Oil Soaked Rags - Spontaneous Combustion

[PAToyota]

Something worth watching...



Back in high school, my high school shop teacher did a demonstration with rags in a paint can. Over the years, I've seen / heard of a few fires in construction projects during painting phases.

The one interesting thing to me was that the temperatures weren't reaching temperatures you'd typically be concerned with.

 

[arse_sidewards]

As usual it's the Toyota guys with the fear mongering safety vest bullshit.

Maybe fuck back off to Reddit where that shit is actually appreciated.

Linseed oil is just about the only thing you can pull this trick with. Even still it's finicky and hard to pull off on command even when you're trying. Your shop teacher had to practice to get his "experiment" dialed in enough to reliably go off. If it was easy to get linseed oil to spontaneously combust you wouldn't have idiots storing bags of the stuff in their shops. 486's comments about "shit you learn when you're young and stupid go straight to memory without question" seem relevant here.

I coat all my bare steel that gets stored outside with linseed oil and I leave the rags or paper towels in a pile, sometimes a metal can, sometimes a bucket, outside for good measure when I'm done. Even sitting in the sun on a hot summer day I've never had so much as a hint of smolder.

 

[DMG]

As usual it's the Toyota guys with the fear mongering safety vest bullshit.

Maybe fuck back off to Reddit where that shit is actually appreciated.

Linseed oil is just about the only thing you can pull this trick with. Even still it's finicky and hard to pull off on command even when you're trying. Your shop teacher had to practice to get his "experiment" dialed in enough to reliably go off. If it was easy to get linseed oil to spontaneously combust you wouldn't have idiots storing bags of the stuff in their shops. 486's comments about "shit you learn when you're young and stupid go straight to memory without question" seem relevant here.

I coat all my bare steel that gets stored outside with linseed oil and I leave the rags or paper towels in a pile, sometimes a metal can, sometimes a bucket, outside for good measure when I'm done. Even sitting in the sun on a hot summer day I've never had so much as a hint of smolder.

Oily rags are a serious shop hazard whether you care or not. Just to get insurance I have to have special airtight cans for used rags. I have seen them catch grinder sparks or weld spatter and smolder for hours before catching. Not something to leave to chance.

I am not sure WTF this has to do with driving a Toyota aside from Toyota drivers having common sense and making good decisions.

 

[posford]

I am not sure WTF this has to do with driving a Toyota aside from Toyota drivers having common sense and making good decisions.

Some people shitpost, some people just have shit posts, Arse has mastered combining the two into paragraphs of Evernoob level retardation

 

[SHARPMACHINE]

Our shop insurance recently required us to get a metel can for rag storage. Was not a problem the first 30 years in a wooden box. lol

 

[CarterKraft]

AVE did some testing on the linseed oil rags because he thought it was bullshit, I think he recanted.

 

[arse_sidewards]

AVE did some testing on the linseed oil rags because he thought it was bullshit, I think he recanted.

Yeah but it took him a decent bit of trying. The odds of happening into those circumstances by luck without a lifetime of risking it are low.

Oily rags are a serious shop hazard whether you care or not. Just to get insurance I have to have special airtight cans for used rags. I have seen them catch grinder sparks or weld spatter and smolder for hours before catching. Not something to leave to chance.

Welding spatter and grinding sparks are a whole diferent ballgame. Those will catch non oily cloth on fire with pretty good regularity. My rags are in a different room and I always keep a lid on my normal trash can for that reason.

I am not sure WTF this has to do with driving a Toyota aside from Toyota drivers having common sense and making good decisions.

I don't consider being a clipboard and safety vest type and slinging one in a million events around as if they're a sure thing and advising people to modify their behavior based on that deceit to be "common sense and good decisions"

 

[SomeGuy]

As usual it's the Toyota guys with the fear mongering safety vest bullshit.

Maybe fuck back off to Reddit where that shit is actually appreciated.

