Had an "incident" in my shop tonight. One of the projects I work in my shop is making rubber running board mats for vintage Buicks. I buy the neoprene in a 3' x 6' section that has a thin plastic film on one side the rubber is rolled up for easy shipping. Usual procedure is to unroll the rubber and lay it as flat as possible. I have to measure it out and cut a diagonal cut from one side to the other. After I cut it to the shape I need I wipe one side down with lacquer thinner to clean off any release oil or dirt so it sticks to the two sided tape I use to anchor the rubber down to a board to clamp down onto my CNC table.

Tonight I was doing my normal cutting procedure. I saturated a rag with lacquer thinner and went to wipe the bottom side of the rubber down. I sit the rag on the table and started to remove the thin plastic film from the bottom side of the rubber. All of the sudden the rag burst into flame. A lacquer soaked rag really lights up. For a second I couldn't figure out how the rag ignited but them quickly are I was trying to get the rag out I realized the plastic film must have produced a static spark as I pulled it off and the rag was close enough for a small spark to ignite the rag. Wow! That was a few minutes of panic

Just thought I'd post to maybe help people that sometimes you don't think about what can happen in a second.

 

I'm glad you, your shop and the rubber mats are OK.

 

Wow!!
Close call. Glad it didn't get any worse

 

Yeah, this is the type of thing that can happen in a second. Never had a fire in my shop except for the couple of times I set my pant leg on fire while cutting or welding. I'm working and I feel something on my leg, look down and my leg is on fire I have also started a couple of shirts on fire grinding metal.

I'm sure I'm not the only one.

 

I never had a fire in my garage but I did almost set my pants on fire. It was in March of 2018. My 55 F350 was in the body shop getting painted. My garage has a storage room next to the truck side. I was painting the head board to my flatbed while the truck was getting painted. I have a propane tank burner. It really heats up the room quite well. But there's not a lot of room.


At one point the back of my leg felt warm. I figured I was too close to the heater. I moved away but I soon felt cold air hitting my leg. I put my hand down there and I felt skin. I burned a hole in the back of my pants. Fortunately denim doesn't burst into flames.

 

Wow Bob that was an incident. doesn't take much!

 

You have to be careful with rags soaked in any flammable liquid.

I have had linseed oil soaked rags spontaneously combust.

Years ago, in the trade I worked in, a plumber was cleaning a Ridgid power head with gasoline. When he hit the switch a spark ignited the fumes. He was running around while on fire. It had to be a horrific death. I never use gasoline as a solvent. I have seen people do it and they may get by with it but sooner or later those fumes will combust.

 

Yikes Bob. A close call and an important reminder. Thanks for sharing. Another cautionary tale to share around the campfire.

 

I never use gas for cleaning. One story from my childhood has been embedded in memory that my dad told us about when it happened. He had a friend who owned a gas station and would use gas to clean sparkplugs. One day he was going to clean some plugs but got called away. After he left his son, about my age at the time, 8-9, decided he was going to help his day and clean the plugs while his dad was gone. Something happened and the gas ignited and burned the kid really bad. I had never met the kid but a few years later I was someplace with my dad and he saw his friend, following behind him was his son. His face looked like melted plastic. 50 years later I still remember how he looked.

A few years back a friend who is in his late eighties now, got a great deal on an early '70s convertible, the car was near meant. I drove past his house and saw him working in the trunk. I stopped and walked up to him to see what he was doing. The trunk floor was coated with tar type undercoating and he was trying remove it. He had gallon of gas he was soaking rags with and trying wipe the undercoating with it. If that wasn't bad enough he was using his shop vac to suck the gas fumes up. I told her was pretty much making a catastrophic bomb. I told him using gas was a dangerously horrible thing to use and the motor of the shop could ignite the fumes in the vacuum's canister. He didn't think that would happen. I convinced him to.stop, he did, at least as long as I was there.

Lacquer thinner is probably just as bad but lacquer fees go up and dissipate while gas fumes will lay down on the floor around your legs. But I could be wrong about the lacquer thinner fumes.

 

I always crack the garage door, kill any flame sources, and keep a charged extinguisher nearby. Fumes drift fast, so I set up fans to push them outside before working.

 

Thank goodness no more harm done. It serves as a reminder for everyone make sure you have a fire extinguisher in your shops!! And catch up on what insurance will cover if there is damage.
Where I worked, the fork trucks would drag a brass chain on the concrete floor to disapate static electricity. In the winter, I always get zapped picking up a can of food off the grocery shelf, started touching my car key to the can before picking it up.

 

Many a house, boat and anything else you can think of has been burned up by a rag or even a paper towel with linseed oil on it.

 

This reminds me of something i tested out with halogen bulbs.
I had a halogen floor lamp (no longer sold for obvious reasons). So, we got to discussing the fire hazard of these types of lamps. Being an inquisitive group of programmers we decided to test the theory. We put a paper towel on the bulb. Well it smoldered fairly quickly caught fire after only a few seconds.
So our next test was a Kleenex. Well those go poof!!! We were shocked at how quickly it burst into flame. So we opened the window really quick got a fan going and acted like we knew nothing.
Now we all know, never put a Kleenex near a halogen bulb!

This also reminds me I need to get a fire extinguisher in my thunderbird.

 

One of my co-workers in BC Tel, worked at a garage in his early years. One of his work cleanup duties was to wash the floor of the oil and lube bay with gasoline. He and his partner were part way thru the cleanup when the telephone rang, so he left the bay and answered the telephone and the spark from the contacts in the switchhook lit up the fumes. He was blown out of the building and got pretty bad burns, his partner was killed.
He later got a job working for the telephone company.
Terry