i've been repairning the floor in my shoebox, i made sure to clean the inside surface of the floor real well. i used a wire brush on it, got it nice and clean inside, then started to weld up a patch panel i made. everything was going fine until i hit a thin rusted part and burnt through the floor pan. unfortunately, the underside of the car was dirty, had some oil, or grease on it, and flames started popping up through the floor. i wasn't that freaked out at first cause they were small flames, but after i kept trying to blow them out and they kept popping up, i got freaked. luckally my wife came out in the nick of time and all i could say to her was water! i must have said water about 20 times. anyway, i got it out, but never again will i weld without having some kind of fire extinguisher, or water near by. lesson learned, could have been a lot worse.
Did the same thing when welding a rocker... Thankfully there was a fire bottle on the welding cart..... Now I double check my work area a little better..
I HATE FIRE! I have 3 big fire extinghisers in my garage--one in every car--and a couple in the house---FIRE BAD!!!
Hot rod willie you would hate my garage then lol there are a minimum of 4 glass blowing torches going that will shoot a 6 foot 3 inch diam flame
Good lesson at not too bad a price. It could have been a LOT worse. One of the lessons in life that you will remember. Glad it was only minor damage to your pride and not "the ride".
Did that with a Lawn mower .Welding up handle Grass that was gas soaked caught fire and wouldn't go out .Pushed to remote location So if blew up it wouldn't ignite anything else. Ran inside house and got tea pot And ran back and extinguished .Then I cut the lawn Hose that was near by was turned off and forgot about extinguisher on wall. Now when I weld that hose is on.
Glad you got out ok! Besides a 12#Co2 and three dry chem. extinguishers,in the shop.if I'm welding inside a closed car,I will have a cheapie siphon paint gun loaded with water. Run the air pressure up to 90#,with the gun adjusters full-on. The water fog will put out most flammable stuff I forgot to remove. The water will not damage any nearby paint,or upolstery. Be safe Sparky
In addition to the normal garage extinguishers, I like to keep a bucket of water with a sponge handy when welding. The sponge makes the water go about 10X further and allows spot dousing without putting water everywhere. Glad everything ended up OK for ya!
I did almost the same thing on my shoebox. I was under the car and welded an exhaust bracket to the floor, I smelt somthing got out from under the car and I cought the carpet on fire. I was lucky and had a 10lb extinguisher close and put it right out.
Wait til you ignite a small pile of leaves inside the rocker. Fun stuff. Mongo no like fire. Keep a small squirt bottle filled with H2O for any welding or torch duties nearby with every job. Glad to hear the fire was put out.
I think there are two lessons to be learned. 1. Keep a fire extinguisher NEAR you when welding, not across the shop buried under stuff. 2. Remove the paint, undercoat, grease, etc from BOTH SIDES of the part you are welding. Not only is it a fire hazard, but the fumes will make you sick. Plus your welds will be a lot nicer when you aren't fighting against unknown impurities on the backside of the metal.
Did that welding on a door, luckily I had a hose nearby. Now always have a fire extinguisher close by. Last week some welding sparks managed to land on some carpet ten feet away from where I was welding. Luckily it just smouldered for a few minutes. Now have all carpet stored well away.
I actually have a fire extinguisher mounted to my welding cart. I have not had to use it since I put it on, but I started way to many things on fire in the past and that lead me to add a cheapy ($20) abc one to my cart.
do they sell fire extinguishers at the welding supply place? if not they should. I welded for quite a while before I ever bought one. had the salesman suggested it I'm sure i would have picked up a fire extinguisher too.
I am in the process of getting a hand-me down Lincoln welder. I will be sure to add an ext. to the cart and must have list. I know I 've watched unknown flames come up from the floorboards before when the undercoating or oil and grease catch.
An education worth having is never cheap...sometimes an event like this is necessary to bring home what we all seem to know but don't put enough importance in beforehand. Glad to hear you recovered and learned...I'm sure your wife will help keep the incident fresh in your memry as well!
