I trim trees and operate a wood chipper-shredder. Routinely carrying huge logs and branches hereabouts and there, greasing and fuelling machinery, and brandishing dirty chainsaws.

But I prefer to wear riggers gloves, so my hands actually stay pretty clean.

Facility maintenance. We grease motors, change belts, tighten bolts. One of the fuel pumps on our generator has a leak, so that’s a fun bit of dirty hands.

My approach to maintenance also involves a lot of cleaning, because I believe clean equipment runs better over time. So cleaning off fan blades, insides of electrical cabinets, sumps, etc. We also fix sinks and toilets.

Used to clean toilets, vacuum, mop and buff floors, clean windows, build bicycles. Loved it all.

Wash them

Machinist here. But not just any machinist. I work almost exclusively with graphite. I’m sure you can imagine what a mess that makes. We do have a powerful dust collector that runs all day, but it doesn’t catch everything. We get covered in the dust every day. The company does have a locker room and showers for us though, so it’s not too bad. We still leave nice and clean.

I setup and run events. Nothing particularly messy, but very sweaty. On setup days I can do a half marathon just by moving equipment to where it needs to go.

Asbestos remediation. I work on roofs, basements, boiler rooms,fireplaces, lofts, house walls etc removing asbestos in every shape and form + other materials. Using crowbars, sledgehammers, i saw through steel and crush steel with the sledgehammer etc while wearing masks, I also enter oil tanks to clean them. I have done more shitty stuff with another branch of the firm that deals with more shitty stuff + old barn lofts etc on a regular basis too 😆 all of this work involves heavy lifting and carrying heavy stuff around, I have become really strong from it. If you want to get strong and get payed at the same time, I will recommend it. It’s tough as hell, and only unique people work with it.

Software engineer. Sometimes I spill coffee, sometimes it’s chocolate or chips crumbs.

It’s honest, hard work, but someone has to do it.

Proctologists need not reply.

My primary job is that of a software engineer, but I also run a small farm business. Out in the dirt, greasing equipment, repairing equipment, etc. all make me long for the Lava soap I remember as a kid.

I do occasional vehicle maintenance, like replacing brakes, starters, alternators, water pumps, radiators, etc.

Last one I did the other week was replace an old rotted leaky fuel line. Fun fun…

I used to be a programmer, but I got sick of the whole corporate scene. Now I build and maintain houses - and my hands are dirty a good amount of the time!

Woodworker. Hands are always dirty after sharpening blades.

I process meat. My hands are rarely dirty but sometimes there seepage through my overalls.

Tallship sailor/rigger