attempting to burn down the workshop...

[jumps]

I am sure everyone here knows it, and to be honest I knew it but wasn't thinking (homer) .........one small spark from a sharpening exercise (that you wouldn't notice on your hand) will ignite a whole pack of 0000 grade steel wool in an instant, which ignites the paper wrapper etc etc all from quite a distance :shock:

When you quickly look round for a nice pair of tongs to pick it up and take it outside you realise you aren't in the kitchen...

Likewise leather garden gloves (next building along in my case)

By now you (if you are me) are thinking about the mess the extinguisher will make, and make one last ditch attempt to get it all outside using mdf offcuts - they do have a use!

Hope the reminder is useful to someone.

 

[Steve Maskery]

No pictures? It didn't happen.
Can you do a rerun for the camera?

Glad it's dealt with successfully.
S

 

[ste_5150]

:shock: Whew...!!!

 

[DIY Stew]

Get a fire blanket not as messy as a extinguisher, pleased you didn't need fire brigade. [-o<

Stew

 

[Oryxdesign]

Be careful with wire wool and batteries, they have the same effect!

 

[tomatwark]

Be careful with wire wool and batteries, they have the same effect!

I nearly set fire to my van with wire wool when a battery from a drill fell against a roll of wire wool when I was loading up the van.


Tom

 

[disco_monkey79]

Blimey! I like to think of myself as reasonably savvy re working safely, but wire wool as a fire hazard never ocurred to me. Thanks for the heads-up!

 

[Racers]

Hi,

You can set wire wool alight with a match.

Pete

 

[theartfulbodger]

How many of us have an extinguisher in the garage/shed/workshop?

I'm assuming all commercial places will, but what about us at home?

This thread and the "van de graaf flour bomb dust extractor" thread have got me thinking.

I have dry powder extinguishers. Cheap enough to buy a couple, just remember to give them a shake before use if they've been sat for a while as the powder settles.


[edit]
forgot to say.. I never knew wire wool was so flammable! thanks for the heads up and well done on the lucky escape.

 

[Woody Alan]

Lucky escape,

I've had it happen too. I was angle grinding in the vice, eight feet away behind me some wire wool in a box caught fire, luckily I noticed before I closed the garage up.

Alan

 

[Sportique]

Doh - had never realised the hazard

Thanks for the advice chaps - will move my wire-wool well away from any spark/ignition sources.

On an aside I understand that cloths used for applying/polishing finishing oil can self-ignite - so take care with them too

Dave

 

[theartfulbodger]

cloths used for applying/polishing finishing oil can self-ignite
Dave

I think I've heard this about linseed oil? Is that correct? I guess a few others too! Even antifreeze, if memory serves me correctly which it frequently doesn't.. #-o

 

[Henning]

Linseed oil (and all finishing oils containing lised oil) can self ignite. Never seen it happen, but always burn the oil rags. Wire wool is used by some here in Norway as a fire starter when outdoors due to it's burning properties. Ignites nicely and burn hot and long...

 

[misterfish]

We had a self ignition episode years ago when using boiled linseed oil to treat terracotta tiles. We left a couple of screwed up rags we were using on the floor while we nipped out to the shops. When we got back after half an hour or so the smoke alarm sounded as we opened the door and the kitchen was full of acrid white smoke. Luckily I had a couple of hardboard offcuts nearby that I used to pickup and throw the smoking rags out on to the patio where they immediately burst in to flame. The dark scorck marks on the tiles werw a constant reminder of the danger of self ignition - fortunately they were the Mexican hand made variety which naturally had great variation in the finish colours during firing so although we knew where the burn had started it was not very obvious.

As a result of this we experimented with putting used cloths in the wood burning stove to see what happened and we only got one ignition, most did nothing. It seemed the cloth had to be lightly screwed up.

Misterfish

 

[wobblycogs]

I've been meaning to try experimenting with getting some cloths soaked in Danish oil to self ignite as I'm interested in studying the conditions needed for self-ignition. From the reading I've done it seems that a lot of the time the rags are, as misterfish says, lightly screwed up and then placed in a tin can (probably the empty pot that held the finish). I'm guessing that the can acts to keep the heat in which in turn speeds up the oxidation reaction which is generating the heat until the whole lot catches fire. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people put the rags in a tin can because it doesn't burn but they may be unwittingly causing a fire that wouldn't have happened if they just hung the rag up to dry (the free flow of air would probably dissipate the heat fast enough to stop it igniting).

 

[dickm]

With regard to the wire wool thing, my daughter recently brought over some "hand warmers" from the US (useful if you have Reynaud's syndrome). These contain iron powder in a bag, within an airtight bag. Tearing the corner off the outer bag and shaking the powder to get air into it is apparently enough to get the iron smouldering.