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I am really freaky about fire, don't know why, just always really careful about it. My question is has anyone ever started a fire with their grinder? I try to keep everything clear and I have a welding blanket up where most of the sparks go, but they really fly everywhere. I try to hang in the shop maybe a half hour or so after I have quit making sparks hoping if anything was going to go up it would have by then. What is your experience?
Thanks,
CHAZ
I used to keep a pretty big piece of carpet in my work bay to catch any fluid or anything else that spilled. Well after catching oil, gas, tranny fluid, and whatever else it was rather dirty. When you grind on exhaust in the air yes, the carpet will catch on fire. I had to put it out but wasn't that bad.
Yes, I have had fires from grinding. I have set varsol rags on fire, work gloves on fire, and the front of an oily old sweatshirt on fire. You are right to be a bit freaked about it. (did you ever try to take off a flaming sweatshirt).
I have had a dozen or so small fires over the past 40 yrs........all started by the grinder.
I keep 2 buckets of water & a fire ext. in the shop.
Don Meyer
Yep! I'v started a few that way. Worst one was welding. I too stick around in the shop for awhile after burning cause sparks go every where. I have 5 water ext. and 4 ABC. I use the water ones often sometimes to cool a part. I call it testing them:eek:
Sure have, but more often from welding. We have had rags catch on fire, gloves, etc.
We have gone to Home Depot and placed fire extinquishers around the shop in places where we do this kind of work. We have also set a rule where we stop grinding and clean up our mess every night before we go home. It does two things. First of all you come back to a clean work area next day, and secondly, you are hanging around for another half hour, in which time you are making sure nothing was smoldering.
Sparks onto concrete won't cause any problems, it is the rags, papers, and other flamables that do, so if you keep those out of the way you will be ok.
We have a whole lot of clothes that have holes burned in them though.:eek: :eek: Right now I have two nasty burns on my left foot from sparks going down my sock.
Don
Don
Ever think of wearing shoes over your socks??:eek: :eek: :LOL: :LOL:
I used to get them down inside my boots too. Thats a real attenion getter.
I was cutting a seat frame with a plasma cutter and a spark went in the open box. A brand new B&M shifter was in the box. Well I didn't know it and was busy cutting then I smelled plastic burning. That spark had set my new shifter on fire. It burned all the plastic and paper. I was able to put the fire out with some water before it caught the garge walls on fire. OH I called B&M and they sent me the replacement parts for free. So it was not all bad. I don't use the plasma cutter in the shop anymore only outside. It throws sparks alot more than a torch or welder.
let's see, never really caught anything other then ME on fire while grinding, i've burnt my pants, shirt & jacket all at different times BUT it was a true attention getter.....joe
Well I have set myself on fire while welding.... It was my underpants :eek: just had to take a fast dive onto the bird bath..:DQuote:
Originally Posted by TooMany2count
:HMMM: An old friend of mine is a farmer.. I think I mentioned this before...But he was doing some grinding in a shed and as you say the sparks are flying all around the place. So somehow the sparks got directed to a tin of old detonators up on the shed wall.... He woke up with the whole shed wall blown out.:eek: :eek: He is still around, in his 70's now and his hair is titally white.
I'm like about everyone else and have caught various items on fire from grinding and welding. One of the items that sticks in my mind was some very fine steel wool that I had been using - that stuff has some oil in it and will burn very hot. No damage, but surprised that steel would burn - I keep it away from my hot work area now.
:3dSMILE: Really ???? must remember that for my next lot of pyrotechnic gizmos.:rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Irelands child
I can't count the little fires I have started grinding or welding. I have fire extinguishers at the exits, a bucket of water and a spritzer bottle whenever I am doing hot work. Hot work shuts down an hour and a half before closing the shop. Pay attention to the news when they say a shop burned down an hour or two after quitting time.
Hmmmm. I'm reminded of the great fire of '89.... Mig welding overhead and smelled something burning.... It was my pony tail!!!!! Burning hair sure does smell bad.........
Fine steel wool will burn and it will burn very hot. We used to do tests with it in high school.
