Roger's Dirty Little Secret Revealed
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- Newsletter ▶ skill-builder.... ◀
Roger is in his shed. What's he doing in there?
The answer is, trying to clean his trowels but he's not having much success!
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#diy #cleaning #brickie
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1:30. Basic chemistry safety.
Never, ever add water to a strong acid or alkaline substance.
Always add the acid/alkaline to the water.
That way you start with a pH neutral substance that you progressively make stronger.
This greatly reduces the chances of splashing and minimises the heat produced by what is usually an exothermic reaction.
This precaution could easily save one’s skin or eyesight.
Takes longer to clean them off when they’re left mucky than it does to clean them off straight after use. Always kept my trowels, shovels and mixer (if I’d used one) in clean condition. Surprised at you Roger with the quality of work you turn out. I’ve had a shovel which is now the size of a kiddies beach spade and a pointing trowel the size of a teaspoon. All quality tools when they were purchased and looked after. I’m 75 now and they are just the right size now 😅
I am surprised at myself sometimes. I am a sinner, I repent and ask forgiveness from our Lord.
@@SkillBuilder you are forgiven my son😂😂😂
It happens to the best of us. Particularly like Rodge said, it's late on a job and maybe the family has a gathering you're late for...
Even as a DIYer I always have a large bucket or drum of water to put the trowels, floats and even shovels in when they're not in use - seems obvious to me? I don't like to imagine what your concrete mixer looks like 😀
Thanks Rob,I'm one of those annoying people who always cleans his tools and brushes as I'm a DIYer, but mainly because I'm a tight git ! I have however restored a number of tools that were not so well looked after and have usually found that a combination of some white vinegar a scraper and some Emery cloth/ Wet'n'dry paper were enough to get them back in use ! Agreed, try soaking in water first and then agitate to evaluate the extent of the problem before trying anything more aggressive !
That my friend is dedication and common-sense.
I pay my dollar not the customers, look after my tools
never lending you my trowel
You are not wrong.
😂😂😂😂
🤣😂👍
The milk from Rice Krispies works better than any chemical ive ever bought. An old brickie taught me this years ago.
I need to know more. Are you saying, eat the Rice Krispies and then pour the milk on a dirty trowel. What manner of brain came up with that.
The snap, crackle and pop must have gone out of his life so he started experimenting with the detritus.
It makes you wonder what Rice Crispies does to your innards!
I use Hipkin scaleaway or even fernox descaler, they shift the muck pretty quickly without dulling the edge too much. But the trick is If it is late and I can't be arsed to clean up there and then , I just leave them all in a bucket of water till the morning. Not much sets that quick in water, apart from SBR that is. ATB from J and H Builders.
PS don't show those tools to Charlie Collison, can you imagine the language..........
Cement is alkaline. Baking soda is mildly alkaline. It will do nothing to the cement.
If you wish not to use acid, try thermal-shocking, penetrating oil, or something else. A weaker acid (like citric or vinegar) may work well enough, as might those pneumatic-needles-tools that are used fo removing welding-slag.
Yeah, exactly. Surprised Roger didn't see that coming. Wonder how an ultrasonic go round would work (if he doesn't like acid). Vinegar is a good idea and there's pretty strong vinegar around. Just 5 or 6% would be a good start.
Soda Bicarb is used for cooking. It's not gonna do anything.
Appreciated Roger! Agree.
Never leave your tools in that state mate, it takes minutes to clean them off after a job and it really doesn't reflect very well on you when you rock up at a clients gaff with what looks like a bag load of rubbish.
I'd got an old roll of "Crocus Paper" from the 1960s. very good for cleaning and burnishing tools
Watching an old dude clean his trowels. WTF is wrong with me. Love you Rog!
You should take a lesson from trigger with his broom. 14 years he's had it, and its only had three new handles and six new broom heads. Use one of them wire disc things in your hand grinder, works a treat. 👍👍👍
Thanks for that, Dave.
My Mrs's pastry will clear the muck off a treat, and block the drain after.
