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posted to rec.boats.cruising
James Douglas
 
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Default Oily rags - how dangerous?

Roger Long wrote:
We all grew up hearing about the danger of oily rags. It was linseed
oil they were talking about, not motor oil. Now that I (hopefully)
will be rubbing oil on teak for the rest of my natural life, I expect
to producing a lot of these little incendiary bombs.

How much of a danger are these left over rags? Is it something that
happens just once in a blue moon when a bunch are left in the corner
of a shop for a long time in hot weather? If the phone rings and I
forget to take one to the dumpster, is it "Good by" boat? If I do
toss them in the dumpster, am I at risk of starting a big fire in my
favorite marina or boatyard.

Is there an approved way of storing or disposing of linseed oil rags?

Inquiring mind wants to know.

I was working on re-finishing a table and tossed the rag on the
workbench, the next day funny smell from garage and found that
that rag and started burning the bench, the rag and bench was too
hot to touch and you can still see the burn markes today.
Of course it did not help that I was in TX in the
summer time and the garage gets to be like 150+ ................
Now when done with rags I throw them outside inside this metal
container.