Waaaay back when Christ was a corporal and I was studying to be an industrial shop teacher........... I was welding in the booth while wearing corduroy pants. Nothing like roasting nuts by an open fire for that Christmas feeling.
steel wool is an excellent fire starter. Take some with you hiking, along with a 9 volt battery, and you'll never have trouble starting a fire. ( just lay the wool across the battery, and poof ) Yeah, most of my pants have weld spatter holes in them, and my left foot has a dark spot which hasn't quite healed yet, where a spark bounced down into my boots. ( not much to do but grin and bear it, and keep welding ) Put many a rag to fire, somehow it never seems to happen if I clean the area up before grinding / welding. In fact, I have one pair of pants with a sizable hole from just grinding. Some advice for ya: if ya feel the heat from the sparks, your pants are probably getting burned. Take it for what it's worth. last fire I set was a paper towel under the welding bench. I sure didn't leave it there dammit. Never anything severe though. The real flamable stuff is kept at a distance, and my work area is always reasonably clean. Clutter is your enemy!
Yes I Have caught my shirt on fire while grinding.
I am pretty paranoid about that and quit welding and otherwise throwing sparks about an hour and a half before shutting the shop down. That is about the length of time it takes for most shops to catch fire after work. Plus I have a welding apron and blanket for good measure as well as an extinguisher by each exit.
. . . which causes me to ask . . . why were you welding in your underpants? :LOL:Quote:
Well I have set myself on fire while welding.... It was my underpants
Yup, spent a while in the hospital. Don't wear plastic clothes of any kind while doing anything hot. When they catch on fire they melt right into the skin. It all has to be picked ,dug and scraped out before healing begins. Keep the shop clean. Use screens to keep the sparks localized. Have a bucket of water handy. Don't throw it on the welder, throw it on the fire. Don't leave a can of starting fluid on the welding bench. Have an ABC extinguisher for every 20 foot of wall, distributed accordingly. Don't leave pans of oil, gas(don't even allow it in the shop any longer than absolutely necessary)or other flammable liquids setting around. Put your oily and greasy rags in a closed metal container. A pile of dirty rags can catch on fire all by themselves. Don't need a spark to start them. Do all these things and eventually you will still start the shop or yourself on fire but it won't be near as bad.
My NAPA guy got me a really nice welding blanket. Works really great when welding on interiors, doors, or throw it over the top of the engine when welding or grinding under the hood. also works great for protecting glass when welding. I think it's made by 3M??? Anyway, really handy thing to have around the shop.
One scenario you should be aware of, is the bench grinder residue. We quite often work with aluminum and steel, the grindings from both, mixed up and left in a little pile, can be extremely volatile. It has the basic makings of thermite. Thermite welding is used to weld large beams and railroad rails. The smaller amount you would have around a bench grinder would be enough to cause very severe burns. So a hot shoefly in your boot, (the ones that cause you to do the hokey pokey around the shop until they cool down a bit) would seem like a walk in the park compared to one of these flare ups. They are bright white and super hot. Guaranteed to leave an impression on you, or in you!
Oh yeah, I've done the crotch of my pants too.
I have my shop in my home 3 car garage, not too big, I have one ABC extenguisher. I keep the used rags in a closed metal can, my trash can is metal, heck, I think half my shop surfaces are metal. anyways, I try to always use the grinder out at the edge of the shop or in the driveway if I can.
Nylon is another bad thing to wear, again, the "plastic" clothing thing. I have a frame that has some vinyl on it, I want to get some fire-proof cloth to stretch over it and use as a screen, anybody know where to get that.