😂😂😂😂
The best way by far for cleaning trowels are those black plastic pads that go on a 4" grinder, they look a bit sponge like.
They are impregnated with grit.
And please don't call it a tuck pointer, it is a finger trowel or a window trowel. A tuck pointer is something completely different.
Just have a bucket of water, sheet and a towel handy, and dunk them off during the job now and again is what I do. But then, I am too tight to dispose of mucky trowels with new lol. If the customer has the type of house where u can't dispose of a cloudy bucket of water, just take it home with you, and tip it over your neighbours fence,
You can mix Bicarb with toothpaste for brushing your teeth. It will gently remove stains (I'm not BSing you).
It's all about how the product reacts with the the material you are trying to remove and is basically a time-management exercise.
You’re very hard on your tools aren’t you Roger? In fact you’re an absolute terror!
The trouble is that I have lots of trowels because we did a test of all the brands, so I keep a few for best and the rest just get neglected. It is much the same with my kids.
Electric steel brush might be much more efficient. I doubt soda will make a diff, compared to just hot water. All Mapei instructions I've seen say "clean the tools immediately with water, otherwise they'll have to be MECHANICALLY cleaned" :-) I think you've just established just that.
Use vinegar, works a treat, even on rust.
😅😅 I'd go with your top tip & clean them after use its the best way...
I think the expansion from the boiling water did more to release the crap, it just pays to clean after using them. 👍
How about a paint-fohn and crack the material off by their different expansions from fastly heating up...
Brick acid is not as strong as it used to be but I used to put mine in pure cement afterwards then wash off in the past as a newbie .
Or Just just a grinder with a wire bush head , it just simply knocks of any mortar, concrete, gypsum yet leave the metal alone. Take 2 -3 minutes to leave any toll shinning.
Watch which way hold the grinder, it can kick if the wrong way around.
flap disc in a grinder
Grinder wire brush isn’t abrasive on the steel.
@@adrianchetwynd1334 and a wire brush on a grinder isnt? Just use a little finesse and not hack at it like a butcher
@@glynnepritchard2526 My business has used thousands of the flat disc version and they are quite mellow once they have been worn down a bit.
look after /clean your tools + your tools will look after you
If they get to that state... Cleaning time ? Is it worth it.
If it's the dogs bollocks of a trowel, don't let it get like that.
If it's a B&Q special you get through every 3 months, does it matter? Chuck it.
They are nice trowels, the deserve a better owner
@@SkillBuilderha ha ha . Cleaning chemicals are cheaper than new trowels even if they are “combat” trowels,now with an induced grudge against you … lol
That's my policy towards paint brushes - either get quality brushes and keep them nice, or cheapo ones that you just treat as consumables and are happy to chuck.
Perfect timing I just finished some DIY plastering and am too tired to clean up
"Every precaution" ... except gloves, not when you have builders hands 😂
I know it doesn't harm the skin. you can eat this stuff
doesn't work with sand & cement but for plaster/uniflot/2 component wood filler, I use an electric sander. I work for the equivalent of whoever does the work on council houses and flats only I'm in the Netherlands, so I find my battery hi-koki sander cleans up a trowel and a palette knife on a hard surface in the van before I enter someone's home to fill a few holes.
also, for these, a plumber's torch can work wonders, but again, has no effect of a build-up and sane & cement.
I'm totally with you when you say after you work late, and you just want the damn job finished, then the trowels are chucked into the van and become tomorrow's problem, and I don't feel; bad about that, I mean. who wants to be a saint?
Add white vinegar and 00 wire scrub.
Do you mean white vinegar and the bicarbonate?
@@SkillBuilderYes, but can be a much more reactive reaction. Also produces co2, but in large quantities, unless you fill a large bucket.....
Try one of those ultrasonic baths
Seen a brick layer clean his with a Brick
Hope you keep your bike cleaner than those trowels Roger?
I see you got a bit of use out of the Faithfull brick trowel and a few more of them that you used in your trowel video from a few years back roger.