Linseed oil is just about the only thing you can pull this trick with. Even still it's finicky and hard to pull off on command even when you're trying. Your shop teacher had to practice to get his "experiment" dialed in enough to reliably go off. If it was easy to get linseed oil to spontaneously combust you wouldn't have idiots storing bags of the stuff in their shops. 486's comments about "shit you learn when you're young and stupid go straight to memory without question" seem relevant here.

I coat all my bare steel that gets stored outside with linseed oil and I leave the rags or paper towels in a pile, sometimes a metal can, sometimes a bucket, outside for good measure when I'm done. Even sitting in the sun on a hot summer day I've never had so much as a hint of smolder.

Yeah but it took him a decent bit of trying. The odds of happening into those circumstances by luck without a lifetime of risking it are low.


Welding spatter and grinding sparks are a whole diferent ballgame. Those will catch non oily cloth on fire with pretty good regularity. My rags are in a different room and I always keep a lid on my normal trash can for that reason.


I don't consider being a clipboard and safety vest type and slinging one in a million events around as if they're a sure thing and advising people to modify their behavior based on that deceit to be "common sense and good decisions"

You're still an asshat for telling people not to worry about it. It's worth being safe about that shit given it takes pretty much no extra effort, it does happen.

 

[arse_sidewards]

You're still an asshat for telling people not to worry about it. It's worth being safe about that shit given it takes pretty much no extra effort, it does happen.

Pushing back against safety culture is gonna have some collateral damage. <shrug>. I'm wiling to take the heat for it.

 

[SomeGuy]

Pushing back against safety culture is gonna have some collateral damage. <shrug>. I'm wiling to take the heat for it.

The literal heat when your shit burns down?

 

[MigGunslinger]

Eh, new guys get into wood and metalworking all the time, maybe there is too much hype around some of the safety stuff, maybe not. Show some pics of welding galvanized steel, opening oxygen valves with greasy gloves, or using Linseed oil and someone is going to pipe up with a warning. You don't know what you don't know and this is how people have communicated hazards for 100,000 years.

"Hey Grugg don't go down by the lake, Thonk told me there was a wicked big cat down there looking hungry" Grugg decides what he wants to do but he is armed with knowledge, every mudhut he passes by someone wants to bitch about the big cat making a big deal. This is one of the reasons hairless apes became the dominant species.

 

[PAE]

My pops was a BC from LACOFD always warned me from a very young age (10) or so to be careful of such things and not to have such in any enclosed area , garage, house etc as well as not to keep accumulated pilesbof such things.

 

[665.0coupe]

opening oxygen valves with greasy gloves,

 

[MigGunslinger]

oily glove & Oxygen tank = BOOM?

Just the first example from google.

High concentrations of oxygen can cause oil or grease to ignite without heat. I learned this in welding class. We had a thread involving cleaning out oxygen hoses where we discussed a bit too.

If you did not know, now you do. That is how it works.

 

[665.0coupe]

oily glove & Oxygen tank = BOOM?

Just the first example from google.

High concentrations of oxygen can cause oil or grease to ignite without heat. I learned this in welding class. We had a thread involving cleaning out oxygen hoses where we discussed a bit too.

If you did not know, now you do. That is how it works.

Well, I learned something new today. I missed the oxygen hose thread.

 

[Slander]

Pushing back against safety culture is gonna have some collateral damage. <shrug>. I'm wiling to take the heat for it.

Way to take the most conformist stance by taking the path everyone else takes, rebel

Safety dick for a living here and some thoughts:

I was a nationwide safety manager for a fleet maintenance operation and we had a shop fire, a small one, tracked back to oily shop rags. I thought it was bs until that.

So while most safety stuff retarded pageantry, there is some truth to this. At home I wet them and throw them in the driveway to dry, I also almost set myself on fire welding over shop rags and they burst into flames under me. I enjoy my house, so if I can take simple small steps to prevent accidently burning it down doing my usual dumbassery, then I'll take it!!