Red
Hell, Ive done the crotch thing with a cigar ash.......result?.....the same...OUCH
Funny you should ask. when I worked a Ford's Claycomo assembly plant back in the dark ages, I had to run a welder. They supplied us overalls which were about 4 sizes too big for you and never quite were able to button them up all the way. Every pair of underwear and socks I owned were full of burn holes. :eek: Not fun..... I used to get new safety glasses (prescription) about 4 times a year because they were full of slag and splatter too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Henry Rifle
I just had to put this one in here. One day my son and I were out in the garage and my daughter called and said to start the grill she was bring the steaks home. Well it was the old fashioned one with real charcoal so we looked around for the charcoal lighter.... none. So then we got a little diesel from my can in the truck and poured it on the pile. Now for a match. Neither my son nor I smoke so no pocket lighters. None laying around the hose. Next we tried various means to light a fire. Grinding into a small pan with acetone. nothing. small pan with gas ...nothing. ha the propane torch....where is the scratcher. broken. Big shower of sparks for the propane torch ....nothing. Tig welder...out of gas. Idea.... go into the laundry room where the gas water heater is and poke a long sliver of wood into the flame. A quick run to the small pan of gas and poof a flame. The pan was sitting next to the pile of charcoal so we just tipped it over and lit off the diesel and had the grill going......it only took and hour. :CRY:
Any other day we would have used 2-3 fire extinguishers putting out the things we tried.
Come on sniper,you dont save that stuff? Its always good to have aluminum powder around when your bored.
Funny thing, i was at my buddies shop a little while ago, and he had been using some titanium on the lath, well he had this huge pile of shavings on the floor, well i tell him to move it before he burns himself up, he looks at me like im insane, aparently he did not know it burns real well, so he had to prove it to himself. He takes a small pile and lights it, whoosh, up it goes, he looked like a kid in a candy store.
Haven't started any fires with the grinder yet, have set my pants on fire with a stick welder though. But hey,there's always tomorrow!
Yep! Ya' got's to watch out for "residue"! I had taken the wheels and shields off of the pedestal grinder, and replaced them with some buffing wheels to do some polishing. I was in a hurry to get something fixed, and needed to do a bit of grinding, so I just put the wheels and shields back on the grinder, and fired her up - litterally; caught the buffing residue on fire. Fortunately, I had put a piece of sheet metal on the wall, and all of the compound spinoff was on it, rather than on the drywall, but things got a bit dicey for a while, there. I have also set my whiskers and hair on fire a few times, while welding; after the first time, I always try to keep a bucket of water and some rags handy. :eek: ;)
I haven't managed to light any clothing like shirts, shorts and pants on fire yet, but I did learn that it is a smart idea to let the shop warm up before getting busy with the bench grinder. Apparently bulky nylon winter jackets are very flammable :eek:
I also learned that when cutting with torches under a car, there may be something flammable on the other side of the floor boards. I was cutting out some exhaust parts that the SawZall wouldn't reach, and I guess the torches got the sheetmetal of the floor hot enough (or there was a hole in the rusty bits) for the underpadding inside to start smoldering. Luckily I wasn't working alone and it was spotted quickly and we keep a water extinguisher handy when doing any oxy-acetalene work.
I realize that this is straying from the subject of the thread, but If anybody is interested in learning some really creative ways to start fires, may I submit a couple of my favorite methods?
My brother had an early Winnebago motor home. The lady in my life and I borrowed it to take a lengthy vacation trip to the Northwest. The vehicle had a very tired 318 in it and had a healthy appetite for oil so it required frequent transfusions. Well, we stopped for gas somewhere up in Dave Severson territory and I got out a can of cheap forty-weight and stabbed it with a filler spout. In doing so I crunched down the stupid paper can that oil used to come in. I stuck the spout in the filler hole not noticing that most of the oil was running down on a very hot exhaust manifold. Now, you might think that an open flame would be necessary to ignite oil, but it ain't necessarily so. We immediately had a nice cozy fire. Fortunately baby brother had a fire extinguisher next to the driver seat so we were able to drive her home to Texas.
That was stupid, but it wasn't as bad as what we did to the poor old Winnie next when we decided to replace the 318 with a rebuilt 360.
We had the new engine in place and were hooking up the ignition, fuel lines, etc. The gas line was not yet hooked up to the carburetor and was hanging down in the vicinity of the #1 spark plug. The plug wire was hanging loose beside the plug.
You can probably see this coming, but I reached in and "bumped" the starter.
The fuel pump gave a heathy squirt of gas.
The distributor provided a good hot spark.
AND HERE WE GO AGAIN!
Believe it or not the Winnie served us for several more years despite my efforts to destroy her.
Jim