Cleaning paint off your machines

I have an employee that is a clean freak. He has his own carpet cleaning service and is constantly cleaning his machines to keep them looking new. He also washes his truck every single day, and waxes it at least once a week. Now, I'm not saying keeping them clean isn't a good idea, but you have to know when it's enough. My machines on the other hand, have never been cleaned unless I take them in for a major service, and the tech needs to clean paint off them in order to get to a part to service it. My friend/employee used to break my chops about why I never cleaned them. I told him, "if your busy cleaning them, your not working enough". Get out there and spend the time you would be cleaning machines, getting more work. Get yourself enough work till you don't have enough time to clean them off any more. Who cares what they look like. Your customers certainly don't. Whitey---->

Striping with a perfectly clean machine is a strong indicator that the machine is new, or the operator is novice, or both (Excluding RandyV of course ).

True Ken, I do my best to keep my machines as celan as possbile but I have lightened up a little. I think my uncontrollable urge to keep my paint machines clean is a mental disorder that there is no cure for. I don't have time for therapy so I just live with it.

;)When we sell a new machine - we always advise that they spray Everything with the cooking spray "PAM". Since it's mfg for heat - it works wonders, especially on the hoses & guns. After cleaning - re-apply "Pam". Please keep in mind - when a machine is brought to us for warranty work or repair - we do charge to clean it so we can get to the repair item. The labor to clean your machine in not covered under warranty & will come out of your pocket. You only need to pay a 2 hour bill by a mechanic @ their hourly rate - when 1 hour was spent cleaning your machine - Once - before you'll learn to keep it/have it clean before it goes for repair. Here's a Brain Teaser - How many stripes do you have to do - to net profit - the $80 you'd need to pay the mechanic to clean your machine? How many stripes do you have to do - net profit - to do it yourself when your down for the season, or on a slow day? (Replace the hourly rate $ with what's current in your area)

With all due respect, If I brought a machine in to have it repaired and you charged me for cleaning the thing, that would be the last time. I would imagine you have a sign in the shop or a disclaimer in the work order? How many complaints do you get with that one?

;)To Sundog - $80 Net Profit for 10 mins x 6 = $480.00 Net for 1 hours worth of work - Kudos to you!! So much for a college education - Striping..Striping...Striping is where it's at!! ;)To SD - You would be right on the money being pissed @ me for that kind of charge. Believe me when I tell you that when someone brings their machine for repair...we go over the machine with the person who brought it in, discuss what's going on & etc. If it's so trashed that we can't get to what needs to be repaired - I call the guy who's paying the bill (My paycheck as well!) I don't want to piss-off someone who keeps us employed year round for a quick $. My guys love to fix...being someone else's janitor, well now -that's different (Kinda of disrespectful of one's talent) If a pipe wrench, torch, sledge hammer & hack saw is needed to get the cylinder off that holds the mesh strainer & stem ...what would you feel is fair? Machines that hit I-95 doing 95 mph, tip guards that you can no longer see the holes & wonder why you can't seem to change the tip. Why a straight line can't be made when globs of paint are on the front wheel. Spray Guns & Holders so entrenched in paint that you have to Chip it off to get to them! I'm not talking so much as detail, wash & wax, as much as the machine can't do what it's suppose to when it's got paint all over. The cleaning charge is more for Abuse & Misuse . Working Owners tend to respect their machines more. Employees that feel valued tend to take care of the equipment - that gives them a paycheck as well. A phone call in advance of any charges of this nature seems to be the ticket. Sometimes the owner didn't have a clue about the abuse & tells his guy to bring back to the yard & make it so we can repair with-out cleaning a mess that should've been taken care of when it happened in the first place. No sign - No disclaimer - No Complaints -

