Mineral Spirits question

[Marshall Harrison]

I picked up a can of Mineral Spirits today so that tomorrow I can clean the used Delta planer I got yesterday. I also plan to use it to get the grease off of the CI table on my table saw when it gets delivered.

Any precautions? Any fire hazard with the rags after the cleaning? Anything I should know about it?

I just realized that I used "yesterday", "today" and "tomorrow" in my first sentence. And I just did it again. :D

[Ron Citerone]

I picked up a can of Mineral Spirits today so that tomorrow I can clean the used Delta planer I got yesterday. I also plan to use it to get the grease off of the CI table on my table saw when it gets delivered.

Any precautions? Any fire hazard with the rags after the cleaning? Anything I should know about it?

I just realized that I used "yesterday", "today" and "tomorrow" in my first sentence. And I just did it again. :D

Whenever I have rags with solvent or finish on them, I keep them outside till the solvent evaporates off and then into a trash can away from the house. Never had a problem, but don't want any fire issue starting in my attached garage or a trash can against the house. My two pennies.

[Matt Day]

The can of MS should have all that information written out on it.

[Jim Becker]

Mineral spirits flashes off pretty quickly, but I agree with hanging the rags/towels outside to dry before disposal. Same goes for kerosene which is popular for cleaning new tools...let the rags thoroughly dry outside before disposal.

[Marshall Harrison]

Once dried can I just keep them in the garage for re-use?

Thanks for the advice. But after posting last night I go informed that I need to take the Golden to the vet this morning along with my daughter's cat so this all may have to wait. I'll know later this morning.

It also ruins my plan to fire up the Big Green Egg this morning and slow smoke a Boston butt. I don't like leaving home when the Egg is lit. Been "planning" to do it every day this week but things have drug me away each time.

[roger wiegand]

Most every chemical sold in the US will have a document called an SDS (safety data sheet) available that describes all known hazards and precautions required. These used to be called MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets), and that term is still in common use. If you are a business, especially with a with a solvent storage permit from the EPA and fire departments you need to have the SDS provided by the particular manufacturer for every chemical on your premises. For non-commercial users you can just look them up online. The can will often give you a web address to find the SDS for your particular product. While not perfect, the SDS will generally give you a pretty good indication of what you are looking at. If you google "MSDS ,product name>" you'll almost always find one. While it's generally more than what most people want to know it can be good to know what you are dealing with, whether it is something that you're overly familiar with and casual about handling or something you've never seen before.

Here's a sample for one brand of mineral spirits: https://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pdfImages/ff/ffa2e912-0a27-4cb0-9b18-0c33d935290f.pdf

[Grant Aldridge]

Marshall I suppose you could reuse them but I just use the blue paper towels and toss em. I keep one of those clear plastic squirt bottles from the housewares section at Walmart with mineral spirits in it, works great. I should pickup a spray bottle too though

As for spoiling the green egg plans, make a drink with those lemons! Pickup something that cooks faster and have the butt tomorrow! I'm doing a whole chicken tonight, on a raised grate and spatchcock style (butterflied). So good!

[Ole Anderson]

Definitely blue shop rags. They will be a mess after the MS flashes off. Unlike BLO and the oils used in stains and varnish, I don't believe MS and the like including motor oil have the propensity to spontaneously combust as they don't give off heat while curing. But that being said, I still let mine dry before tossing in the trash. At least in the wood shop, not so much when working in the garage when changing oil, cleaning brakes and the like, but there I typically use even faster drying brake cleaner, often letting it drip off the part into my trash can.

One thing I have noticed with MS is that recently it seems to contain a residual that doesn't flash off as easily as it used to. I notice that when mixing up wipe on 50/50 varnish. I use naphtha now to get a faster dry time.

[Prashun Patel]

"Once dried can I just keep them in the garage for re-use?"

It's not worth it. You're using the MS as a solvent for the dirt and grease on your planer. So, once the MS flashes, you'll have a dirty rag with dirt and grease. Toss the rags.

As far as Mineral Spirits safety goes, it is flammable and volatile. So treat it like you would treat gasoline or kerosene. It is very similar to these chemicals - from a safety standpoint.

It will not, however, generate heat as it dries (as does boiled linseed oil). So, crumpled rags will likely not spontaneously ignite. They would however ignite easily if they get near a flame.

[glenn bradley]

Lay them flat, let them dry, throw them out. I find the paper towels from Costco to be tough enough for most shop tasks. I really only use rags anymore when finishing. Either way, a box of disposable shop towels or a Bag-o-Rags should last you a long, long time (if not I would review how you are using them) and they are cheap insurance.

I commonly use hand applied finishes. I have a steel bucket with a steel lid that I fill half way with water. As I consume rags during the process (which can take days) I toss the rags into the water and pop on the lid. When the piece is complete and know I am done, I lay the rags out to dry. By the next trash day they are OK to toss in the trash.

[Marshall Harrison]

Marshall I suppose you could reuse them but I just use the blue paper towels and toss em. I keep one of those clear plastic squirt bottles from the housewares section at Walmart with mineral spirits in it, works great. I should pickup a spray bottle too though

As for spoiling the green egg plans, make a drink with those lemons! Pickup something that cooks faster and have the butt tomorrow! I'm doing a whole chicken tonight, on a raised grate and spatchcock style (butterflied). So good!