Most safety people are incompetent retards, but most of the procedures are written in blood.

 

[tracyb]

arse_sidewards comments are needed.

without this thread would be a safety fag circle jerk.
id be scared to be anywhere near a shop that considers oily rags a serious safety issue how can anything be so serious when its so easy to avoid? better put a 'retards at work' sign out front.



if your worried about spontaneous combustion, then there are 10 other things more important not on your mind.

the shops that are burnt because of this, more than likely didn't... its just easy to cite for the fire marshal. ask me how i know


like slander said, its pageantry with truth sprinkled in.
not to throw the few decent people in with the rest, but if anyone is trying to defend the safety industry, they are more likely than the next to win Darwin's award.









and yes i have an oily rags container... it makes a great garbage can when camping, seals up nice to keep the flys away

 

[RunningProblem]

Happened recently due to someone leaving some type of stain or water sealer on the back yard on a ”not that hot” day.

Stained rags led to south Reno house fire

Fire investigators say a pile of stained rags that were piled on the exterior deck from a recent staining project spontaneously ignited and quickly spread to surrounding combustibles.

www.kolotv.com

 

[subybaja]

 

[PAToyota]

For those saying "whatever," did you actually watch the video? Yeah, not every option burst into flames, but it was interesting that some did while others didn't. But nearly all of them showed significant increases in temperature - and those that did typically did so without warning.

As I said, over the years I've seen a number of fires related to stain / paint / finishes. The term is "exothermic drying oils" that covers things like linseed oil. It's something to be aware of.

No, greasy, (motor) oily rags aren't going to burst into flame the same way, but (as DMG states) they have their own hazards.

In general, just something to be aware of. I find myself telling people "things are fine until they aren't" an awful lot of the time. Just because you got away with it in the past doesn't mean there isn't a hazard that can bite you one day.

Case in point:

We have waste oil heaters in the shop. One guy was filling up the waste oil heater tanks. Standard task - he does it all the time - IBC tank full of waste oil on a forklift, position it over the waste oil heater tank, open the spigot, and fill the tank...

So as he's filling at the main port, he looks in the other port to see how full it is. Except it's dark, so he can't see anything. So he takes out his cigarette lighter and holds it above the port as he looks in...

The resulting flame burnt the hair off the front of his head, burnt his beard, melted his glasses, left him with burns and blisters across his face, and left a big oily soot mark across the ceiling...

Mind you, this guy is in his fifties and has been a diesel mechanic for most of his adult life. Apparently he regularly does this and never had a problem before...

Yeah, oil doesn't ignite easily - but the vapors certainly do - and being waste oil, who knows what else someone else poured in there? Diesel? A bit of gasoline? Other flammables?

 

[Lbhsbz]

At work about 10 years ago, we had a pile of rags (ready for the uniform service to pick up) start smoking pretty good. One of the guys threw them all out in the loading dock area and hosed them down. No linseed oil or anything really, just brake fluid and dirt...we were a brake caliper rebuilding plant. First I've seen of it personally, but it happens.

 

[PurfsMcGurfs]

Never had any rags catch fire that wasn't from an external source (grinder/weld sparks, torch) in the diesel, home or boat shops. We had/have a rag bucket but, dont neccesarily clean them up immediately. Usually at the end of the day. Gas soaked rags went in the oil drain pan or got hung outside to vent.

I've set a lot of rags on fire but, none of it was ever spontaneous.

My dad was in construction and woodworking for his entire life and has also never had an issue with linseed oil, stains, acetone, decoupage etc catching on fire. He usually was dumb enough to get stoned off the fumes in a closed garage though and never used a rag bucket. YMMV

I am infinitely more worried about using a torch/spark in any enclosed space after I had a boat explode while I was in it. Even with no cover and an open deck fumes can go.