If I had a prize I would give it to you for spotting that.
@@SkillBuilder 👍. It’s amazing Rodger, the new Bon keystone forged trowels seem to be selling well and the Faithfull ones were made by either battiferro de maniago in Italy or tokos do in Slovenia the company that makes the Bon trowels and you couldn’t give theFaithfull ones away and there identical. Goes to show the power of marketing.
I'm lucky me and my boss run ours through the duster at work if they're too far gone 😂
Soft pad on a free hand grinder, 60 grit pad, cheap and quick, don't over do it.
Youd be best off with either a milder acid than brick which is hydrochloric, acetic acid (white cleaning vinegar), citric acid (homebrew shops), or a Chelating agent. maybe some dishwasher descalers, just mind ye missus aint watching when ye bung em in the washer ;) 'oh yeah, im descaling the dishwasher love'. keep up the great vids bud :)
Chelation agents tend to come with an acidic pH- eg EDTA etc - but they don’t promote dissolution of metal salts themselves , if they are added into an acidic liquor - they will chelate the metal ions that the low pH liquor has created, and keep them solubilised when the pH is later increased above a level where they are soluble, so they tend to be used eg for fertilisers where you need metals to be in solution in fairly neutral formulation - so you start off dissolving everything when it’s acidic - with the chelation agents, then lib in alkalis to get it back to neutrality. They’re also used for keeping any transition metals in a formulation “locked up” and stop them from catalysing unwanted processes eg oxidation of foodstuffs.
I just spent 20 minutes of my life watching a man clean his trowels????
Noooooo only takes minutes to clean your trowel plus ..... 😂
Did I recognise one of those trowels 🤔.
Multi tool and a sanding pad , 5 minutes job done and gleaming 🧱👍🏼
No the one I used with you was in my collection of cared for trowels.
Dirty basXXXd! 😜
😂
what is S P R ?
sBr - bonding agent
It’s a long chain molecule version of PVA glue and sticks like the proverbial to anything.
Worst ASMR video ever 😂
hoi !!
Excellent as always Roger 👍 I clean up my trowels with an electric sander and fine sandpaper but then I always clean my trowels directly after use 😂🤣 Great video 👍👍
My trowels are cleaned after every use. Then dried and sprayed with WD-40. No rust. Like new!
I wouldn't like to use yours Rog. 😂😅😅😅😂
I wouldn't like to use those either, I have better ones that I keep for Sundays
@@SkillBuilder Lol 🤣😅
Roger, wonder if we could get your thoughts. Building Regulations in Scotland are quite different already, but things are about to change again. From January 2025 all new homes must be Passive, whether private building, developer, affordable or social housing. It’s already quite common, but will be compulsory from next year. Solar panels and air source heat pumps are already specified on most new builds.
Cut some pieces of thermalite block to hand size and keep 1 or 2 in the back of the van.
Also re the wire brush in a drill... stating the obvious but never use without eye protection. I once used one on an angle grinder without googles and felt something warm on my cheek. One of the strands had come loose and embedded in my cheek couple of inches below my eye..was lucky that day.
Or just as easier and better to clean you tools as soon as you're done using them.
Reminds me of cleaning my make-up kit (have to trowel it on these days).
I just clean them at the end of the days graft.
Hi Roger - I used to formulate detergents - and hence obliquely formulated a descaler. So here’s some theory (I gave you some theory on some maths many moons ago - as I actually have a maths degree … lol - it’s always nice to pass on one’s knowledge just as you do - I love what a good educator you are).
