Workshop sweepings

[Thrashsmith]

What do you do with your workshop floor sweepings, especially when it contains sharp or non-biodegradeable nasties?

 

[skotl]

Either bin, or a huge cardboard box off to the tip.

Now I feel bad

 

[brightspark]

its called black bags and put in the wheely bin. oil and crap lights the bonfire

 

[Pete.]

I bag them and keep them a few weeks, then lob the bags in the skip at work.

 

[Kent]

Sweep them up and bag them up in the white woven bags I get components delivered in. Just tie them up and dump them in the domestic bin.

What I don't do is just sprinkle them into the bin as I have two regular bins at the house that I regularly drive up the track and dump in the wheely bins. Wind in the wrong direction one day and ended that head to toe covered in grinding dust, swarf and general detritus!

 

[Maker]

I sweep it under my workbench.

 

[Kent]

I sweep it under my workbench.

You laugh yet there is a shop in Burnley were all they do is shovel it to the side! It's about a foot deep in places and all the steel waggon drivers etc say the toilets you don't want to go anyplace near!

It's a hazard. Mine can look a state during jobs but before I start the next the place gets done over fully
Job for this morning actually along with sorting through the useful offcuts I haven't used in months and swapping them
Trust me grinding dust n swarf don't do you anything but harm

 

[Pete.]

Sounds like they could do with developing a new housekeeping culture. My mate's place is very busy but it's a pleasure to work in. Even behind the guillotine is cleaned after every job and the cuttings put in a steel bin. Sounds laborious but they get through a lot of work and because everyone follows the same ethos it doesn't add to the time the jobs take.

 

[Kent]

Pete,
Having worked in a few hell holes and a few with your mates ethos I know which I prefer
Besides safety you won't ever do your best work stepping over junk

 

[mr migwire]

all my sweepings get chucked in the wheelie bin,

cant abide a messy workshop,

 

[tomsutton529]

its called black bags and put in the wheely bin. oil and crap lights the bonfire

Burning stuff is always the answer, nothing better after a long day than getting a fire going and having a few beers..

As for putting stuff in Bins, my mate once needed rid of an engine so he cut it half and put it in the bin.. this was pre wheely bins and a hydralic lift on the wagon. He said the lad that came to get the bin stuggled a little and the following week some massive chap came to get the other half.

 

[Swift&Bold]

I save them up and use them to stuff my mattress.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I save them up and use them to stuff my mattress.

 

[skotl]

all my sweepings get chucked in the wheelie bin,

cant abide a messy workshop,

I can testify to this - Mr. M's workshop is the neatest and best organised one I've ever been in!

 

[norlander]

Sweep the floor? get a grip of yourself sir!

Goes in the bin along with the other stuff. My shop sweepings contain all sorts of nasties and consists mainly of grinding dust. The bins are emptied by a team of blokes in a big diesel spilling truck thingy, which pukes brake dust every time it stops by bins, so I don't get worried about environmental issues- can't abide stuff under my feet, so tween jobs, I damp the floor down with water from a garden sprayer to keep the dust down.

 

[Bill Edwards]

Some of us have to work in a farm workshop where I tried to sweep up prior to making a gate and realised it was pointless - needs a spade to scrape the layer of mud/dirt off the surface!

 

[bigegg]

As a Yorkshireman, I have no waste...
Sawdust / Wood / plastic waste goes as fuel
Dust goes into next batch of concrete.
Scrap steel goes into scrap pile.
Scrap ali goes in next melt.

 

[Kent]

Some of us have to work in a farm workshop where I tried to sweep up prior to making a gate and realised it was pointless - needs a spade to scrape the layer of mud/dirt off the surface!

Just one or two farm workshops are very clean and very well organised. Mess is just one reason why farming has such an abysmal accident rate

 

[Bill Edwards]

Just one or two farm workshops are very clean and very well organised. Mess is just one reason why farming has such an abysmal accident rate

I will admit that I'm really not a very clean and organised type. I also get virtually zero time to try and organise it and absolutely no money for shelving, storage bins etc.
But, and this is a big but, the workshop is open access to everybody yet I'm the only one who works in it. The rest simply come in and take what they want and dump what they don't, and half the **** doesn't even belong in a workshop anyway.

 

[Kent]

Bill,
We can all improve. I just went out today and spent like £ 400 on stuff to make things better in the shop. All I intended doing was my normal clean down and tidy.

I also dumped 90% of my " might come in handy" bits from the shop onto the scrap pile outside.

You need a proper discussion / pitch to the boss- it's for the good of the work quality, speed and most importantly safety. I wouldn't work in a lot of the shops I have in the past just on this final point