Post by QuailRiver on Feb 10, 2017 14:06:46 GMT -5
Yesterday I was in my shop faceting and got up and stepped over to another work bench to look for something. Within 2-3 seconds after I approached the work bench I noticed a little smoke coming up off the work bench just in front of me, then a red ember, which quickly became a flame, then a flash fire that resembled loose black powder burning. I had had a couple of pieces of steel wool laying on a 10" ceramic dish that either spontaneously combusted or were ignited from a static electricity spark.
I was able to pick up the ceramic dish and get it outside quickly and then immediately removed all flammable materials that had been in the close vicinity of the flame just in case any embers had popped outside the dish onto them. So fortunately this incident didn't escalate.
Most steel wool contains oil as a rust inhibitor. And it was the oil that flashed and burned so quickly. The piece that originally caught fire, and which ignited the second piece, was a very fine 0000 grade of steel wool and some of the metal did appear to burn on that piece.
Because I had heard that steel wool can be prone to spontaneous combustion I only keep small amounts of it in my main workshop at any given time. And when not using it I usually keep it on a ceramic dish since ceramic materials aren't flammable. I don't know how far static electricity can arc off of a human body but I was never closer than 6" to the steel wool, if even that close. So I don't know if it was a case of static electricity or a case of spontaneous combustion. If it was the later then this was nothing short of a miracle of timing!
I hate to think of what the results could have so easily been. This occurred in the only one of my shop buildings that I keep heated in the winter. Therefore this is also the building that I store most of my furniture repair supplies, finishes, and solvents, including a couple of hundred aerosol cans of furniture lacquers and toners in - which are all highly flammable and would have resulted in a very hot and violent fire if ignited. Additionally it's the same building that all of my personal faceting and cabbing equipment and supplies, my smaller sized slab and trim saws, most of my lifetime accumulation of slabs and cabbing rough, my wood working hand tools, casting equipment and supplies and a few other pieces of equipment purchased for resale are all stored in. So frankly I would have found the loss of this shop building and the contnets nearly as devastating as I would were it the house.
It's so easy to forget how quickly and unexpectedly a tragedy can strike until we get a reminder! And I thank God that this incident didn't turn into a tragedy!
I really have to rethink the way I've been managing and storing things around here!
Larry C.
I was able to pick up the ceramic dish and get it outside quickly and then immediately removed all flammable materials that had been in the close vicinity of the flame just in case any embers had popped outside the dish onto them. So fortunately this incident didn't escalate.
Most steel wool contains oil as a rust inhibitor. And it was the oil that flashed and burned so quickly. The piece that originally caught fire, and which ignited the second piece, was a very fine 0000 grade of steel wool and some of the metal did appear to burn on that piece.
Because I had heard that steel wool can be prone to spontaneous combustion I only keep small amounts of it in my main workshop at any given time. And when not using it I usually keep it on a ceramic dish since ceramic materials aren't flammable. I don't know how far static electricity can arc off of a human body but I was never closer than 6" to the steel wool, if even that close. So I don't know if it was a case of static electricity or a case of spontaneous combustion. If it was the later then this was nothing short of a miracle of timing!
I hate to think of what the results could have so easily been. This occurred in the only one of my shop buildings that I keep heated in the winter. Therefore this is also the building that I store most of my furniture repair supplies, finishes, and solvents, including a couple of hundred aerosol cans of furniture lacquers and toners in - which are all highly flammable and would have resulted in a very hot and violent fire if ignited. Additionally it's the same building that all of my personal faceting and cabbing equipment and supplies, my smaller sized slab and trim saws, most of my lifetime accumulation of slabs and cabbing rough, my wood working hand tools, casting equipment and supplies and a few other pieces of equipment purchased for resale are all stored in. So frankly I would have found the loss of this shop building and the contnets nearly as devastating as I would were it the house.
It's so easy to forget how quickly and unexpectedly a tragedy can strike until we get a reminder! And I thank God that this incident didn't turn into a tragedy!
I really have to rethink the way I've been managing and storing things around here!
Larry C.