[SEL] Spontaneous Combustion

[Alan]

I well remember as a kid when the farm up the road lost it's barn the same way.
They were working on a tractor then went to bed.
Yup, grease rags in a bucket next to the tractor's gas tank.

Alan in Michigan

--- On Tue, 11/29/11, Jim Hardman <Jim at hardmanfamily.net> wrote:

> From: Jim Hardman <Jim at hardmanfamily.net>
> Subject: [SEL] Spontaneous Combustion
> To: "The SEL email discussion list" <sel at lists.stationary-engine.com>
> Date: Tuesday, November 29, 2011, 5:18 PM
> We almost had a fire... and I should
> have known better.
> 
> For years I have been warned about spontaneous combustion,
> but never experienced it.
> 
> We were cleaning an engine with mineral spirits using cheap
> Wal-Mart face cloths.  Our son and grandson were
> helping scrub off oily areas... flywheel spokes, surfaces
> that were caked with dried grease, etc.
> 
> The original paint had turned dark with a veteran patina,
> but there was no rust and the bright work cleaned up really
> well.  The last step was to wipe everything down with a
> 50-50 mix of mineral spirits and boiled linseed oil. 
> Let me tell you, this engine came to life.
> 
> We dropped the used facecloths (six or seven dark with
> grease and mineral spirits, plus three still pretty moist
> with linseed oil) into an oversize coffee can and went on to
> other work.
> 
> The next afternoon, our son said "Dad, I smell smoke"...
> and I ran down to the shop.  The can was belching out
> smoke, you couldn't see across the room, a converted two-car
> garage.  The rim of the can was still cool, I carried
> it out to the driveway and dumped it out.  The rags
> were glowing red, they were partially consumed by glowing
> coals.  Our grandson blew into the rags and "poof!"...
> they burst into flame.
> 
> Yes, we have a fire detector in the shop, but the smoke
> detector was disconnected due to over-sensitivity.  I
> couldn't spray WD-40 without causing a false alarm. 
> And so no... we didn't detect the smoke.  The fire
> detector is a rate-of-rise temperature sensor tied into the
> alarm system.
> 
> It took 24 hours to cook off.  Had this happened at
> night, or when we weren't home, we could have had really
> serious trouble.  Having a shop connected to the house
> is a huge advantages during the winter months, but a fire
> could take down everything.
> 
> As I say, I should have known better.  I even recall
> being warned about this in grade school.
> 
> Beside feeling foolish, I feel pretty fortunate that our
> only consequence is having to air the place out.
> 
> My wife shook her finger at me and said "Don't you ever do
> that again."  Yep, I hear you.
> 
> Be warned...
> 
> Jim in Vermont
> 
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