Barracks rats needed

Bonnewagon

Lost in the Labyrinth
Supporting Member
Sep 18, 2009
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Queens, NY
OK you old-timey barracks rats. Remember how we used to wax the floors with Johnson Paste Wax? First we would wash the floor with Ba-bo, Comet, or other fine brand of chlorine cleanser. Rinsed well then dried. We would then light the can of wax on fire, slip the cover back on to douse it, then pour the hot wax all over the floor. Now this where I get confused. How did we spread the wax on the floor? By hand with a rag? With the buffer? If with the buffer then with the brush head or a pad? With something else? Please advise. Then we would buff the floor with a clean buffing brush. My technique was to then fold up a clean white bath towel and place it under the brush head. Then do the final polishing until the floor looked like a swimming pool. I promised my friend with an auto repair shop I would do his office floor that old fashioned way. Right now it looks like the floors in Mordor. Help me remember how to spread the melted wax around without getting it dirty.
 
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Barracks rats were something else to me... Local girls looking to get hitched or a place to stay and bounced from guy to guy.

That being said, it was applied with the brush on the buffer. Once applied and worked in then you tossed the pad down and the bristles kind of stuck to the pad while you buffed the floor.

Edit: if his floors are that bad, expect to have to do it several times before it looks decent. Especially the cleaning and stripping part
 
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By me barracks rats were the guys who NEVER went outside. And their floors were PERFECT. They would kill you if you stepped on their mirror surface floors. I was not a rat at all but I loved to try and outshine their floors, thus , the clean white towel that made the floor look ten feet deep. And yeah, I know what I'm up against. Luckily it is a small office, maybe 15 by 15, but looks like a murder was committed there. So what kind of pad?
 
I don't know about your boot camp, but we got to use a toothbrush. That's Navy boot camp. Never Again Volunteer Yourself.
 
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We only used the toothbrush to clean the latrine. And that was for punishment. Here is a pic of me cleaning weapons in the latrine on inspection day. Just so we didn't mess up the floors because the latrine got the last wipe before inspection. Fort Knox, 1972.
Armypics-1_zps21a3db7e.jpg
 
I have actually blocked those memories. After I got out of the E4 Mafia (it was called in my units) I made sure I didn't have anything to do with the floors other than checking that they are clean & shined. But I thought the wax was spread out on the floor first. When ever there was a choice of floors or cleaning the .50's & M60's, I always picked the guns.
 
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Sounds like the Boy Scout camp that I went to (back in the mid 1970s) where you would be forced to:

1. clean the shower-house with your toothbrush; or

2. Rake the waterfront beach with a fork.

My brother was given the first task for lighting off a smoke bomb in the latrine and then getting caught whooping it up about his genius idea. And, then my brother was assigned the second task when I came to see how he was doing cleaning the shower-house and he cursed at me (when the camp director had walked in about a minute after I arrived).

The camp director who was behind such treatment was a former Army officer who walked around in mirror sunglasses, day and night. His nickname was the man-with-no-eyes (unbeknownst to me at that time, this was the same nickname as one of the guards in "Cool Hand Luke").

PS We all really enjoyed Boy Scout camp but were always fearful of what would happen if you messed up. My brother being example number one.
 
All I'm seeing is pads that strip off the old surface, bristle pads that scrub, and wool pads for buffing. What pads spread the wax? I know the procedure nowadays is to pour a liquid poly-type "wax" that dries and is shiny right away. That is applied with a mop. I need a wax spreading pad. He tried that liquid stuff and didn't like it plus it looked horrible after a while. That is why I offered the paste wax treatment. Wet mop it once a week and re-wax every few months or so and it looks great.
 

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