Here's a good rule of thumb...which is more expensive, $500 worth of fire extinguishers or $50k worth of garage, tools and project cars? There is NO excuse not to have 2 fire extinguishers nearby, they're cheap and if one doesn't work or isn't enough you have a spare one handy...never rely solely on water to put out a fire, especially if it spreads to oil or gas...water will just spread your fire farther at that point...
i take it you're married, i know i'll never hear the end of it. on my to do list today: buy a couple of fire extinguishers, remove grease/undercoating on the underside of my car, and maybe try and find a card for my wife that says "thanks for putting out my fire"...uh, maybe that's not so good?
Might be a good place to add that when your welding on your car's floor, know where the gas and brake lines are! Had the wire that broke through the floor pan hit a steel fuel line or steel brake line, that fire would not have been put out with water. Rule of thumb, once a fire starts in a car, you have 10 to 20 seconds to put it out before it is beyond what most 10lbs fire extingushers can put out. Fire inside a car gets bad real quick. Melting plastic (wire covering, duct work, carpet, undercoating) makes its own fuel. Experence is a good teacher, the worst the experence, the better you will remember it. A book of matches in a glove box cost me $400 once, but the worst part of that experence was calling the customer to tell him I caught his car on fire and it has some damage that needs to be fixed. Gene
When I was 16 or 17 I watched my neighbor's detached garage burn to the ground. Their kid, that was 23-25 at the time started it welding on his Jeep. Pretty impressive lesson.
If you catch the fire extinguisher guy on his route, he'll recharge a 5 pounder for $5, so keep an eye out for spent ones lying around for your extras.
I was welding a trailer hitch on a friends van and hit the gas tank whoopee. I swatted the flames out with my gloved hand. My hand now covered with gas burst in flames reigniting the tank. When we got it out I put a nail it the hole and jp welded it.
I hate to say it but, I did the same thing welding a q-panel on a Karman-giha out on the street in Montgomery County Maryland, ( high dollar area) this was not in front of my house or my buddies house, just the house he was paying to store the car. We put it out with cans of beer, thinking back it was a waist of beer to save a Karman- Giha. Oh yea, he did not keep the car there much longer!
I was working on a buddies 54 buick welding up the emblem holes in the trunk. after I was done I leaned on the trunk to step back and take a look and it was really hot. I thought for a second wow it shouldn't be transfering heat up that far. so I looked closer and the paint was bubbling I looked through the rear window and the whole inside was full of smoke! I thought Oh shit! and went to open the driver door to see what was going on but it was locked! All I could see was a little foot high bonfire in the spare tire area, with a 5 gallon gas can with one gallon of gas in it, and a case of oil sitting right next to the whole shebang! I thought great!! a freakin' car bomb sitting in my driveway, I bashed out the rear passenger window and started dousing the flames! and got really lucky! You live you learn... never let a buddy work on your car!!!! just joking!
A few months back my brother in law decided to weld up some angle iron to support the bending hood of his truck,,,, (you know, those 70s Chevy truck hoods that tend to bend in the center....) Well anyway, not a bad idea, and his execution was coming along just fine except that the hood repair was an afterthought to when moments earlier he had replaced his fuel pump.... He was welding OVER a couple of GASOLINE soaked rags.... Well this is bad, but even worse, instead of staying cool and grabbing an extinguisher or trying to smother the flames, he makes the somewhat brilliant snap decision to grab the FLAMING rags out from under the hood instead... The result,,,,, burns on his hands and arms, not nearly as bad as they might have been but.... bad enough to be a little more than uncomfortable for more than a few days... The moral.... Think about what you SHOULD do IF something bad MIGHT happen, BEFORE it HAPPENS,,, and the BE COOL... This is a good time to take WYATT EARP'S advise,,,, "TAKE YOUR TIME BUT HURRY UP"... Very profound because of it's udder simplicity....
A little tip or two. If you use a dry powder ext. "just a little bit" get it recharged or replace it. The powder in the valve will absorb moisture out of the air and the next time you try to use it there can be a "rock" in the valve and it may not operate. Every so often turn them upside down and smack them with a rubber mallet (on the bottom) to loosen the powder. NFPA says they need to be inspected and recharged annually by a competent fire extingquisher company. If your in a commercial business, you check monthly to be sure they are fully charged and in the proper place. 35 years in the fire prevention business and I have seen a lot of them be flat when inspected.
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