Will I ever have clean hands again? How do you clean yours?

[tickman]

As the title says how do you get your hands clean when they have spent the day in gloves that tear as soon as they meet anything with an edge?

john.

[paulhumphries]

Try a little (fresh / new / cold) vegetable cooking oil rubbed into your hands, then 1/2 teaspoon of sugar again rubbed in followed by squirt of washing up liquid.
The cooking oil softens the grease / dirt, sugar scours the more ingrained and washing up liquid then allows it all to all wash away.

My father in law (mechanic from just before WWII to 1960's) says they used to grab a handfull of sugar soap and then a sprinkling of sand !

Paul Humphries

[Peetee]

Barrier cream, hand cream or, my choice, nappy rash cream before you start work.

[d_harris]

We have some deb liquid soap in the garage which works a treat!

The cooking oil, salt and washing up liquid works well. and there are loads of products available commercially Manista, Swarfega etc

[RogerRust]

Actually the truth of the matter is NO you probably won't!

[Sidney'61]

I use this stuff appropriately named 'The good stuff' and its bright orange, feels like grit to start with but leaves your hands clean when washed off and leaves your hands smelling of oranges aswell!

[Pyoor_Kate]

A combination of vinyl nitrile gloves (more resistant to tearing than vinyl; incidentally, if you're wearing gloves to work on the car (and wearing them a lot) get unpowdered ones; the powdered ones increase your risk of developing an allergy) and Manista hand cleanser. I used to use swarfega but Manista just rocks

[rayofleamington]

using a good barrier cream works marvelously - I had one from a local car shop many years ago and that stuff was mindblowing - I could even get hamerite off my hands afterwards.
The stuff I've got at the moment (from scrwfix) isn't really worth having.
I agree with Kate - the Vinyl gloves are more durable than Latex ones - although I prefer not having them on.

If all else fails, the stiff side of a nail brush and washing up liquid will shift most things - although it's not exactly pleasant on your arms or back of hands!

[tickman]

vinyl nitrile are the gloves i have been using, i managed to get a couple of boxes from work as well as a few other helpful items

latex ones are not even worth putting on in my opinion and most labs are moving away from powered because of people getting skin problems with lots of use.

using a combination of washing up liquid, sugar, a nail brush and next a scotch pad if i get to go out soon! (not likely to happen)

used t have great stuff at one place i worked but that was years ago and stocks are long gone of that.

thanks for all the replys i think i will try the barrier cream as well as other stuff.

john.

[minor_hickup]

I find good old fasioned soap and a nail brush is best, or manista. The blue type of gloves, i dont know if these are vynil nitrate are good. But the sweat in summer is unpleasant.

[bigginger]

THe best stuff I've used is some hand cleaner JLH had at his workshop, but I can't remember what it was called Like Swarfega, but with some kind of grit or sand added. I generally settle for washing up liquid amd a stiff brush, but I guess not having much feeling in my hands kind of helps on that score...

[jonathon]

Think it was Gramos hand cleaner. As you say BG its excellent and about £15 for 5ltrs, maybe more, retail from our local paintstore. Cleans everything from your hands, oil, paint ,glue etc but does not ruin your skin.

[HarryMango]

I use "Citrus Beaded Hand Gel" which is made from natural citrus oils & is very good. I get it from my local autojumbles - £3 for 1 litre tub or 2 for £5.

Rog

[bigginger]

made from natural citrus oils

and to think of the image most people have of lorry drivers... ;)

[HarryMango]

I always like to buck the trend

Rog

[paulhumphries]

made from natural citrus oils

and to think of the image most people have of lorry drivers... ;)

Once, in France, I stopped off at a service area to wash my hands as they were oily (I was going to Spain in a 1970 Land Rover so what do you expect !).
I found some fantastic hand cleaner in the wash room that too the oil straight off.
Back in the vehicle my mate had to keep the windows open for ages.
Seems the "hand cleaner" was actually some sort of cologne they buy in 25ltr drums and have dedicated dispensors by the side of the sinks - just for lorry drivers

Paul Humphries

[Furrtiv]

If you're going to use unpowdered gloves, try rubbing some talc on your hands first as it makes the darned things easier to get on - a tattooist I know had changed over from powdered to unpowdered, for his customers' sake as well as his own, and found that he couldn't get the gloves on!

As for removing grease - I work with industrial acrylic paints, bugger to get off when they dry on your skin, so I use our acetone-based industrial thinners to wipe my hands clean with, and that stuff removes everything - wouldn't recommend it for home use, though (unless you have tons of moisturiser)!

[bigginger]

Same deal with WD40 - it gets the oil off, but moisturiser is vital

[tickman]

got some manista and was well impressed with the ease of it getting muck off. well worth it for saving at least 5 mins and not wasting loads of washing up liquid!

[moggydriver62]

ReClean hands.
Do all the dishwashing, use laundry detergent.
it will also make you popular with the misses.