How do you clean your power tools?

My battery-powered tools have become quite greasy and dirty from my most recent string of car repairs. I generally wear gloves when I work and I try to keep the grime off my tools as much as possible, but they get dirty nonetheless, and it's a bit of an inconvenience when I grab one for a little indoor work and my hands get grime on them from the tool. Does anyone have a preferred method to clean the rubber grips and plastic housings on your power tools?

I use purple power for everything. Dilute as needed. 

That's one of the reasons I still prefer air tools for mechanical work.  The have aluminum housings so I just hit them with brake clean.  To answer your question, I clean my plastic bodies battery powered tools with Simple Green.

I've got a tub o towels container on my tool kart that I use to wipe down things when I finish a project. Sometimes when a project goes a long time it requires a bit more work and that's when I use a rag with dilluted degreaser to clean things.

 I just wipe them down with $100 bills every couple of years and they look like new again.

dclafleur said:

I've got a tub o towels container on my tool kart that I use to wipe down things when I finish a project. Sometimes when a project goes a long time it requires a bit more work and that's when I use a rag with dilluted degreaser to clean things.

I'm not as organized, but that's what I use to clean mine. Works great. 

Maybe blast them with compressed air if I've been doing drywall or other super dusty stuff, but otherwise, I don't.

APEowner said:

That's one of the reasons I still prefer air tools for mechanical work.  The have aluminum housings so I just hit them with brake clean.  To answer your question, I clean my plastic bodies battery powered tools with Simple Green.

I agree. Air tools are superior. And I can confirm it as a trucker.

I saw one of these behind a truck yesterday and it reminded me that the pros are not wiping down their tools obsessively. I use Purple Power and a rag, but try not to get too crazy about it. 

I don't particularly care if my tools look dirty or well-used, but I do prefer to have clean hands after I hold my stuff. I don't want to have to put gloves on to rearrange my toolbox. I usually wipe down my hand tools and power tools with a paper towel when I'm done using them in the driveway or a particularly dirty job, but sometimes you need something a little stronger I guess :)

Cleaning is the main reason I dislike any "soft touch" tools. That includes screw drivers, pliers etc. Hard plastic or metal is so much easier to clean than the fancy gripy tools. 

I use baby wipes for cleaning them off, and they typically take most of the grease off. Will have to try Simple Green. 
 

I use a lot of unscented baby wipes in the course of my automotive work. I typically wear black nitrile gloves, and then wipe them off with baby wipes, which gives me several uses before they ultimately rip and I grab a new one. They're great at getting grease/oil off of things. Our youngest has been out of diapers for many years, but I still pick up a case every time they're on sale.  My go-to are the BJ's warehouse-branded unscented wipes in the blue box. I figure if they can get Desitin off skin, they're plenty powerful for most of my uses. Just don't clean glass with them, they'll streak like crazy.

Spray-9 cleaner works for me.

I read someplace a while ago about using WD-40.  It works great, I use it on anything from my power tools to anything that has a softish handle.