Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 20

Thread: Good Broom(s)

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Bella Vista, AR
    Posts
    48

    Good Broom(s)

    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?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Lake Gaston, Henrico, NC
    Posts
    8,974
    When a horsehair push broom is not the right one: https://www.northerntool.com/shop/to...gaAtdnEALw_wcB

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    San Francisco, CA
    Posts
    10,304
    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.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Columbus, Ohio, USA
    Posts
    3,441
    Quote Originally Posted by Jamie Buxton View Post
    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...-dusting-brush

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

  5. #5
    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.
    Tom

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Houston, Texas area
    Posts
    1,308
    I bought one of these 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, 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.
    Mark McFarlane

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    2,758
    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.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    Wayland, MA
    Posts
    3,656
    Different style, but these 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.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,694
    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.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  10. #10
    My broom is powered by a 2 stroke engine.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,694
    Quote Originally Posted by Darcy Warner View Post
    My broom is powered by a 2 stroke engine.
    Makes sense...your space is...enormous!
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    Makes sense...your space is...enormous!
    I have been wanting to buy a ride on noble sweeper.

    I probably have 20 brooms.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Putney, Vermont
    Posts
    1,042
    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.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
    Location
    Piercefield, NY
    Posts
    1,661
    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.

  15. #15
    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.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •