Oil Finishes!! Beware! Oily rags DO catch fire

H

HiBC

New member
A young woman friend of mine(30's) lost her life to a house fire several weeks ago.
It was a really unnecessary tragedy.
The story is some contractors oil stained the wooden deck and did not properly contain the rags. The spontaneous combustion thing is real.She was asleep in an upstairs bedroom above the origin of the fire.

It struck me that among the younger folks,some said "I never heard of such a thing" .
It was pretty common knowledge 20,30 years ago.Maybe shop classes and more use of the products kept awareness up.
Forgive me if you don't need the reminder. Some do.

I would not want your first experiments with linseed or tung oil to light up your reloading powder!

https://youtu.be/MDPLFoWNlV8
 
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I put all soiled rags into some sort of airtight container regardless of what they are soaked in. This is especially true of any sort of wood finish such as Liquid Gold or similar.
 
Unfortunate.


Since I don't have a good option for an air-tight container and don't work with the stuff frequently, I usually hang soiled rags or paper towels to dry outside. Once they're hard, cured, or otherwise showing that they are low risk or no-risk, I toss them in the garbage can the night before trash day.


And, yes, even many people my own age (late 30s) don't understand the fire risk. ...Just one of the byproducts of shop class being taken out of schools, and people choosing video games over doing something productive. Case in point: My wife and I delivered two cribs and a metric ton of baby stuff to a couple last week. Rather than help unload and/or set up the cribs, the 28 year-old husband played video games while the 9-month-pregnant wife did the work...

I'm sure some people would try to blame all of the DYI shows and videos that make it look so easy to do something, without discussing the safety measures required. But I don't really think that's the problem. It is not someone else's responsibility to teach a person. It is their own responsibility to learn (and read the label on the solvent/oil/pain can!).
 
HiBC wrote:
It struck me that among the younger folks,some said "I never heard of such a thing" .
It was pretty common knowledge 20,30 years ago.
Click to expand...

Another reason for people not being as aware of the risk is that over the last 20-30 years there has been a concerted effort to minimize the use of volatile chemicals in paints and stains, so in many cases products today carry a much lower risk of spontaneously combusting; although the risk does remain.
 
hdwit, I appreciate that formulations have changed.

However,this particular issue is not about being volatile...like gasoline or acetone or mineral spirits...

Its about Linseed or Tung oil finishes .The "cure" is not about evaporation,its about oxidation. And a ball of rags traps,rather than dissipates heat.As the temp rises,the oxidation accelerates.

As Gary mentioned,this knowledge was drilled into us in shop classes,and in my day,EVERYONE received some basic shop competency training.
They even required a home economics class for boys and some basic shop for girls.
IMO,these are life skills,whether it be sewing on a button,making a grilled cheese,or a wooden jewelry box,perhaps with an oil or Watco finish.
IMO,its sad these classes are often gone from public schools.

In this case,failure to manage oil base deck stain rags burned a house and killed one of my people.

Occasionally someone posts about attempting an oil finish on a rifle stock.

Some put the oil on like a coat of paint then they aren't sure what to do with the sticky goo on their stock.

I can respectfully give them credit for trying. That's how we learn,but they seem to not understand linseed or tung oil.

That same lack of understanding can result in the fastidious cleanup of dribbled,spilled,or wiped down oil. Those rags or paper towels in the trash can kill and/or burn a home down. Its unnecessary.
 
HiBC - it just dawned on me. There are very few schools that have shop classes anymore that teach those basic safety or preventative measures. I took mine in the early '70s. Boys didn't take home economics but that was allowed after I graduated from jr. high (guys would take it to eat the food they cooked. Something about teenagers and food). About the same time girls were allowed to take shop too - starting with light shop work like electronics and then moving onto woodshop.

Modernly today we not only have metal cans with lids for oily rags, but also bright yellow cabinets for chemicals/solvents. I suppose fire proofing was one reason why we had these nice cabinets at school (Trinidad State J. C.).

Getting off topic, TSJC takes a woman or two per semester and we had one in my class. She put a 1 1/2" ivory nose on her Ruger 10/22 and an ivory grip cap.
 
They taught us that in jr. high. We had metal cans with lids for them
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Standard operating procedure for any type of business that has/uses rags in an environment with oil products. Contractor should face criminal charges for there lack of proper containment. When in the machine shop people were given unpaid time off for not properly storing oily rags
 
I took woodworking in high school, and I still almost burned a house down years later. Won’t happen again. These days, if I have just a couple of rags, i’ll Just lay them flat on the concrete floor. If I have a bunch of rags, i’ll Soak them in water for a few days, in a metal can. Burn them later in the trash barrel (we live in the country).
 
I'd guess the fact so few paints are oil-based now has contributed to making this knowledge a lot less common.
Click to expand...

Steel wool burns, I had to lecture one of my people, he was grinding and throwing sparks.

F. Guffey
 
Years ago I tossed a rag I had used to rub in linseed oil into a scrap barrel that had some sawdust in it. Left the house for an hour or so and came back to a house full of smoke from the smoldering rag and sawdust. Fortunately no flames but it certainly taught me a lesson. Oily rags do not belong in the trash.
 
BTW, if you don't have a metal trash can with a lid, the burn barrel or your fireplace (if it is for wood and not a gas operation) or wood stove is a safe place to put it. Who cares if it burns then?
 
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