 

[Pook]

We had a 5 million dollar insurance claim at our family business' in 2016, due to a couple of rags left in in a small pile that had been used for staining wood with Penofin oil. We hadn't had an issue in the over 30 years the business had been running up until to that day. Work days ends at 4:00 by midnight it was a raging fire.

The rags had ignited, somehow the fire spread and then caught a 16' tall stack of 4x4x 6' long cedar we had stacked with stickers to let dry a bit more before processing. That spread into more stored wood. Fire was so hot it melted and bent the Wilson joists and put a hole in the steel roof.

We were told it has a lot to do with temperature swings, causing it to combust.

 

[DMG]

arse_sidewards comments are needed.

without this thread would be a safety fag circle jerk.
id be scared to be anywhere near a shop that considers oily rags a serious safety issue how can anything be so serious when its so easy to avoid? better put a 'retards at work' sign out front.



if your worried about spontaneous combustion, then there are 10 other things more important not on your mind.

the shops that are burnt because of this, more than likely didn't... its just easy to cite for the fire marshal. ask me how i know


like slander said, its pageantry with truth sprinkled in.
not to throw the few decent people in with the rest, but if anyone is trying to defend the safety industry, they are more likely than the next to win Darwin's award.









and yes i have an oily rags container... it makes a great garbage can when camping, seals up nice to keep the flys away

Having oily rags around is a safety issue whether you are concerned with spontaneous combustion, sparks, setting an incandescent shop light on them or whatever.

 

[sdmuleman]

Safety culture is not a bad thing. Idiotic application of it is. Oily rags are a hazard regardless, and wise to be careful with them, just like the million and one other things to be careful of in a shop.

 

[PAToyota]

Safety culture is not a bad thing. Idiotic application of it is.

Totally agree. I'm honestly no safety nazi. Just that after over a half century on this planet I've seen a few things and have come to realize I'm not immortal. Heck, I look back on my past years and there are a number of "that could've been really bad" or "that could've been worse" moments. I try to learn from those.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Whenever I use BLO on anything, I use paper towels and burn them outside. Never put them in the trash. That shit will start to get hot in the rag while you're using it.

 

[AKnate]

For those saying "whatever," did you actually watch the video? Yeah, not every option burst into flames, but it was interesting that some did while others didn't. But nearly all of them showed significant increases in temperature - and those that did typically did so without warning.

As I said, over the years I've seen a number of fires related to stain / paint / finishes. The term is "exothermic drying oils" that covers things like linseed oil. It's something to be aware of.

No, greasy, (motor) oily rags aren't going to burst into flame the same way, but (as DMG states) they have their own hazards.

In general, just something to be aware of. I find myself telling people "things are fine until they aren't" an awful lot of the time. Just because you got away with it in the past doesn't mean there isn't a hazard that can bite you one day.

Case in point:

We have waste oil heaters in the shop. One guy was filling up the waste oil heater tanks. Standard task - he does it all the time - IBC tank full of waste oil on a forklift, position it over the waste oil heater tank, open the spigot, and fill the tank...

So as he's filling at the main port, he looks in the other port to see how full it is. Except it's dark, so he can't see anything. So he takes out his cigarette lighter and holds it above the port as he looks in...

The resulting flame burnt the hair off the front of his head, burnt his beard, melted his glasses, left him with burns and blisters across his face, and left a big oily soot mark across the ceiling...

Mind you, this guy is in his fifties and has been a diesel mechanic for most of his adult life. Apparently he regularly does this and never had a problem before...

Yeah, oil doesn't ignite easily - but the vapors certainly do - and being waste oil, who knows what else someone else poured in there? Diesel? A bit of gasoline? Other flammables?

Dang!

I used the flashlight on my cell phone one day and about dropped it in.

Later got to thinking about it, flashlight/phone isn't intrinsically safe like the flashlight I have.

 

[SomeGuyFromOlympia]

that is a thing, just dont

 

[SomeGuyFromOlympia]

The literal heat when your shit burns down?

it will not burn, gravity will consume it long before that