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Old July 5th 15, 12:32 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
john B.
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Posts: 2,603
Default AG: Grease on your hands

On Sat, 04 Jul 2015 23:31:17 -0300, Joy Beeson
wrote:


(written 23 June 2015)

Tragically, one day I bungeed a plastic grocery bag of emergency stuff
to the outside of a pannier without tying the handles through the
wires.

I'd been refining that kit for decades, and I'd just made a spiffy new
case for the tools. http://wlweather.net/pagesew/BIKE_KIT/BIKEROLL.HTM

This morning I realized that one thing I haven't added to the
regenerating tool kit is a lip-salve box filled with Eucerin Original
Healing (the hand-lotion you can slice). So where do I get a
lip-salve box now that lip salve comes only in sticks? Perhaps the
screw-top nail-art boxes they sell at Sally's Beauty Supply would do
(but what do I do with the other five boxes in the package?)

I have some drop-dispenser bottles, and could substitute olive oil --
but I had a *very* good reason to stop carrying liquids in my tool
kit.

Oh, well, these days I fix my flats with a cell phone anyway.

I've heard of people who clean their hands with gasoline after working
on their bikes. Ew, gross, ick! *Any* grease or oil will take chain
grease off; you don't have to use a solvent that stinks to high
heaven, poses a fire hazard, and strips enough fat out of your skin to
leave you with a medical condition.

I used to use abrasive soap, but it doesn't dissolve grease as well as
grease does.

I generally use olive oil, because there's a bottle next to the
microwave, and the kitchen is only one door from the garage. Before I
started cooking with olive oil, there was usually a skillet of used
fat sitting around.

Special containers of "mechanic's hand cleaner" are available; the
smallest can of Crisco works just as well.

All work the same way: grab a glob of grease, rub it into the stain,
rub it off with a paper towel, repeat until clean -- or, out on the
road, until you don't mind touching stuff.

-------------------

At that point I stopped writing and went for a twenty-five mile ride.
Happened to pass Sally's Beauty Supply on the way back, but they have
discontinued the empty boxes. Maybe I can find something suitable in
the craftsy-waftsy department at Walmart. (Or I might find an old
lip-salve box if I cleaned out all my drawers.) I must also check
pill-box displays.

-------------------

Before getting around to posting this, I found a sample packet of hand
lotion left over from when I was a Fuller Brush Man. It still
squished, so I added it to the emergency kit.



Way back when I was an apprentice one of the lads used to get cleaned
up at the end of the day by plunging both hands in a 50 gal. drum of
oil, scrubbing his hands together and than "rinsing " them in the oil
again. Than just wash the oil off with soap and water. Apparently the
oil and scrubbing got the grease and grime off, the rinse cleaned off
the dirty oil-grease-grime layer and the soap just sluiced the new
clean oil away.

While the rest of us were struggling with the "Lava" soap and the
scrubbing brushes he was off and away with clean hands :-)

( I'm not sure whether that was good for the lube oil though :-)



--
cheers,

John B.

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