Safety Reminder

[Kent A Bathurst]

No - its not some fairy tale - oil-soaked rags will combust. You think people know all about this, but then you read something like this:

Washington Post Oct 20, 2009:

The fire that destroyed the house of former school board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz on Chain Bridge Road in July has been ruled accidental, and the loss of her home and prized art collection is estimated at $15 million, according to the final report released Monday.

Based on interviews with staff members who were working at Cafritz's home that day, investigators think that paper towels soaked in linseed oil were left in a plastic trash bag on the northeast corner of the porch and that they sparked the fire.

[glenn bradley]

We can't re-state this enough. It seems at least a couple times a year I talk to someone who should know this, but doesn't.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Okay, so I admit that when I first heard about this I was a kid so I wanted to see what it was all about. After finishing a project with Witch's brew I balled up the rags tight and threw them in a metal trash can out in the driveway. They got to smoking and such, definately hot enough to get paper going etc but they never did catch fire.

Best thing I ever did, ever since then they get laid out over the clothes line in the backyard :)

[Dave Wagner]

a few years ago, my boss lost his 2.5 car garage due to oily rags after staining/sealing his deck and throwing them in the corner....luckily the O2/Acetylene tanks didn't explode, fueled the fire once the safety plugs melted on the tanks.

[John Coloccia]

What's the proper way to dispose of them?

[Jerome Hanby]

What's the proper way to dispose of them?

Spread out in a well ventilated area until they dry. The clothesline mentioned earlier works fine.

[Alan Trout]

They need to be put in an airtight container if stored wet. However what I do with mine is I open the rags up shake them out and then lay them in the middle of my back yard to dry out in the sun for a few days. They are usually dry by that time and I pick them up and then though them in the garbage.

Good Luck

Alan

[Robert Reece]

I don't know about y'all, but round here, we ain't go no school board president with a $15 million art collection.

What's up with that.

[Dan Gill]

I toss mine in my outside firepit. Then I don't care if they combust.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I can confirm that linseed oil soaked rags do smoke. They did not "ignite", but, where there's smoke...... Just be careful. They could have self combusted. They were obviously smoking hot. From then on, ANY oil soaked rag, cloth or paper towel gets tossed on the concrete floor, 5 feet away from anything to dry out.

[Chris Tsutsui]

I know we are all guilty of throwing soaked rags in the trash can and 99% of us have never had an incident... Though even I put my soaked rags in a coffee can and I only use waterbased urethanes.

I just looked up Cafritz, and I have no doubts that since he is highly involved in art movement that he had a large collection of valuable art in his possesion. Though perhaps he didn't "Own" all of the art, but he was born in 47' so maybe he did develop a collection worth that much.

It's a shame that he lost his house and all that fine art though...

Cafritz career:

Workshops for Careers in the Arts, Washington, DC, co-founder, 1968;
Duke Ellington High School of Fine and Performing Arts, Washington, DC, founder, developer, fundraiser, 1968-;
DC Arts Commission, executive committee chair, 1969-74; Post-Newsweek Stations Inc., assistant to the president, 1970s;
Minority Cultural Project, exec. dir., 1977-79;
WETA-TV (Channel 26), Washington, DC, arts critic, 1986-.
District of Columbia Board of Education, president, 2000-.

If you don't think artwork can add up in costs, take this painting by Pollock for example that's estimated to be worth about $150M.

It almost looks like that sheet of MDF I have that I use as a temporary table top for painting and staining...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/No._5%2C_1948.jpg

[John Harden]

I don't know about y'all, but round here, we ain't go no school board president with a $15 million art collection.

What's up with that.

Union School board......

[Peter Quinn]

I don't know about y'all, but round here, we ain't go no school board president with a $15 million art collection.

What's up with that.

That's some one doing the job for the LOVE, not the money. :D Seems he already had his own money. Can you guess what a town house in DC with a front porch goes for?

In any event, I had heard that putting rags in a zip lock bag well sealed with the air squeezed out would hold them between coats. Maybe they didn't squeeze out the air? Maybe the plastic bag thing is BS, but I never tried it, not having that much faith in 2 mil of plastic's ability to contain a fire. I hope that contractor had his insurance up to date, that claim is going to hurt.

Grandpa used to say "Son, in life you have Less ons and More ons. The More ons are the ones without enough Less ons." I guess we have one less moron and one expensive lesson? Hope nobody was hurt. You can always buy more art.

[Jeff Willard]

I don't know about y'all, but round here, we ain't go no school board president with a $15 million art collection.

What's up with that.

Fairfax county, Virginia. One of the wealthiest counties in the country. Some of these people don't even know where their money comes from.

Just realized that the home was on Chain Bridge Rd., possibly a McLean residence. Prolly a piker by those people's standards.

OT-Kent, just noticed your sig line. There are no striped bass in the Chesapeake, they're all rockfish ;).

