Fire In The Hole !!!!!!!!!!

[TTIT]

Bit of a shocker in the shed last night! Spent a bit of time replacing a couple of damaged guide bearings on the bandsaw and tuned everything up as sweet as I could. Cutting some blanks from a lump of very dry, ragged Dead Finish later and smelt smoke! Thought the neighbours must have fired up the combustion heater again and kept sawing. Once I finished the cut and stopped the saw, I noticed smoke coming from inside the saw. PANIC:eek::eek:. Opened the side - patch of dust smouldering away and happily melting my dust outlet. I don't have a dusty - ?yet?. Put the fire out and tried to work out where a spark could have come from - no idea - everything looks as it should. Made another cut and away it went again:eek::eek::eek:. Put it out and got my young bloke to watch proceedings under the table while I made another cut to try and determine where the sparks are coming from - none!! Can only put it down to ant dirt in the Dead Finish creating the sparks - used the saw again for hours today with no problem.

My question is - If I had been running a dusty, what would have happened????:confused: Fire in the dusty???:confused:
When I get one it would be out the back of the shed where I cannot see (hear) it - doesn't seem like such a good idea now:confused::confused:

[Grunt]

Fire In The Hole !!!!!!!!!

Cut down on the chilli

[Stuart]

My question is - If I had been running a dusty, what would have happened????:confused: Fire in the dusty???:confused:
When I get one it would be out the back of the shed where I cannot see (hear) it - doesn't seem like such a good idea now:confused::confused:

Probably not, but certainly there is a possibility. The distance to travel and the airflow would probably have meant that whatever sparks were being generated would have finished burning by the time they found another source of combustible material. However, it is by no means an ideal situation. One suggestion for when you do set up the dusty - get a cheap smoke alarm - costs next to nothing, and could save you from a dangerous development! (Come to think of it, after your experience, I will be taking my own advice!) (Especially seeing as mine is in an adjacent shed, along with my main wood storage racks..... :eek: )

[BobL]

. . . . One suggestion for when you do set up the dusty - get a cheap smoke alarm - costs next to nothing, and could save you from a dangerous development! .. . .

Smoke alarm, that's a bloody good idea. I've already has a (small) fire in my shed. One Saturday morning in the middle of a windy rain storm one of the house circuit breakers turned off. I reset it and it tripped again. I walked the house and pulled out every appliance, still tripping. Then I remembered the shed. Opening the shed door I could smell smoke and a few wisps were rising from one of the powerpoints underneath the window. I turned off the power opened up the powerpoint which was chock full of sawdust and an ants nest. The sawdust was wet from the rain that had come in from underneath the window and mixed together with a bit of mushy ant acid, had created a circuit which was still smoking.

I guess it was probably lucky we were home - smoke alarm wouldn't have helped much if we weren't. Anyway I'm still getting an alarm.

Cheers

[echnidna]

Dusties have caught fire just from the sparks from cutting a nail, so fire is certainly a real possibility.

[doug the slug]

One suggestion for when you do set up the dusty - get a cheap smoke alarm - costs next to nothing, and could save you from a dangerous development!

can a cheap smoke alarm differentiate between smoke and fine dust? :confused: :confused: :confused:

[Stuart]

good point. Or perhaps that's worthwhile too - "Warning, warning, your lungs are getting rooted"!

[doug the slug]

so we need a cheap smoke detector that cant differentiate between dust and smoke in the workshop and a smoke detector that can differentiate in the top of the cyclone bucket in case theres a fire in the ducting system or the cyclone :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: . geez,just when i thought i had it all figured out :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Next question - how are we going to hear the muffled scream of the smoke detector in the dusty over the racket being made by the thicknesser and through our hearing protection we all wear?

[TTIT]

so we need a cheap smoke detector that cant differentiate between dust and smoke in the workshop and a smoke detector that can differentiate in the top of the cyclone bucket in case theres a fire in the ducting system or the cyclone :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: . geez,just when i thought i had it all figured out :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Next question - how are we going to hear the muffled scream of the smoke detector in the dusty over the racket being made by the thicknesser and through our hearing protection we all wear?

Thanks for the ideas guy's - I was hoping someone would tell me that dusty's miraculously extinguish sparks somehow but it sounds like I'm gonna have to be extra vigilant when I'm cutting some of the dodgie desert timber I use out here.
Think I might just train the dog to bite me on the ankle when it smells smoke - it's always hangin' round my feet in the shed anyway!

[chrisb691]

can a cheap smoke alarm differentiate between smoke and fine dust? :confused: :confused: :confused:

Ionisation alarms, ie the cheap ones that most of us have, alarm by the detection of carbon(?) produced as the result of combustion. Therefore, they should not be triggered by dust.

Having said that, A Current Affair had an article on tonight, that basically says these are near useless, as they wont detect the smoke from a slow burning (smouldering) fire. You need the photoelectric type to be safe.

The article can be found http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/stories/2117.asp

I have 10 of the Ionisation alarms in my home, religeously change the batteries annually, test them all monthly, and was feeling safe. Now I've got to go out and start replacing them all. BUGGA

[bsrlee]

From the smoke alarm POV - get one of the alarms with a built-in light - just position it so it shines at you rather than into a cupboard. They are sold as being good for the hard of hearing as well as providing some light for escape if the main power fails due to the fire.

As for the fire-in-the-sawdust-bin problem - I'm aiming to use a steel bin as a drop box, I might have to put some sort of liner in it & dump a few litres of water in there to soak the dust.

[Stuart]

In the mailbox tonight- the latest Choice magazine. The cover article- smoke detectors. How ironic.

Good point here - given as Doug correctly pointed out the crap atmosphere stuffing up some particle detectors, and definitely stuffing up photoelectric types, perhaps heat detector types would be the go.

[Markw]

Not sure what type I have fitted but the damned things go off when mowing the lawn - 2 stroke mower but not that much smoke - you cant see the smoke produced.

Just a mid priced unit from bunnies

[chrisb691]

Not sure what type I have fitted but the damned things go off when mowing the lawn - 2 stroke mower but not that much smoke - you cant see the smoke produced.

Just a mid priced unit from bunnies

If it's got a radiation warning on the back it's an ionisation type, if it hasn't, then it's a photoelectric.

[Markw]

Yep its one of them newcleer atom bomb thingys.