrew, then just fill the hole afterwards.
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Re: Hand Cleanser & Other Tools

Post by myglaren »

Never had a problem with latex gloves - I use about 30~50 pairs a day.
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Re: Hand Cleanser & Other Tools

Post by daviemck2006 »

I use asda baby wipes! They take oil grease etc off my hands. God only knows what they do to my grandaughters arse lol

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Re: Hand Cleanser & Other Tools

Post by elma »

myglaren wrote:Never had a problem with latex gloves - I use about 30~50 pairs a day.
Really don't, read up on Latex allergy. It's not something people are weak or predisposed to, its caused by a cumulative exposure to Latex molecules. All of a sudden you can just have a major reaction then thats it you can never touch Latex again, the gloves should be banned.
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Re: Hand Cleanser & Other Tools

Post by myglaren »

I'm not the only one to wear them James, we get through around 1,000 pairs a week and no-one has had any problems with allergies to them.
We have tried the blue nitrile ones but they are a bit of a pain to put on due to being less elastic but they tear more easily.
The bloke I work with and I are the only ones who wear them all day every day though.

I'll mention it to our H&S bloke next time I see him, not that anything will be done about it, nothing ever is except I get an ear-bashing :roll: for wearing earbuds and an MP3 player and not ear defenders.
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Re: Hand Cleanser & Other Tools

Post by elma »

Might as well ask for a pair of these whilst you're at it then.
We got banned from using them on site a couple of years ago so we bought walkie talkies to plug into them and were unbanned as we couldn't take our ear protection off to use the walkie talkies.
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Re: Hand Cleanser & Other Tools

Post by myglaren »

They would spot that but my MP3 player is small enough to fit inside the company issue ear defenders - one day :)
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Re: Hand Cleanser & Other Tools

Post by white exec »

Have to nod to James' remarks about gloves. My Dad very suddenly developed a really bad skin (hand) condition, which was London hospital tracked down to both Latex and Swarfega - and nothing else. His cracked hands were a problem for him for more 30 years, until the day he died, when - quite remarkably - they cleared and softened. Only the Macmillan nurses were not surprised.

Most hospitals operate at least one latex-free operating theatre. That is for a reason.
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