:-*Sundog - LOL

Ken...that horse is so dead there is nothing but bones and a bad smell. If Titans were THAT GOOD, they would be the #1 selling striper... I clean my machines every so often, its not a big deal. Takes about 30 minutes to clean 6 machines. Which is better than the hour it takes to clean a sweeper truck. Or the two hours it takes to clean my boat. My take on it is that if the machine looks crappy, then one might expect a crappy job from the machine. I am sure you have all noticed companies (such as Ready Mix Concrete) that clean their trucks constantly. They know that your machine's appearance reflects on your company. I would hazard a guess that if you look at longline striping trucks, they are clean too (the two companies around here have spotless white and yellow trucks). I bet you spend time cleaning your pickups and trailers, so what's the big deal about cleaning the machine, spraying it with PAM or WD-40 and doing a little maintenance? Of course if you are making so much money that you buy a new machine when the old one gets dirty...... Just a thought...

gosh I'm right finicky about my companies appearance. My lads all wear yellow tshirts and white overalls with hi-viz waterpoof fleece lined jackets that cost me $250.00 each with the company name on, they all look very smart for work. The first thing they do on a job is go over and shake the customers hand and introduce themselves.. if the customers are on site. I can't count the amount of times me lads have left a job and I have had a call from the customer saying what a good job they done and what nice well mannered team they had working there, we have even been sent letters before now. They trucks are kept nice and clean, the machines get cleaned 2 twice a week. Before they come to the office for the daily or night job sheets they clean out the trucks etc. We probably use an hour to an hour and a half a week doing this per staff member but that doesn't matter to me. I just don't want them fluffing around on a site in front of a customer looking unprofessional, trying to clean/fix machines, looking for things, cleaning stencils on somebody Else's property.

The easiest way to clean a machine without damaging it is as some people said with WD40, the trick i have seen and learned is not to pressure wash the machine since it will damage the hoses and the electric box due to having too much pressure. What i tell customers is spray everything down with WD40 before the job. Finish the Job and run 10 gallons of clean water to clean out the machine (for water based). However, once 5 gallons has been run through the machine into a bucket and the water is coming out clean then just use the machine to clean itself. Take the gun off and spray down the machine with a decent sized tip in the gun. This will allow enough water to clean the machine but not so much you are cutting or damaging hoses. Also, this method benefits the cleanliness of both the inside and outside of the machine extending equipment life, lowering maintenance costs, and lastly gives the company a clean image and a successful look.

Great idea!

Conversely, a clean machine could be (mis)interpreted as a novice striper.

true but ..... they could also mis interpret a machine covered in paint as some one who's had a pint too many and keeps missing the paint bucket when they refill ... this then may get them thinkin i hope this striper is sober...and if striper has a lot of paint all over his clothes say fire lane red... this is going to get the client thinking of his poor wife, when he starts thinking thoughts of the wife who knows where those thoughts lead too...

Obviously, you know me too well. Please give "Little \\\STRIPES///" lessons on how to clean a machine before he gets back.

OK, I'm bored, so I will post again. What if one of my sweepers showed up on your job looking like it had never been washed. Would you say I: A) Worked too hard to take the time to clean the sweeper or B) Didn't care enough to take care of my equipment Once a month two of my sweeper crews come in early and we take everything out of the shop, pressure wash the floor/equipment and put everything back in. The shop is MUCH neater, we find things we lost (tools, employees), and can find things easier. Takes about an hour with 4 employees. Once a week we combine any short pails of paint and use them.

I agree with you about the sweepers. Sweepers are for cleaning. They should reflect the work function. Our trucks and trailers (now) are clean and sharp with colorful reflective logos. We get work from the appearance. When we back out the stripers, they all look we use them everyday.....for obvious reasons.

I have not posted in a bit so Ill throw a bone in the ring. I am a very picky person when it comes to my work. I tend to get paint on the machines from time to time.I don't clean them accept for the real bad stuff. I just don't think its that big of a deal to clean them. I always clean the pump of paint but I cant be bothered with some small amount of paint on the frame or engine. My trucks and crew are always neat and presentable. I feel its just a nature of the beast to have a dirty machine. This way when someone says I charge too much I just point at my machines and tell them If I was I would be buying new machines all the time. LOL I cant believe how much stupid rain we have up in the northeast. I am looking forward to the up coming heat wave.... Jon

before painting ,spray down machine with pam , yes pam . the stuff you cook with. after painting , paint wipes off easy, or use tire shine, big bottle at auto store is cheap, works just as good..