Danish oil on fire

[Wongo]

Been reading the AWR #39.

In page 43 it reads “Please note, that oil soaked rags may self-combust and have the potential to burn your workshop down”

So what does it mean? How likely is it? Would a piece of cloth soaked in Danish oil self combust under room temperature? or maybe in a hot day say 150°C?

I always just put them in the bin and sometimes the bin is full of saw dust.

Anyone?

[rat52]

When you wad the rags and then bin them they generate heat thru a chemical reaction.

Just spread them out to dry first or drop in a bucket of water.

[Wongo]

How can I make it burn? I like to see it.

[bitingmidge]

The best way to make them burn is to scrunch them up and toss them in a corner of your shed before going to bed, ready to throw out in the morning.

At about 1.00 am, your house will catch fire.

That's what happened to one of our neighbours anyway. Lost almost all their house, but fortunately got out OK.

It seems to be one of those very slow reactions, then when it gets critical heat.... whooof!

I always hang solvent or oil soaked rags spread out over the edge of my bin, then stick 'em in when they've gone all stiff as a two day dead cat.

Cheers,

P

[jmk89]

... when they've gone all stiff as a two day dead cat.

Ie Wongo, just after they're ready to cook......

[journeyman Mick]

Wongo,
I don't know how likely it is, but it is a real danger. Chances are, if you try to make it happen it won't .

Mick

[Big Shed]

Been reading the AWR #39.

In page 43 it reads “Please note, that oil soaked rags may self-combust and have the potential to burn your workshop down”

So what does it mean? How likely is it? Would a piece of cloth soaked in Danish oil self combust under room temperature? or maybe in a hot day say 150°C?

I always just put them in the bin and sometimes the bin is full of saw dust.

Anyone?

Wongo, in our laboratory and factory, in fact any part of the building where there were likely to be (oil-based) paint soaked rags, we had buckets with water. Before knock off it was the employee's responsibility to put the used rags in these buckets. Anyone not doing that was regarded as a very short term employee.

Trust me, the problem is very real.

You said you wanted to find out and see it happening? Easy, just keep doing what you are doing (adding saw dust is an added incentive) and you WILL see it happening one day.

[silentC]

I saw somewhere an experiment where they tried to get this to happen. Under certain conditions (the specifics of which I have forgotten) it does happen in a repeatable way.

It's one of those things which is probably unlikely to happen but is easy to prevent, so not really worth debating.

Then again, ask the Mayor of Warsaw...

[Wongo]

Ok I get the message. Thanks.

[Wongo]

Next time I go camping I will bring a tin of Danish oil and a rag.

[rrich]

I have seen it happen. (MANY years ago on the TV show Mr. Wizzard.)

I have tried to make it happen with Minwax Antique Oil Finish but never succeeded. Wad the rags up, put them inside the latex gloves and then tossed out onto the driveway in the sunshine. Never a fire. I have some Tung oil that the next time that I use it I'll try. Usually I just let the rags dry flat out on the concrete floor where if they should burn there is nothing that would also burn.

[martrix]

Spontaneous Combustion test.

A weekend warrior mate stained something he made and then tossed the rags in a metal bin. Burnt half of his shed down and narrowly missed a classic car that was also stored in there.

I hang up almost anything to dry thats got anything other than water in it, even if its just hanging on the edge of the bin.

[Big Shed]

Thanks for that link Matrix, I have never seen it illustrated that clearly

Yes, you are quite right, just hanging up the rags to dry is also an option, one I use occassionally in my own shed.

[bitingmidge]

Next time I go camping I will bring a tin of Danish oil and a rag.

and wait five hours...... by the time you get the fire lit, you'll have drunk so much beer you won't feel like tea!

P

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

It happened to my uncle, a retired Engineer. Of course, having spent most of his life working with metal he had an impressive range of metal-working machinery in his 4-car "shed." Unfortunately, one corner of the shed was devoted to gardening... you know, packets of fertiliser, drum of 2-stroke, mower, etc. Being a very, very neat & organised bloke, (he even had layout marks on the floor for his mobile tools! ) that "grotty section" was also where his trash- and rag-bins were kept.

Being retired, he decided to take up woodturning, and was doing a damned fine job of it too, if I do say so myself. His favourite finish? Danish Oil, of course.

I'm sure you can see where this is heading? We're not sure whether one of his garden products leaked and dribbled into the rag-bin or whether the rags ignited and some of those products combined into something nasty during the fire... but "spontaneous combustion" is a very poor description. "China Syndrome" would be more appropriate.

The fire was so hot that nothing was left of the steel shed, the floor slab had crazed and shattered and worst of all; none of the machinery was even remotely salvagable. Needless to say, his insurer's weren't happy about the situation and it took something like 5 years before they finally settled.

I look around at the mess in my shed and think "if it happened to such a neat bloke as him..." Trust me: I'm much more careful about storing used rags now. The risk may be fairly low but even so it's not a chance I'm willing to take.