Besides being a really cool name to paint on the door of a gasser, I found out that spontaneous combustion is real. My neighbor was having his house repaired. I was out front painting my valve covers and kept smelling smoke. No one near me smokes or even has a fireplace. I looked at the repair guy's F-150 and saw a few whiffs of smoke coming out of the bed. It didn't look too serious but I started walking over. "Holy Shit!" I hear and then a flame shoots up about 3 feet out of the bed. The plastic box he used as a garbage can was burning and his plastic bedliner caught on fire. About a foot from the burning plastic box on the burning bedliner was a plastic one gallon gas can. Luckily, while we were all looking for a long enough garden hose, a delivery guy was also nearby and his fire extinguisher came in handy. All he had in the box that went "poof" was some dirty shop rags, sawdust and paper. I immediatly went into my garage and washed the pile of dirty shop towels I had thrown in the corner and checked my own fire extinguisher. I thought it was all a wives tail, but I guess not. Clean up your crap!!
Yep, does happen. Back on the ranch when I was a kid, if my dad bailed the hay too wet, you could actually burn your hand when breaking open a bale, it could get so hot in there. Not uncommon to hear of someones hay stack catching on fire.
We were building a Tiki Bar behind the house in Key west and the workers put the old paint and stain rags in a plastic garbage can. Luckily the can was in the back yard. The next morning all that was there was a burned spot and some plastic residue. Be Careful
Yup,I have seen barns burn to the ground because of that. I use blue paper shop towels, if they are oily or have gas on them, they get thrown on the concrete floor away from anything that can burn. After three days or so they get put in a pile, still away from burnables. Then they used to start the burn pile.
After I use rags or paper towels soaked in flamible liquids, I always burn the rags or towels in a metal bucket. I just don't trust them not to burst into flames on their own when I'm not around.
YES! It does! And because Widipedia is addicting read this and make sure to check out the part about Spontanious HUMAN combustion! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_combustion
whoa...this is crazy always heard oil soaked rags can do it what about plastic gas cans left in the sun how hot does it need to get in the garage to do this its hot as hell in my garage RIGHT now and its not august yet...
LOL! Those hay bales burst into FLAMES with a cut off garden hose shoved into the middle of the stack, with the rest laying out in the sun! More fun than being the last guy in the line of people touching the electric fence... ~Jason
it actually has nothing to do with the tempurature. it can be freezing outside and this still can happen. its a chemical reaction between oxygen and oil that causes the rags to heat themselfves and catch on fire
I just went through the garage and found every last dirty towel I could find, I'll take this more seriously now.
Sort of different but the same concept... I unloaded all my cardboard boxes of swapmeet items, such as stainless trim, MIRRORS, etc outside in the yard. It was a sunny as usual day. I leave for the day to return to a very shaken up and angry wife. It seems somehow a fire started in the pile of boxes and got really big. She managed to get it out. All I can think is it was the mirrors reflecting the sun on to the box? I never found out, but alot of good parts got ruined.
When I worked in a tool'n'die shop, we had large red rag barrels with a heavy lid. Some dufus cleaned up some spilled cutting oil with rags, and tossed them in. Then he used MKW to clean the residue, and threw them in with the oily ones! About 10 minutes later someone noticed the barrel was turning black, and smoke was wisping out. They got a couple 5 gallon buckets of water ready, opened her up with a whoosh of flames - and doused the barrel - then hit it with extinguishers. The dufus spent the rest of the shift outside hanging rags on the chain link fence to dry overnight.
I was roofing a million dollar house about 15 years ago which was a pretty good sized house back then and when I came back in the morning the house was gone. Burnt to the ground. The wood floors guys had left some rags behind that caught on fire and that was it. Poof. Never did get paid. No proof that I was ever there. LOL
Leaving your water bottle in a sunny spot in your car can cause it to work like the old "maginfying glass on paper" trick, not so trick when it burns your upholstry or entire car.
i cant stand shop rags being left around, i am always after my kids for that guess i will have to let the oldest one read this post
Ive never had it happen or seen it happen, but I do know it to be true. and after reading this thread i went out last night when i got home and took a serious look at my shop and took out the garbage can, that had all my mess from doing a Cam and head replacement. I feel better now.
Engine oil and such aren't such a problem. Moreso, it's linseed oil which is used in many timber finishes and artists use to mix oil paints, that causes the problem. Just the same, oily rags laying around can be bad. How many of us DO NOT weld or grind in our work shops? Pete
I've seen it too. We were doing a project in a plant some years ago and happened to be working on a sunday. We kept smelling something and I finally walked out and looked down the plant floor and saw flames all the way up to the cieling in the shipping department. My brother and I were the only two guys at the plant. We managed to get it under control and call the F.D. Cause: the company had switched to a new paint (latex!) to paint their products, made with eurathane foam. The crew swept up the floors friday and the foam residue mixed with paint caused the spontanious combustion. If we hadn't have been there, we'd have never believed it, and they wouldn't have had a plant to return to work on monday.
In both the car shop and the furnitureshop I use paper towels and when I'm done I throw them in a metal 5 galon pail about 100 feet from the shop and burn them. I had the seat from my 54F100 project burn to the ground because of a grinder spark the traveled 20 feet to where the seat was standing. Luckey I saw it smoldering and threw water on it, Then I set it out side just in case. The nest morning the only thing left of the seat was the springs and it burnt the tree it was leaning against.
No kidding...I've been wondering about this very subject, as there's a metal trash can in the shop and we throw all sorts of shit in it, lots of it those shop towels and stuff....there's lots of extinguishers and shit nearby, but so what. That's why I like to take my time putting things away after i've been grinding or welding or whatnot, I like to give it an hour after last spark to make sure nothing is smoldering...I know that's not a guarantee, but it makes me feel better and can't hurt. Don't quote me on this but as I recall recently when the universal studios soundstage or whatever burned up it was because of a welding spark, they were supposed to watch for an hour for fire(but did they?!?) and it still burned. Good move on taking that seat outside even though it was doused with water. I also think it's a good idea to burn that shit so it doesn't catch fire by itself, I'd totally do that if I were able.
In a lot of areas you can find a galvanized or stainless outdoor box that used to be for home milk delivery (remember that?). Bout the size of a milk crate, not a coincidence. Great low cost outdoor bin to throw any questionable rags in.
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