Sweats.

[HABCAN]

Just a tip.
Cut up old sweats to sizes for 'shop rags': you get a smooth side and a fuzzy side and there is a LOT of material there. Lighter weights give an unending supply of cleaning patches, and it's all 'free'.

[S.R.Custom]

Indeed... if the sweats in question are 100% cotton, or close to it.

I once spent an afternoon cutting up a pair of sweats into conveniently sized wiping cloths and .35 caliber patches, only to discover that because the fabric contained a significant quantity of polyester, they weren't very absorbant. For all the good it did, I could have been cutting up plastic bags...

[yondering]

If you wet yourself regularly, make sure to wash the sweats before cutting them up. You don't want those salts in your bore. [smilie=1:

[bcp477]

Good tip. I've been cutting up old t-shirts for shop rags and bore cleaning patches for years. One t-shirt will produce a HUGE supply of bore patches......and at a FAR lower cost than store-bought patches.

[imashooter2]

A yard sale paper cutter makes patch cutting fast, easy and consistent...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Paper_cutter_1.jpg

[lathesmith]

Cotton anything makes for good shop rags. Once cotton socks get holes worn in them, I just take the scissors and slit them open and they make dandy shop rags. Beats the heck out of paying for the rags, I guess I'm just a cheap sonofabuck.
lathesmith

[Hardcast416taylor]

Reminds me of the place I retired from. They always had red shop rags that we used, turned in and then were sent out to be washed. Somebody came up with the idea of buying cut-up cotton tee shirts from a shirt factory. Later on we were getting cut-up tee shirts and sweat shirts from the Salvation Army, we used them then threw them away. Just a thought if you want a lot of material fairly cheeeep, try Goodwill stores or Salvation Army for material.:mrgreen:

[Buckshot]

...............I have regular shops rags, and then there is the stuff we wear that finally bites the dust and becomes rags. BTW, a good use for old denim pants pockets:

http://www.fototime.com/115E9559A8415E1/standard.jpg

Makes a good magazine pouch :-) I made this for walk around ground squirrel strafing. Rather then asking Donna to sew a couple seams down the middle to seperate the magazine compartments I just used a strip of brass front and back. I pop rivited them together. They work great. I just use a safety pin to attach them, and the most handy place seems to be on the lower right and left front of the shirt you're wearing. YMMV

http://www.fototime.com/8FF4170825DE41C/standard.jpg

This one hangs over the headstock of my lathe. I cut 2 slits in the pocket. One slit holds the 2 hex wrenchs needed for tool changes in my QC toolholders. The other slit holds a 6" rule and a carbide scribe. The pocket itself holds the mic I use at the lathe. You can just see it's ratchet thimble sticking out.

http://www.fototime.com/C3B015A1AE069A5/standard.jpg

This one hangs from an arm off the head of the milling machine. It holds a calculator for figuring speeds, feeds and DOCs.

Rags have their place but I will NOT have them around or on the lathe or mill. Instead I use paper napkins for anything rags would have been used for. A rag is too tough, and like long sleeves can yank you into some sharp spinning tool like lightening.

http://www.fototime.com/991E707C189B687/standard.jpg

This is a plastic container with a stack of paper dinner napkins at the headstock end of the lathe. They're cheap, disposable and/or recyclable. A stack sits on the knuckle behind the head of the mill. If rags are around and handy for this stuff it's too much of a temptation.

...................Buckshot