Good Broom(s)

[Robert Galey]

Haven't found this topic discussed on SMC before. I'm interested to get recommendations for a good shop-broom and/or a good general purpose broom. Horsehair seems to be the best for smooth floor, saw dust, and wood shavings. I'd like to use the same broom to sweep the driveway leaves, etc. The Carlisle Food Service site has good descriptions for many different bristle types. Seems like a flagged-polystyrene or Tampico broom might be best for the driveway. Perhaps a multi-surface broom? If you have a broom you really like, where'd you get it?

[Tom M King]

When a horsehair push broom is not the right one: https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200665751_200665751?cm_mmc=Google-pla&utm_source=Google_PLA&utm_medium=Air%20Tools%20%2B%20Compressors%20%3E%2 0Air%20Tools%20%2B%20Accessories&utm_campaign=Ironton&utm_content=45972&&lid=92700039898542266&ds_s_kwgid=58700000666743339&ds_e_product_group_id=600151435385&ds_e_product_store_id=&ds_e_ad_type=pla&ds_s_inventory_feed_id=97700000001662305&gclid=Cj0KCQjwmdzzBRC7ARIsANdqRRmvQtL8A9MeykjwUGQb hH2VBq3mDZwgELEVXpEwbT-FOAouD0rs3agaAtdnEALw_wcB

[Jamie Buxton]

My experience is that a driveway broom should be a push broom with fairly stiff bristles. That moves fairly large piles on a rough surface. It also scrubs wet leaves up from the surface. For a shop a push broom doesn't pull stuff from corners very well, and there are plenty of corners in a shop. So a regular broom works better there.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

My experience is that a driveway broom should be a push broom with fairly stiff bristles. That moves fairly large piles on a rough surface. It also scrubs wet leaves up from the surface. For a shop a push broom doesn't pull stuff from corners very well, and there are plenty of corners in a shop. So a regular broom works better there.

I agree, I use a stiff broom on the driveway and a soft broom in the shop. Often, however, I will vacuum my shop, and, sometimes, I "blow" stuff around my shop after turning on my air filtration system and donning a dust mask (and similar). This gets dust and similar from areas I cannot easily get to, including the dust that settles in my rafters. Things need to be kind of tidy to do that, however, or you will be blowing all sorts of things around you do not want to be moving around. If you look at pictures of Derek Cohen's shop, you see that he has stuff in cupboards so that dust does not get in there. I have mostly drawers, and that also keeps dust out of those places.

After I blow things around, I let the air filtration system pull it out of the air and I vacuum up what I blew out into the open. I found this does a better job than my broom in some areas of my shop. I also have a couple of different hand brooms (one looks like a large paint brush) that I use to clean up things such as my work bench and table saw, but I am also prone to using my shop vac on those as well.

So, I have one of these, I like it very much:
https://www.lie-nielsen.com/products/lie-nielsen-dusting-brush

I have something like this, but I have never tried this one:
https://www.rockler.com/13-benchtop-brush?sid=V91040

[Tom Bussey]

My shop is not in a garage so the garage broom is different from the shop broom. I use the garage broom on the driveway if and when I need to. I use the bench brushes ( in Navy parlance a fox tail ) a lot in my shop. I have one at several different machines in the shop to clean off flat surfaces. They are $2 at Harbor Freight. I also like to use a good push broom to get the major debris off the floor in the shop. Compressed air, air filtration and a shop vac also have their place. And there is also a place for a good and I say good regular broom. Cleaning supplies are like planes, different application different plane.

[mark mcfarlane]

I bought one of these (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Harper-24-in-Easy-to-Assemble-Indoor-Push-Broom-2224P1/204656919) soft bristle floor brooms from Home Depot and used it daily during my shop build. It worked well on smooth concrete. Since then I've added a lot of rubber floor mats and textured the floor and sweeping isn't nearly as effective.

My go-to today is a leaf blower on nice days when I can leave the shop for a few hours (with mask and air filtration on), or on days when I need to keep working, or the humidity is high and I'm about to start a finishing project, a Festool Tradesman Cleaning Kit (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079N4472X/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1), which works extremely well and like everything Festool is stupid expensive. The Festool kit takes a little time to learn how to handle so it doesn't come apart.

[Tom Bender]

I use a very stiff broom on the asphalt. It works well to scrub low pile mats when the cats do bad things to them. Just set the mat on the driveway, spray on a little soap and water and scrub, rinse and hang over a sawhorse to dry.

In the garage I use a medium broom. It's work to clean the spalling concrete where the cars park. Epoxy someday.

In the shop I have a vinyl floor. It really helps with sweeping. A soft broom works well.

Brooms are cheap, try different types and sizes. Donate the ones that don't work out.

[roger wiegand]

Different style, but these (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IVSO5I6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) are the best brooms I've found in ages. There are benefits to brooms that are not cheap-- lots of material, strong wood handles, careful construction. I've pitched the sundry cheap imported brooms lying around the house and shop (the ones that haven't broken yet, anyway), and replaced them with the ones in the link. I have a soft synthetic push broom in the shop (smooth wood floor) that works remarkably well for sweeping up fine dust. It came from an industrial cleaning place and was about $50 as I recall. Works 10x better than the previous versions from the Borg.

[Jim Becker]

I have two brooms in the shop...one is a wider, typical "shop broom" with soft bristles. I don't use it all that much, but it's fine for what it does to at least start to get larger areas cleaned up. My general go-to is a typical kitchen broom that's about 10" wide or so, also with soft, flagged bristles. While it covers a smaller area with a stroke, it's easier to control things and work things toward the floor sweeps or dust pan.

[Darcy Warner]

My broom is powered by a 2 stroke engine.

[Jim Becker]

My broom is powered by a 2 stroke engine.

Makes sense...your space is...enormous!

[Darcy Warner]

Makes sense...your space is...enormous!

I have been wanting to buy a ride on noble sweeper.

I probably have 20 brooms.

[michael langman]

My wife always soaks a new corn broom in water before using it the first time. She says it prolongs the life of the broom.

[Zachary Hoyt]

My shop broom is a push broom with softish bristles that I got at an auction, and all I use it for is to clean up around the lathe so I'm not standing in piles of shavings. Once I'm done turning I put all the shavings in the boiler that I can easily pick up, and then vacuum. I have the head of an old cheap plastic broom that I use occasionally to sweep off a table or something, but 95% of my shop cleaning is done with a Ridgid vac.

[Philipp Jaindl]

I use a Straw Broom (i hope thats the right english term for it) works for basically everything, if necessary a regular hair broom for the fine stuff. Also got a couple brushes + Dustpans flying around the shop, street broom only really gets used for the Driveway or cleaning up whatever the Tractor drags out the woods onto the road.

[bill epstein]

I get the big pieces with a shop-vac and then go over with a Eureka upright. My "shop" is the spare bedroom. :D

[Lisa Starr]

I have a couple different Harper Brooms. In my shop a straight broom for the edges/corners and a push broom for the open areas. We keep a stiff contractor's broom in the garage of that and the driveway. Ace hardware is one source for these brooms.

[Prashun Patel]

I have a Quickie push broom from HD I got 18 years ago. I believe it has polypropylene bristles. It's perfect. The bristles don't wear or shed. It's the right level of firmness and softness such that dust isn't flicked, yet, shavings don't get stuck. It gets large curly plane shavings and turning chips the same.

It's as good as the day I got it.

For the bench I have an LV Horsehair brush that's nice. But lately I prefer using an OXO Good Grips. It's has a paintbrush style broom with longer bristles than the 'gent saw' style. that I find easier to reach into crevices with. The pan is fantastic because the lip is rubberized. You can sweep everythign into it with a single stroke; you don't need to come back @ 90 deg to remove the line of dust that sneaks under the lip.

What a broom geek I've become.

[David Bassett]

... the line of dust that sneaks under the lip. ...

Sharpening thread! :)

[Gordon Stump]

429162 This is my union made whisk broom. They had a few of these at our horse feed mill. It is a Newton Kitchenette corn broom. It is the best broom I have ever had for my shop.