Drying clothes and woodworking

[Michael Panis]

One of the downsides of a basement shop is that playing in the basement often requires me to do laundry, which is also located in the basement.
Last night, I was sanding some shellaced boards using odorless Mineral spirits as a lubricant. I took a break to take clothes out of the dryer. As soon as I opened the dryer door, I noticed a kerosene smell. All the clothes smelled of kerosene.

After a little research on the web, I discovered this is a common problem. Clothes dryers suck in an awful lot of air from the house which they then heat up. Apparently, my dryer sucked the air with the mineral spirits into the dryer. Even though the mineral spirits are pretty odorless in normal conditions, after the dryer heats them up, they smell like kerosene.

Anyway, I thought it was really interesting that this isn't a matter of putting rags with mineral spirits into the dryer. I just had to be using mineral spirits somewhere in the house.

Who'd have thunk?

Consider yourselves warned !

[Ted Jay]

oooooooooohhhhhhhhh.... wood scented laundry detergent!!!!!:)
Pick a scent........ Cedar maybe?, but no pine please!

Ted

[Mike SoRelle]

I might also be very worried about enough of it being vaporized around the heating element (or burner in a gas model) to open the door for you and introduce a new odor to the clothes (the one of charred material)

[Brian Kent]

The Clothes washer / dryer is the biggest problem of my shop, but it is electricity, not smell that is the issue.

When I use 220, I unplug the dryer and plug in the 220 power tool - no problem. But when the washer and / or dryer is on I often forget and use the belt sander with a shop vac or the dust collector with shop heater and blow the fuse. Someday I'll be able to re-wire the house and shop. Today, we share the electrons.

[Michael Panis]

I wouldn't mind pine-scented laundry, or even BLO-scented laundry.
But heated mineral spirits smells like kerosene.

As for the chance of explosion, I suspect concentration is far below what would be required for an explosion. At least I hope so...

[Kyle Kraft]

Think of your dryer as an emission control device....a catalytic convertor of sorts that simply burns the fumes from your finish into an environmentally friendly low VOC byproduct which essentially reduces your natural gas "footprint". :)

[Michael Panis]

I'll mention that to LOML, but somehow I don't think it will help her get over the smell of her jeans... :)

[Rob Diz]

Consider this an opportunity to discuss converting your garage into a workshop.