When you have mineral soiling (ie anything metallic …) acids tend to dissolve them, so cements, plaster, calcium salts or limescale etc - needs an acidic liquor. Next - not all acids will dissolve all compounds - but as a general rule - the lower the pH (ie the more acidic) the more things will dissolve - and there’s a threshold of pH for each substance . This is why full on acids like brick cleaner get rid of cement and plaster - but they also start attacking the metal itself, in a process known as “pickling”, which is used for electroplating …
To formulate descalers that DONT do that - you tend to do three things - one pick your acid carefully so it’s acidic but doesn’t tend to attack metals, but they tend to be more expensive hence not used unless there’s real reason. I tend to do this as the easiest thing to do - if all these formulation things I’m running through here - at a personal level is have a big sack of sulphamic acid around - which is an excellent descaler - and great for cleaning tools, comes in a crystalline form so the haz chem action in case of a spill is “get the dustpan and brush” rather than break out breathing apparatus. lol. It’s pretty kind to metal and skin- but nukes limescale plaster and cement. I use quite a lot as I’m a property investor refurbishing rental properties a lot… hence watching skill builder! It’s way cheaper to buy than formulated descalers - but you can only buy it from specialist chemical suppliers.
Phosphoric acid is also excellent - but you’re getting to the stage where it can begin to damage metals (it will dissolve rust for example, hence likely to pitt your carbon steel trowel), and will dissolve up a wider range of things than sulphamic acid.
2. Buffer the pH so it doesn’t get more acidic than it needs to be for the job the formulation is designed for. For this you use so called “weak” acids that partially dissociate, and as they get used up - more of the chemical dislocates to create more hydrogen ions forth to keep the pH at the target. Strong acids like in brick cleaner tend to disassociate totally - giving you a lot of bang for the buck but they exhaust easily, hence you tend to get formulations with some so called strong acids to do the heavy lifting cheaply then some weak acids - to buffer the solution. Hence it’s rare to have just one acid in a formulation.
Lastly - 3. You use corrosion inhibitors in the formulation which will protect metals that are present.
They tend to be cationic surfactants that plate out on metallic surfaces due to the charge on the metal surface - and stop the hydrogen ions getting to it and damaging it. They are chemically very closely related to fabric softeners, and hair conditioners that “leap out of the water” onto the hair or material.
With corrosion inhibitors in the liquor, metals should be ok in the presence of strong acids.
I’d never thought about it before - but I bet corrosion inhibitors that get sold for central heating systems - that are ok with acidic central heating cleaners would work a treat if thrown in with some wild acid to protect the trowels.
Give it a go !
I would suspect some corrosion inhibitor and brick cleaner or phosphoric acid central heating cleaner (fx2 I think was one…) will work wonders.
Where you were playing with concentration and temperature -
What that does is change the rate of reaction more than the end point. Trying to control the end point of the reaction by using those two is very very difficult. Instead people tend to harness them to simply make stuff go faster by using heat and increasing concentration.
The only time concentration with acids does something different - is with so called “strong” acids - the pH achieved is related to the concentration of the acid - more acid = lower pH and more aggressive bath, wheras weak acids create a more stable pH - they buffer the pH.
So my final suggestions -
1. Use sulphamic acid.
2. Use phosphoric acid (but on its own may damage the metal but not as badly as brick acids)
3 use some central heating corosion inhibitor and a strong acid and see how it works … I suspect it’ll bike the plaster and cement, but the metal will be fine. You need very little acid. As a general rule of thumb all these acids will dissolve their own weight of mineral salt- so a table spoon or so in the bucket would do all of your tools I expect.
Phosphoric acid albeit much
More acidic than what you had may have the disadvantage of dissolving an y rust which may be bad or good depending on your perspective !
Let us know how you get on …cheers. ! Keep up the good work !
Off to design and 3d print some lock jigs next for me ::)
Wow, now that IS a comprehensive response! Fair play, I do love an expert.🤗
@@timstradling7764 thank you !
You tube comments section pal, not your PhD viva! Haha just kidding
Great comment!
Materials scientist here, as an apprentice I used to do the donkey work for a lab researching chemical/seawater resistant concrete formulation. Mostly board mixes but occasionally the cement mixer was used and needed cleaning before use.
Our metallurgist recommended a hydrochloric acid (brick acid) / hexamine mix and referred to it as "inhibited hydrochloric". sadly hexamine seems to have been banned in UK, it was available as those white fuel blocks for the cheap folding camping stove - but apparently its too useful for terrorists.
