No, I don't smell anything. You sure? Smells like a brown lunch bag or something. Well maybe. A few moments go by then... Man you sure you don't smell that? Kinda like fireworks minus gun powder. Yeah I smell it a little bit, more like card board. Couple seconds go by.. Damn dude something is burning I'm telling you. Yeah, I smell it too now. Shit that box is smoking!!! Disaster averted - phew!!!! Out side was a cardboard box full of rags. 2 weeks ago they came out of the dirty rag hamper and mopped up big mess of coolant and engine oil when we rolled an engine over. Then they went into that box and sat outside forgotten. Spontaneous combustion. Be careful guys! This didnt have to start when we were 10 feet away. It could have started anytime.
Usually when I smell something burning, it's one of my co-workers. We have a guy that can light asbestos on fire.
At least the box was thrown outside. Scary shit there. Came close to burning both a vehicle and my new garage one day after taking it for a spin and pulling into the bay. 10 minutes later, Just by luck, I had a feeling something wasn't right and decided to go back into the garage. Smelled god awful with smoke in the bay. Here the voltage regulator stuck open firing up my generator. The generator was colored red it was so hot. I installed cutoffs on all my vehicles that very day.
My friend Pedro had a pile of rags on the floor he left for dinner came back and they had smoldered until they were just a pile of ashed. smoke was so thick in the garage that you could not see through it. had they not been in the middle of the floor it would have burned down for sure. scary stuff. Glad you are safe
A friend had a fire start in his garage in the middle of the night, he was lucky and was able to put it out with a garden hose, although it burned one wall, and the contents of the garage on that side. The fire department traced it to oily rags left over from cleaning his rifles, that spontaneously ignited. He was lucky, as his family was sound asleep, and he has no reason why he got up, and felt something was wrong. ---John
Wow I thought only linseed oil spontaneously combusted like that. Scary stuff. Get a purpose-made soiled rag safety can. Got mine on amazon for about $50. Cheap insurance.
a old hoarder down the street lost his garage due to stacks of bundled old newspapers spontanious combusting from sitting over the years and getting damp . fire dept first thought it was arson til they traced the point of ignition and it was in the middle of the stack .middle of the stack was charred like it was in a fireplace , papers next to it were turning yellow they explained it as somethign to do with the acids that the paper make . as for shop rags , metal rag bin always . if not spontanious to worry about its the welder /torch sparks .
Learned about that in firefighting school in the Navy many years ago. Most shops dispose of oil soaked rags in one of those yellow safety cans with sealed lid.
Always leave rags with acetone or laquer thinner in the middle of the garage floor, not near anything combustible, for at least a day or two. Think I need one of those cans. Fire scares the Hell out of me. Thanks for posting.
just went by a friends house . he was grinding some welds on a dash. he needed some grinding wheels so he left to buy some. the blanket he had over the hood was on fire when i drove up..
Was under a '65 Impala and smelled something awful, crawled out and a shop light was face planted in the vinyl seat and about to turn into flames.
Clothes hangaers from the ceiling. In my shop, rags do not get bunched up in a container. They're hung individually to dry. Knock on wood; no fires so far. Roger
Wow I never knew they would do that without a spark or fire source guess I better get me one of those safety cans as well. Thanks for the heads up.
Similar experience in my teen years painting my Grandfather's garage. We had some heavy-duty paper towels for general cleanup in a box in the back of Dad's truck. My brother and I had left around noon, Dad was still working. About an hour later, he could smell something burning. He came around the side of the garage to see thick white smoke coming from the box in the back of the truck. He quickly pulled it out and pulled out all of the paper towels and spread them out to air out. No flame, nothing blackened, but there were several of the ones from the middle of the box that were charred dark brown, almost the color of a paper shopping bag. Since then, I take any solvent soaked rags, towels, etc. and leave out to air for a few days (weeks, months if I forget about them) or until the next rain storm.
About 20 years ago I worked at an unfinished furniture store and we had a warehouse where we offered finishing for customers if they wish. One of the old time finishers threw a bunch of rags soaked with tung oil into a container and went home for the day. Needless to say, the container spontaneously combusted and burned half the warehouse down.
This reminds me: I need a safety can AND a hot bucket. I don't like to let oily rags OR hot metal just sitting around.
My brother is a 40 yr veteran of the fire dept. He always has told me about this and I do have a metal safety can but I still thought all of this was just voo-doo. I always put the solvent/brake clean rags outside in the rocks for a few days before I drop them in the can. Glad it worked out for you 31vicky.
I was in charge of the fire brigade for a company were I worked for years. With that job I had lots of training. I do not leave any dirty rags inside and never in an open container that is not sealed metal. Yes I am paranoid. Safe but paranoid.
Thanks for the heads up on this. Another hazard that no one hardly ever thinks about is a dropped drop cord. A shop here in town burned down last year because a mechanic had allowed some gasoline to spill on the floor and didn't clean it up. He then accidentally dropped his trouble light, the bulb burst and the shop is now a pile of rubble. I'm using one of these cordless trouble lights most of the time now. Great light and the cord is never in the way. http://www.amazon.com/UView-413310-...catcorr&keywords=Cordless+trouble+light+uview
Glad you traced it down. I may go off and leave the doors unlocked, or standing wide open, for that matter, but oily rags are always kept in a metal can, outside and away from anything that might catch fire. One of those lessons from dad that I never forgot.
I only buy LED bulbs now, and I have both corded and cordless lights. You can drop them over and over & they do not break. regular light bulbs are ancient history for me and I will NEVER buy another CFL bulb. What a scam those things were.
I usually only smell things like that after consuming copious amounts of Mexican food. Let this thread be a warning to anyone leaving piles of dirty rags sitting around their shop (or hanging around me after I've visited Del Taco).
The Jalopy Journal
