Setting a buffing wheel on fire

[BobL]

Now I thought my metal working end of my shed was pretty fireproof, corrugated iron walls, concrete floor and lots of metal everywhere. Anyway yesterday I was using a flap sander to prep a piece of steel for welding and a few minutes later I smelled something burning. I do have a smoke alarm but grinding sets it off so I take it down from the ceiling while I grind. At first I thought it was the paint on the piece of steel I was tidying up but I look around and see a small wisp of smoke rising from a well used buffing wheel. Moving over to it I touched the wheel and saw about 1/4 of it was glowing dull red. My touching it slightly fluffed up the cloth and it burst into a low flame. I keep a range of trigger pump bottles on hand (water, meths, cutting lube, turps, etc) and making sure I had the right one it was easy to extinguish.

Obviously the sparks from the grinder had been landing on the wheel and the waxed cloth had started slowly charring. I wonder if the buffing compound suppressed or compounded the problem?

[Boringgeoff]

What, no photos Bob?

Geoff.

[BobL]

OK - I'll set it on fire again and take a pic - it's pretty easy to do!

[ian]

OK - I'll set it on fire again and take a pic - it's pretty easy to do!

what, lighting the fire or taking the photo?

[Christos]

There always has to be one to come back with a remark. But here there is three.


I take it the buffing cloth is now a wet buffing system.

[Robson Valley]

Lots of stick shaped bars of buffing compound have some sort of a waxy carrier.
Just adds more fuel to the fire, I should think.
How warm and cozy, hot drink in hand, sitting in front of a roaring fire of buffing wheels.

Up here at 53N it's winter. I've hear stories of fools cleaning out a wood stove with a Shop Vac (which is 1/2 full of sawdust and wood shavings), lots of added air flow. . . . . . . . . .

[malb]

An aquaintance heavily into old MG's lost two sheds, lathes and milling machines, two roadgoing MG's and a racing one. Cause - angle grinding a part secured in a vice at a bench, sent sparks onto a shelf and ignited dust on the shelf. Fire was going very well by the time he noticed it because he was concentrating on task in hand and did not hear due to the noise from grinding. Badly burnt hands, legs, and skull from trying to put it out, or push cars outside and away from fire when putting out was no longer an option. Almost burnt down the house as well, managed to start a fire on the wall nearest the sheds.

I used to work at metal polishing, quite common to set dustys on fire there, good draft from the dusty, a few sparks go up the intakes, mixed metals in the collectors, and suddenly off they go. We took out a few sets of bags on smaller dusties, but nearby big time polisher has a full on fire in his dusty every couple of years.

In summary, you were lucky to get off lightly.

[Robson Valley]

Thank you malb:
My apologies for making light of what easily could have been a disaster.

[BobL]

In summary, you were lucky to get off lightly.

The buff is in the metal working end of shed and I thought there was nothing else flammable at that end of the shed so the fire would not spread but hadn't thought about all that metal dust being flammable.

I do have two fire extinguishers in my shed (one by each door) but I guess regularly cleaning up the metal dust is the way to go.

[Boringgeoff]

Hi Bob,
I've got 4 squirty bottles hanging up and one has got the soapy water in heem. After your original post I did two things,
1) topped up the water level.
2) rewrote the labels on the bottles.
Like you, I have two fire extinguishers in the shed one near the front door and the other near where I work, but in a hurry, for a small fire just starting, the old squirty water bottle could save the day.
So thanks for the heads up.

Regards,
Geoff.

[BobL]

Hi Bob,
Like you, I have two fire extinguishers in the shed one near the front door and the other near where I work, but in a hurry, for a small fire just starting, the old squirty water bottle could save the day.

That's exactly what happened!

I also have plumbed water in my shed with laboratory type tap stem with a standard tap on one side and hose barb on the other. I'm thinking of fitting a 30 cm length of garden hose to the barb so I should be able to direct a more substantial water jet to just about all parts of my shed if I need to.

[malb]

The buff is in the metal working end of shed and I thought there was nothing else flammable at that end of the shed so the fire would not spread but hadn't thought about all that metal dust being flammable.

I do have two fire extinguishers in my shed (one by each door) but I guess regularly cleaning up the metal dust is the way to go.

It takes a lot to light steel/iron dust, a bit to light ali dust, and very little to light dusty filters or other fabrics like buffs. Other staff thought were were a bit over the top about them shaping timber on the polisher belts till we set the dusty on fire after someone run some knife handles at lunch time without telling us.

Two man polishing room typically put a 44 drum through the dusty in a couple of days, and left about half of one on the floor. Much sweeping and shovelling. We also would not keep buffs or belts in the polishing room, except for those used for the job in hand because of fire issues and cross contamination problems. Stainless impregnated mild steel won't accept copper/nickel and chrome plating and contaminates the plating baths. Conversely mild impregnated stainless rusts as quickly as mild, not good for furniture.