That sound like good eating Grant. I've done lots of pork, beef and chicken but I've never tried spatchcock chicken. I know how but I just never done it.

[Marshall Harrison]

Most every chemical sold in the US will have a document called an SDS (safety data sheet) available that describes all known hazards and precautions required. These used to be called MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets), and that term is still in common use. If you are a business, especially with a with a solvent storage permit from the EPA and fire departments you need to have the SDS provided by the particular manufacturer for every chemical on your premises. For non-commercial users you can just look them up online. The can will often give you a web address to find the SDS for your particular product. While not perfect, the SDS will generally give you a pretty good indication of what you are looking at. If you google "MSDS ,product name>" you'll almost always find one. While it's generally more than what most people want to know it can be good to know what you are dealing with, whether it is something that you're overly familiar with and casual about handling or something you've never seen before.

Here's a sample for one brand of mineral spirits: https://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pdfImages/ff/ffa2e912-0a27-4cb0-9b18-0c33d935290f.pdf

Thanks, I didn't know that but its useful information.

[Nick Decker]

Like Ole, I've pretty much switched to naptha instead of MS. Quicker dry time means fewer rags lieing around drying.

[Jim Becker]

That sound like good eating Grant. I've done lots of pork, beef and chicken but I've never tried spatchcock chicken. I know how but I just never done it.

I have and it's a wonderful way to cook a whole chicken beautifully in a lot less time. :) But no mineral spirits are on the recipe. :D

[Mark Bolton]

We use tons of rags in the shop and tossing them in the trash is not only wasteful but if your in a spot where you dont have any old T shirts and fruit-of-the-looms to cut up, bought rags whether paper, or blue, or cloth get very expensive (we dont cut up undies as I dont think employees would appreciate reaching into the rag bin and pulling out a pair of worn out skivvies, they like me, but not that much) .

Mind you that the only issue with "spontaneous combustion" of rag piles is with oils and oils with dryers in them. Using a rag for laquer thinner, mineral spirits, MEK, Toluene, Naptha, gasoline, and so on, will not spontaneously combust. While it may ease some frayed nerves to scatter them out and let them dry, we just toss them in the dirty rag bucket. These rags get used over and over for just what they are, dirty rags. The metal working and vehicle maintenance area of the shop is full of such rags. A rag soaked with mineral spirits to wipe down a tool is a perfectly fine rag to then take under your truck when you do an oil change. Or around the shop when you have to grease equipment.

Given the state of our landfills and oceans I cant think of anything worse than arbitrarily pitching something on a single use basis when it can be used over and over. My SO cuts up bags of rags for the shop from items that she feels are too far gone to send to the goodwill or salvation army. That time cutting up rags is valuable (to me because then we dont have to have our rag supplier bring in purchased rags). I use them over and over until they are shot to heck.

Now if your applying a finish with driers, natural oils, and so on, sure. Hang them out to dry, and use them the next time (they will rehydrate several times).

[Joe Bradshaw]

I just toss my used rags in the burn barrel.

[Grant Aldridge]

I have and it's a wonderful way to cook a whole chicken beautifully in a lot less time. :) But no mineral spirits are on the recipe. :D
You don't use the dried rags to light the grill??!?


:D

[Jim Becker]

You don't use the dried rags to light the grill??!?


:D

Nope. I push a button. :) :D

[Jim Becker]

We use tons of rags in the shop and tossing them in the trash is not only wasteful but if your in a spot where you dont have any old T shirts and fruit-of-the-looms to cut up, bought rags whether paper, or blue, or cloth get very expensive (we dont cut up undies as I dont think employees would appreciate reaching into the rag bin and pulling out a pair of worn out skivvies, they like me, but not that much) .......

Mark, no disagreement that cloth rags have their place in the shop for general use and are a great way to conserve. (we use them in oure house for cleanup to cut down on paper towel use, as a matter of fact) But in this case, the OP is cleaning off the "shipping" stuff off a new machine. I'm not sure I'd want to "ruin" a good old pair of skivvies that are in the cleaning rag bin for that. ;)

[Rick Potter]

Take the rag you used yesterday, finish drying it today and use it again tomorrow.

[Grant Aldridge]

383781
And here I thought we could be friends... You probably use electric tools too! :p

Nope. I push a button. :) :D

[Mark Bolton]

Mark, no disagreement that cloth rags have their place in the shop for general use and are a great way to conserve. (we use them in oure house for cleanup to cut down on paper towel use, as a matter of fact) But in this case, the OP is cleaning off the "shipping" stuff off a new machine. I'm not sure I'd want to "ruin" a good old pair of skivvies that are in the cleaning rag bin for that. ;)

Agreed though I may use a nice clean cotton rag for my final wipe down to get the last of the film. ;-) We too use rags to avoid paper around the house. Unfortunately life in the construction trade has left us hauling a good bit of construction debris to the landfill and always hauled only what we absolutely had to as I would watch the landfill go from a massively deep lined hole, to nearly level in very little time. Our city landfill was slated to be full in 2024 until the massive floods in WV likely cut that in half.

I reuse everything possible in the shop. Rags, packing material, cabinet protective corners, shipping handles, and so on. Major money saver ;-)

My point was more so that the common fear of rags around the shop doesn't apply to everything.