hand cleaner and hand care

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6 cylinder puller
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hand cleaner and hand care

Post by 6 cylinder puller »

I know I am going to take some heat for this topic but my hands and arms are constantly covered in grease and diesel oil. I am looking for recommendations for my home shop for safely clean hands and arms. I work as a diesel mechanic and some of the older guy I work with hands look horrid. from constantly using hand cleaners and other products over the years. Now don't get me wrong I have great respect for these people and I understand it comes with my job. I don't mind getting dirty and I have not been able to make gloves work for me. Now I will say a lot of them use brake clean on there hands and I have done a lot of reading on that and have tried to warn them against it. I have always be a dawn dish liquid believer but after time its hard on the skin removing all the oils. I was wondering if some of the professional mech./machinist here had any advice or found anything that maybe works better.
pdq67
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Re: hand cleaner and hand care

Post by pdq67 »

Personally, for me, "GO-JO", is good stuff.

Or buy the cheap big bottles of the, "Orange", crap! It has, "d-limonene", in it which is, "orange peal oil", and it is a heck of a solvent as well as a skin problem cleaner.

Orange Oil!!
I have a 1 oz. bottle of it right in front of me that I bought from my local, "Health Food", store that I use by putting a little, "daub", on my skin problem and the shit burns, but works fine!

I put orange oil on a picture of the f** "CUNT", and you know what, she lost the election! Up to now at least!!

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Kevin Johnson
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Re: hand cleaner and hand care

Post by Kevin Johnson »

I used to have many discussions with companies trying to formulate hand cleaners.

One thing for a mechanic to keep in mind is that once you strip away oils/dirt with powerful cleaners you should use a high quality product that replaces them so that subsequent exposure to dirty oil does not allow it to "wick" or migrate in even more deeply. There are many to choose from.

Be very careful with solvents because they can allow dangerous chemicals -- not to mention the solvent itself-- to migrate through the dermis into the blood stream or fatty tissues. DMSO is a well-known example of this.
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6 cylinder puller
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Re: hand cleaner and hand care

Post by 6 cylinder puller »

Thanks kevin any recommendations, from my readings on what brake clean can do to your body, it did waken me up some. I never did use it myself but I see many others that do.
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Re: hand cleaner and hand care

Post by Kevin Johnson »

Paul's suggestion of Go-Jo is what many companies were aiming for. I was working in the area right about the time that d-limonene was taking off (25 plus years ago).

If you cannot afford fancy hand care products then I would suggest buying Vaseline (USP white petrolatum) to act as a barrier after you have cleaned your hands.
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Re: hand cleaner and hand care

Post by pdq67 »

As far as THE BEST cleaner there is/was is no more than Methylene Chloride but EPA banned it years ago.

The stuff would wipe the smile off, "Mr. Cleans", face!

We used to be able to buy it in spray bombs for carb. and brake cleaning! Hold your dirty carb. up at arms length, and spray away as the crap melted off it!! No more though....

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Re: hand cleaner and hand care

Post by DanE2 »

Look at the hands of a person that shears sheep for a living. The person can be a person "up in their years" and their hands will look like the hands of a young person. The lanolin from the sheep wool nourishes the skin. Lanolin is available in some skin care products. Or shear sheep for a hobby/living.

As to removing the grease, oil, ect. from your skin or whatever else, use "Contractors' Solvent" by De-Solv-it. It is a "green" product and it is an amazing product. And your skin feels good after you use it. Look it up.

I have used it for years in my building business and in my garage and home. My wife will not be without it.
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Re: hand cleaner and hand care

Post by 6 cylinder puller »

Thanks Dan that's what I was looking for
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Re: hand cleaner and hand care

Post by Racing68 »

I use Bomb Shell from Car Chem but you must use with water this stuff puts GoJo and Fast Orange to shame. Takes off the worst diesel grease with just a quarter sized squirt. I used to use GoJo and basically had no hair on the lower part of my arms and my hands were cracked and would bleed. After about 3 or 4 months of using Bomb Shell hair is back and hands are healed and soft. I would never use anything else now.
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Re: hand cleaner and hand care

Post by pdq67 »

I have no idea how much hassle it is or how much it costs, but I like the idea of, "Shake and Bake", to get engine parts clean.

What you say?

But it won't help with the daily dirty work though!

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Re: hand cleaner and hand care

Post by 77cruiser »

Try some ATF & see what you think. I know what you mean about diesel, when I drove had to service my rig & in the winter when the skin was dry the soot in the oil would suck right into the skin.
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Re: hand cleaner and hand care

Post by Keith Morganstein »

I find this to be the best hand cleaner.
https://handcleaner.com/Products/Magic%20Hand%20Cleaner

I had to get used to gloves.I use several types, nitrile work for me with oil grease diesel fuel etc. I don't like latex at all.
Then I wear the coated fabric gloves for general work.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003K156 ... B000V4Q9E6
It takes some determination to get used to gloves, but you'll get there.

I try to wash hands as little as possible. If my hands are getting bad, I'm even wearing nitrile gloves to p... So I don't have to wash them afterwards.

As far as lotion, gold bond ultimate is the best I've found. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B008B9L6 ... =gold+bond

When hands crack, okeefs working hands before bed helps a lot.(get it at Home Depot etc) You can also apply it before gloves. Just a very light coating is all.

For bad cracks in fingertips that don't want to heal. Apply triple antibiotic ointment and band-aids 24/7 until healed.
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Re: hand cleaner and hand care

Post by crazyman »

When I was a teenager, the local wrecking yard provided Palmolive dish soap and a laundry sink. It worked great. If you follow the trend, technically the original blue Dawn should be best as it says safe on hands and wildlife after an oil spill to get them clean.
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Re: hand cleaner and hand care

Post by BigBlocksOnTop2 »

Check out SBS 46 Protective Cream (solvent resistant). For working with diesel, it's probably what you are looking for. The stuff makes a barrier coating.
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Re: hand cleaner and hand care

Post by wjnielsen »

I like to use salad/cooking oil; gets the greasy crud off. Then, washing with soap and water doesn't dry the skin out, because the cooking oil tries to stick to the skin
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