How combustible is a BLO soaked rag?

TheIndifferent1

TheIndifferent1

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I used some BLO on a replacement handguard for my P-14, and the bottle says to wet the rag after to keep it from spontaneously combusting.

I really don't want to wash it and leave it in my laundry room, it kinda smells. I was thinking of putting it inside a metal cookie tin for use later. Will this make it more likely to combust? I figure the metal tin will keep it from catching anything else on fire if it does.

I don't want to throw it out because I can keep using it when I oil the stock. Any suggestions?
 
Put the rag in a ziploc bag with some water and shuck the darned mess in the refuse bin!
That rag won't be of any use once the oil has polymerized anyway.
The only time I keep a rag is when the mix involves turpentine, BLO and beeswax and I keep that rag in the mix in an air-tight wide-mouth jar so it stays wet and pliable and there's no BLO-turp odor.
I use nitrile gloves (no latex) and wring the rag just enough when I need to wipe another coat on. That way, you can keep one good rag almost indefinitely, provided your mix doesn't get stale.
PP.
 
I gonna take a stab here and say you're talking about linseed oil???
If you are, take it from my personal experience. If a pile of rags that have linseed oil on them are left in a pile on the laundry room floor, they WILL start to smoke and the interior of the pile will be come hot enough to ignite it left. I caught my pile at the smoking stage and dumped it in the laundry tub and soaked it with water. Some of the rags were too hot to touch. A while after this hapened, I saw a little blurb in a documentary on it. It has something to do with the oil curing in the rags. Putting them in a closed container probably isn't a good idea since it will just tend to concentrate the heat. When you're done with the soaked rags, thoroughly soak them in soapy water, put them in a shopping bag and throw them out in the yard until garbage day.

Cigar_man....if you're reading this....just shut up, and to answer your questions before you ask it...yes she knew there was something going on in the basement.......no she did not know exactly what it was.....yes, she was pissed about the smell.....I'm pretty sure she's forgotten about it, so don't bring it up!!!! :D
 
X2 what blacksmithden said. I saw a documentary on linseed oil and spontaneous combustion. It doesn't take long for the reaction to occur.
 
We use linsead oil at work ocassionally. We have to store the rags in a metal can with water in it. You can actually feel the heat inside the can when you take the lid off. I would put it in a sealed container with water and get rid of it. Keeping the rags aroud the house is just asking for trouble.
 
I've taken a break on sweating what I'm guessing is old cosmolene from my #5 MKI stock and handguard, I'm going to complete that task before I treat it with linseed oil. Trouble is the fire hazard with the rags. I have heard reports of some people using a wallpaper pan to soak the stocks to be treated in a 1/2-1/2 mixture of BLO and turpentine for about a day and then remove it and wipe the excess off. Is this advisable? Is there any fire hazard. I don't want to keep messing around with rags that pose a fire hazard, just once if you know what I mean. :confused:
 
Personally, I burn (in the alley, on a stick, etc) anything that might combust. Throwing it in the garbage just moves where the fire going to start....
 
ciPeterF said:
Personally, I burn (in the alley, on a stick, etc) anything that might combust. Throwing it in the garbage just moves where the fire going to start....
Click to expand...
If you have a fireplace, this is the best way to dispose of any potentially dangerous oily rags.
Burn them before they decide to do just that without your permission!
PP.:)
 
I recall a pile of greasy rags (from the restaurant kitchen) that were sitting in a heap, and they caught fire one night in the laundry room...Pretty wild.
 
Any oil, under the right circumstances will ingite.

I've been to fires where the rags were even washed at commerial laundramats, but enough oil was still in the rags. Left unattended they still ignited.
 
Brambles said:
Any oil, under the right circumstances will ingite.

I've been to fires where the rags were even washed at commerial laundramats, but enough oil was still in the rags. Left unattended they still ignited.
Click to expand...

Now that I htink abotu it, my case migth have been similar.

Rags were washed and dried, left in a pile still warm form the dryer.
 
Wash out your rags with soap and water, wring them out, and allow them to dry completely while hung separately. Use a minimum number of rags and reduce the workload.

Key is getting air flow around all the surfaces to prevent any build-up of heat.

The heat comes from the oxidation of the linseed oil, which is the same oxidation that allows it to set up dry, rather than staying wet forever. Bunches of rags, left in piles, will heat up as the oil reacts. This causes more heat, which in turn, speeds up the process. Nasty, if there is a pile of rags involved.

Hang the rags outside untill the oil has kicked, and you can dispose of them, if you do not want to do the wash thing.

Ramming them into a ziplock bag with water seems to me to be just delaying a fire. Eventually, the water is likely to be drained off, leaving a wadded up linseed oil soaked rag... Not so good, if that experiment happens in your own garbage can, or, ferinstance, in the dumpster outside your apartment building.

Be safe.

Cheers
Trev
 
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