Hello everybody ! I thought mybe starting a new thread would lead to a product and happy New Year. Well it can't hurt.
So I thought I'd like to start a thread about what I call "Green Scenery". I think most here will agree with me that Theatre, in general, can be an extremely wastefull industry. To address this I started looking very hard for ways to reduce my "footprint" in the Biosphere. I would love to get some input from Carps, designers, Heck even the Sparkys and Hum Heads. < we all make trash you know>
I'd also like to share one of my favorite "green" tools to start things off with. For years I hated working with Steel for one main big reason, Cleaning it! One place I used to work would setup a long panlike thing under some saw horses, then spray mineral spirits, or sometimes Laquer thinner < OMG> , on the steel then wipe it down with rags. The pan was to catch run-off so at least they were thinking about re-cycling. < even though it was about costs not health or enviromental issues>.
I had a TD, at one time, who taught me a great trick and I'd like to pass it on. One of the best steel cleaners I have found is this: simple green, and sawdust. The operation goes like this: Lay your steel accross some horses, get a bucket of sawdust from you tablesaw / dust collector / navel/ where ever. Sprinkle sawdust liberally along the length of the steel. Then spray down the sawdust with a liberal coating of Simple green < use the standard floor cleaner solution as a mix>. grab a rag, put of some gloves and start scrubbing. When a face is done roll the steel to a new face and start again. After a bit or practice, or if you have really big hands, you can get two faces of steel clean at once. This technique does require that most precious of all commodities " elbow Grease" but the enviromental impact is such that it's worth it. You can save and reuse the dirty sawdust several times until it's well coated in grease and no longer effective. Then dispose of it according to local regs.
My steel cleaning trick works great but does take a little more time than traditional methods, I think this is an acceptable trade off when you consider the enviromental benefits. How do you reduce costs without harming the enviroment ? What Brainiac Genius Idea have you had that helps the shop and the enviroment at the same time ? Heres to a Happy cleaner, greener New Year !
So I thought I'd like to start a thread about what I call "Green Scenery". I think most here will agree with me that Theatre, in general, can be an extremely wastefull industry. To address this I started looking very hard for ways to reduce my "footprint" in the Biosphere. I would love to get some input from Carps, designers, Heck even the Sparkys and Hum Heads. < we all make trash you know>
I'd also like to share one of my favorite "green" tools to start things off with. For years I hated working with Steel for one main big reason, Cleaning it! One place I used to work would setup a long panlike thing under some saw horses, then spray mineral spirits, or sometimes Laquer thinner < OMG> , on the steel then wipe it down with rags. The pan was to catch run-off so at least they were thinking about re-cycling. < even though it was about costs not health or enviromental issues>.
I had a TD, at one time, who taught me a great trick and I'd like to pass it on. One of the best steel cleaners I have found is this: simple green, and sawdust. The operation goes like this: Lay your steel accross some horses, get a bucket of sawdust from you tablesaw / dust collector / navel/ where ever. Sprinkle sawdust liberally along the length of the steel. Then spray down the sawdust with a liberal coating of Simple green < use the standard floor cleaner solution as a mix>. grab a rag, put of some gloves and start scrubbing. When a face is done roll the steel to a new face and start again. After a bit or practice, or if you have really big hands, you can get two faces of steel clean at once. This technique does require that most precious of all commodities " elbow Grease" but the enviromental impact is such that it's worth it. You can save and reuse the dirty sawdust several times until it's well coated in grease and no longer effective. Then dispose of it according to local regs.
My steel cleaning trick works great but does take a little more time than traditional methods, I think this is an acceptable trade off when you consider the enviromental benefits. How do you reduce costs without harming the enviroment ? What Brainiac Genius Idea have you had that helps the shop and the enviroment at the same time ? Heres to a Happy cleaner, greener New Year !