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.

--

Roger Long

Rog,
Storing them in a mason jar with an inch or two of linseed in the jar
to keep the rag from drying out, and with the cap screwed on works
well... The rag heats from slow oxidation of the millions of
microscopic crevices of just barely dampened fibers with the oil
(surface area phenomena) deep inside the folds of the cloth with the
R-value of the cloth storing the temperature rise, driving the
process... That won't happen with a sloppy wet rag in an O2 limited
environment...

denny

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 always heard...metal drum.
A 45 gallon might be a bit much for most handymen, but a metal 5 gallon
pail with cover would be a nice size to have for temporary storage
before disposal.

On Wed, 10 May 2006 18:03:43 +0000, 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.

It's definitely a danger. Standard practice is to store them in a metal
container with an airtight lid. Personally, I never store them aboard,
and I'm very careful to account for all the rags and paper towels anyone
else could be using.

Matt O.

On 11 May 2006 09:11:01 -0500, Dave wrote:

Err...I think what he asked is whether it's a big danger or a little one.

Is a fire on your boat a big danger or a little one ?

Depends what you mean by "big". Getting hit by an asteroid is a big
danger if you mean guaranteed to destroy your boat but I don't worry
about it.

I remember as a kid noticing that the pile of grass cutting that my
father had raked up against a wall in the yard were warm. I dug in
and found the grass smoldering. They hadn't been there very long so
it can happen.

--

Roger Long



"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On 11 May 2006 09:11:01 -0500, Dave wrote:

Err...I think what he asked is whether it's a big danger or a little
one.

Is a fire on your boat a big danger or a little one ?

In article ,
"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.

From a chemist's point of view, it is a danger, but not a significant
one in most circumstances. Spontainious Combustion can, and does, occure
with oily rags, stacked in a pile, with little or no airflow, where heat
can build up, due to chemical breakdown of the adsorbing material, by
properties in the oils adsorbed. It is a fairly rare occurance, mostly
due to folks having been told, many times, of the possibilities, and
keeping things cleaned up. Flashpoint Temps for most oils are fairly
high and the required heat buildup doesn't happen, but if conditions are
right, Yea it can be a BIG Deal.....

Me a NitroOrganic Chemist, in a past life.......

Spontaneous combustion is real and can be a big problem. It can occur
without the material being volatile.

My experience with spontaneous combustion occured when we had our
hardwood floors refinished. We had just moved into the house and had a
garage full of cardboard boxes, some full of things, and others broken
down and stacked. The people who were refinishing the floors placed the
sanding dust in a bag in a garbage can in the garage. My wife was in
the family room and smelled smoke. When I went into the garage it was
filled with smoke. Fortunately I was there when it occured and was able
to get the can out of the garage and get the fire extinguished. The
only loss was the garbage can.

I have often wandered what could have occured.

Me wrote:
In article ,
"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.


From a chemist's point of view, it is a danger, but not a significant
one in most circumstances. Spontainious Combustion can, and does, occure
with oily rags, stacked in a pile, with little or no airflow, where heat
can build up, due to chemical breakdown of the adsorbing material, by
properties in the oils adsorbed. It is a fairly rare occurance, mostly
due to folks having been told, many times, of the possibilities, and
keeping things cleaned up. Flashpoint Temps for most oils are fairly
high and the required heat buildup doesn't happen, but if conditions are
right, Yea it can be a BIG Deal.....

Me a NitroOrganic Chemist, in a past life.......

Spontaneous combustion is one danger ... even a compost pile can self
ignite as my grandad showed me many years ago.

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
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.

--

Roger Long




Engineers can get very dangerous when roused, especialy when called 'oily
rags'