[Matt Meiser]

I don't know about y'all, but round here, we ain't go no school board president with a $15 million art collection.

They don't around there anymore either.

[johnny means]

No - its not some fairy tale - oil-soaked rags will combust. You think people know all about this, but then you read something like this:

Washington Post Oct 20, 2009:

The fire that destroyed the house of former school board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz on Chain Bridge Road in July has been ruled accidental, and the loss of her home and prized art collection is estimated at $15 million, according to the final report released Monday.

Based on interviews with staff members who were working at Cafritz's home that day, investigators think that paper towels soaked in linseed oil were left in a plastic trash bag on the northeast corner of the porch and that they sparked the fire.

I smell arson.

[John Harden]

I smell arson.

HA!!!!!

Want to burn down your own house to collect insurance? Just ask any woodworker how to do this to ensure the investigation determines there is a plausible explanation.

"Oh my goodness, I had no idea that those could catch on fire all by themselves!!!!! Who ever heard of such a thing?????"

[Kent A Bathurst]

OT-Kent, just noticed your sig line. There are no striped bass in the Chesapeake, they're all rockfish ;).

No Kidding! For the past 10 days there weren't any stripers OR rocks. Bottom 10 miles of the Potomac on VA side - bunch of 12" stuff, but nothing close to the 18" size limit. Sheesh. Uncle. I'm going for their big brothers at Hatterras for Thanksgiving, though.

[Mike Cruz]

Oh, sure, as if we don't get enough bad publicity around the DC area, you have to point this out...geesh, thanks a bunch...

[Keith Christopher]

I put mine in the firepit out back and burn 'em. :)

[Kent A Bathurst]

Oh, sure, as if we don't get enough bad publicity around the DC area, you have to point this out...geesh, thanks a bunch...

Well, Mike - I would never dis The District. As a HS senior in NoVA, that's where I went drinking on weekends. First, I was fishing waaaay downriver from DC, and second, we might be talking more about my fishing skills than the presence of fish :D. BTW - say hi to Sherm Lewis for me when you see him!! Catch any Expos games this year? ;)

[Mike Cruz]

HA! Drinking in DC, now THAT brings back som memories. I have no idea how old you are (nor do you need to disclose your age) but when I was a youngen, DC's drinking age was 18 while MD, where I lived was 21. DC changed its drinking age to 21, HOWEVER, if you turned 18 BEFORE they made the change (which I did, by a few months), you were grandfathered in, and were able to drink in DC. So, naturally, we (all my cohorts and I) would go to DC every Friday and Saturday night. Ahhhh, the good 'ole days....

Of course, it wasn't THAT long after that the wonderful Mayor of DC (M.B.) embarassed DC with his whole "The B***H set me up" incident. DC, the only city in America where the Mayor can get caught with crack and a "lady of the night", lose his job, and get RE-ELECTED!!!!!! If you've never heard Chris Rock do his bit on M.B., you've GOT to hear it....hilarious! But I digress...

I do everything I can to stay out of that city now....

[Kent A Bathurst]

... when I was a youngen, DC's drinking age was 18 while MD, where I lived was 21. DC changed its drinking age to 21, HOWEVER, if you turned 18 BEFORE they made the change (which I did, by a few months), you were grandfathered in........

Mike - that puts me at about 1-2 years older than you - rule changed while I was fresh or soph at Va Tech. But - at the same time, DC, VA, MD passed a law establishing reciprocity on traffic and parking violations, including outstanding tickets. My Dad called me at college looking for payment of about $500 in oustanding parking tickets tagged to one of his cars, from when my HS gang went drinking in Georgetown. Now THAT was a tense conversation - I waited 20 years to tell him exactly HOW I came to get those tickets.

[Mike Cruz]

To coin a phrase from the good ole 80's....Classic!

[Francis Robinson]

I toss them down in the center of the concrete floor over night or most of the time directly into the wood stove. What, no wood stove? It is a wood shop isn't it? ;)
What mis-cuts? :D
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[Michael Schapansky]

A few weeks ago I cleaned up an old pickup that had been in storage for 3 years. I was using 409 in a spray bottle and wiping down with paper towels. I'm sure there was some, but not much oily residue that got mopped up. This was the interior of the cab mind you, not wiping up goop under the hood. An hour or so after I was done I was in the shop (garage) and caught a whiff of something burning and went looking for it. Outside of the garage was a plastic bucket that I had thrown my cleaning papertowels in. It was smoking. I moved it to the middle of the driveway and kept an eye on it to see what would happen. Sure enough, flames started licking up the sides of the bucket. After I put it out the bucket had a hole melted in it and was misshapen. A pretty darn close call. When I first smelled it, the bucket was up against a wooden garage door. Now I knew about oily rags causing problems, but cleaner? I would never have guessed. While there was likely a tiny bit of oil on some of them, it had to be a very tiny amount.