Leave in soapy water over night and then give it a go with a steel brush or a whire wheel. Job done on 5 min and its as good as new.
My cousin Steve had very clean tools, but then I was his labourer. I can't build a thing... but breaking and cleaning stuff.. I'm your man.😊
Acid v. alkali. Bicarb's alkaline, cement is EXTREMELY alkaline, so you need something acidic to attack it.
Prevention is better than cure. Clean down as you go. Remember the old saying “look after your tools and they will look after you”.
Hi Roger you showed that adding a base to an alcaline substance like cement would not make much of a difference in dissolving it, since they are the same thing basicaly. An acid would react though with it and dissolve it. Chemistry in real life 👍
As a baker, a chef, and lover of deep cleaning, i'd be inclined to do white spirit vinegar, and baking soda, and to scrub a soda paste over them, it can act abrasively if you need it to.
I’m always leaving trowels mucky. I’m a chippy so it’s never my main trade but I just fire up the belt sander
I always buy concentrated phosphoric acid by the gallon very cheap on eBay diluted it kills cement, lime scale and rust and old taps and shower heads 👍 Jamie
Great watching Roger.
cheapo Cola?
Look , the soda cleaned my shirt!
I do mainly NHL limework now and I am really OCD about cleaning the mixer, shovel, buckets, trowels, tuck pointers, hawk and anything else it may come into contact with. Like cement, the fines do build up on the heel of trowel and the tang for instance so regular churn brush and water helps along with some light sanding with 40 grit paper. Clean tools work better.
what about vinegar
Just put vinegar on your chips mate
sounds like a good trick is to caulk the trowel spine when it’s still new 😂 should stop the sand and cement pebbles getting in there but then again i am an idiot
What about using white vinegar alone or with the baking soda together?
You need a paint scraper Roger, and boiling waiter.
I was at this chemitry level when I was 7 :-)))
Garryson Garryflex - Tool saver !
Carborundum Stone
Good idea, I will try that after the wire brush
@@SkillBuilder Try one trowel with a relatively quick water soak and rub, with no wire wheel brush. You should have enough to try all the suggestions 🤣
The carby should sort any blade nicks as well.
Sodium Bicarbonate basically converts to sodium hydroxide in water, sometimes known as lye. Sodium hydroxide is alkaline so won't react with cement as that's also alkaline, that's the reason acid will react, brick acid is hydrochloric acid and quite strong so also reacts with the iron. Just use a weaker acid like vinegar or phosphoric acid which is sometimes used to get rid of rust
Wouldn't demineralised or distilled (aka battery/kettle) water be of any use?
I've seen that stuff eat it's way through 6-inches of concrete, because it chemically leached the cement component out of the mix and what was left fell to bits.
It wouldn't touch the rebar or the stainless steel tank that replaced it though.
Both are mildly acidic, as is RO water, so will be more aggressive towards cement and the like than will the tap water in most areas.
wd40 and cement dust emery cloth
Good tip, is there anything WD40 can't do?
❤
In my job, (cement based polished screed flooring) we only use 50% watered down 29Y40 based bonding liquid instead of just water. A quick soak in some Xylene or thinners gets the tools clean in seconds. Xylene instantly softens the latex and turns the hard cement into a paste.
Do you use straight Xylene or do you dilute it? I’m a floorlayer so use a lot of smoothing compounds. Try to clean straight after use but work in a lot of office building in Sydney so don’t always have some where to do it and get rid of the dirty water
@@richardmoss9188 Straight. I soak a rag in the stuff, and let it sit a few minutes on the mess. It comes off easily with scraper or blade. Just remember that Xylene only works if your cement was mixed using liquid latex based bonding liquid. Plain water mixed cement will only come off using brute force, acid, or some other dodgy experimental way. Xylene evaporates (a bit slowly) leaving a clean grease free surface. Watch out, though, xylene eats some plastics!
soft red brick bat and water , use a paint scraper with a stanley blade take off the stuborn morter