Easiest way is just keep out of the house.

Take your boots off before going back in the house.

I change shoes as I enter/leave my workshop (Man Cave as SWMBO calls it)

Dave

Slippers are compulsory indoors at our house (change at door), so nothing from outdoors gets into the domestic environment.

Edited By V8Eng on 20/06/2015 18:15:49

I used to convert tired pairs of shoes into workshop slip-ons by squashing the back of the heel.

My wife came up with a better idea – crocs! Not so good for welding though.

Neil

Would love another good pair, Sweden is a great place to go Clog shopping (?). Now there's an idea!

graham.

A big rubber mat full of honeycomb holes in front of the lathe catches most of my errant swarf. It is made for use in restaurant kitchens and industry and is designed to catch droppings while providing a thin area around each hole that you stand on. So not crunching around on swarf to start with, and the swarf does not get all over the workshop (so much). I bought it at the local hardware store and could not get by without it.

Still take my shed boots off before going inside though. But more due to ancient motorbike grease than swarf.

This is the stuff. The big holes are about 20mm diameter.

A similar but smaller mat in front of the house door catches any odd cling-ons if I have to duck inside quickly without taking boots off.

Edited By Hopper on 21/06/2015 04:01:51

Edited By Hopper on 21/06/2015 04:04:45

Edited By Hopper on 21/06/2015 04:05:21

My girl is very understanding,she even let me strip and rebuild my Series 2a landrover engine in the living room, there were bits of landrover all over the dwelling,not a word of complaint,down side is I seem to be responsiible for the housework,seems fair don't it

Mick

David, it must be your, 'Magnetic' personality, true, one finds bits of swarf all over the place, and I have bought one of those mats that pick up all the stuff off ones shoes, only about £5 or something. A coir mat outside the door does wonders too.

Clive

Some years back ,a factory in Holland insisted that all the workers shall wear steel toe capped boots, the workers protested, and at long last the bosses relented and said that clogs could be worn but only if they passed the same tests that the safty boots had, the clogs pasted, and the safty boots failed, the weight dropped on the boots flattened the steel toe cap.

Swarf, you have to change foot wear, but it still comes in caught in clothing no matter how hard one tries to brush it off. I suppose I could wear overalls(I'v got a couple of pairs), but I find it hard work getting them off, stiff joints.

Ian S C

I think we are down to installing a shower room, a large chip guard, a full body shave and possibly working in the nude.

There again the way I read it is that might be steel dandruff.

There was a reason all the old boys used to wear a long dustcoat when machining. It keeps most of the swarf out of the "inside clothes" and is taken off in the workshop and left there. I keep one in the shed for when I am machining brass or cast iron etc. Always used to laugh at the old boys when I was an apprentice and they wore the old school tie and collar under a dustcoat. "Gentleman tradesmen" they were. Wore the collar and tie so as to not be mistaken for a common labourer I guess. The last of a dying breed. But they knew what they were about those old timers.

As far as swarf in the hair goes — maybe stop using Brylcreem???

Or try a small square of Perspex etc mounted on the tool post when turning brass to stop those chips flying toward your head and face. Used to see the old boys at the works with a piece of brass shim or even a piece of cardboard torn from a fag packet and shoved over the toolbit to act as a chip shield when turning brass. "We didn't always have these fancy safety glasses, y'know boy. Had to make do with fag packet we did. There were a war on, y'know.
Safety glasses, that's luxury that is."