flamable rags - HELP!

[Vince Shriver]

I have a dozen rags that have been saturated with oil base stain, laquor thinner, paint thinner and acetone. To keep things safe in my shop I put them in a closed 5-gal bucket 1/2 filled with soapy water. They've been soaking for a few weeks and I just hung them out to dry. OK, now what? Are they still a fire-hazard? If so, then how do I make them non-flamable and trash-ready? (BTW: they still smell of solvent) I'm sure this has been an issue with many of you. Thanks Vince

[Lee Schierer]

Leave them hang to dry until trash day, then put them in the trash.

[Russ Sears]

Leave them hang to dry until trash day, then put them in the trash.

And then watch for smoke on the horizon...:p

Not really. Lee's correct; at least that's what I do.

[Myk Rian]

Leave them hang to dry until trash day, then put them in the trash.
...so they go to the landfill.

Wash them with a grease cutting dish soap and coca cola by hand. Dry them and use again. The water produced from this is grey water and is treated at the treatment plant.

[John Schreiber]

After they have dried, the volatile components have cured/evaporated and there is no more danger of fire.

[Jim Heffner]

After they have dried out completely, take them to a coin operated laundry and use some good strong detergent and wash them out. That way you can have the use of those shop rags again without buying more at least for a while! I used to wash mine at home...till my wife started complaining about it and having to clean the washing machine out!

[Lloyd McKinlay]

After they have dried out completely, take them to a coin operated laundry and use some good strong detergent and wash them out. That way you can have the use of those shop rags again without buying more at least for a while! I used to wash mine at home...till my wife started complaining about it and having to clean the washing machine out!
Jim, wouldn't the same residue be left in the laundromat machines, and therefore be a problem for the next customer? Seems a bit unfair.

[Frank Drew]

After they have dried out completely, take them to a coin operated laundry and use some good strong detergent and wash them out. That way you can have the use of those shop rags again without buying more at least for a while! I used to wash mine at home...till my wife started complaining about it and having to clean the washing machine out!

Geez, I know times are tough, but these are USED RAGS we're talking about here! And who buys rags? That's what old sheets and t-shirts are for.

Additionally, why mess up the laundromat's washing machines, plus the clothing of some poor schnook who follows you?

[David Keller NC]

"Geez, I know times are tough, but these are USED RAGS we're talking about here! And who buys rags?"

I agree - that's taking a "green" approach way too far. But I do buy rags - the kind for sale at next to nothing at the AdvanceAuto down the street. They're completely lint free, and have no color that could possibly bleed into a finish.

FYI to those suggesting washing rags with solvent out - that's not a good practice. The sewer treatment process is generally not capable of decomposing all of the constituents of modern finishes, and the residue ends up in the local river (or ocean, depending on your locale). Moreover, the energy required to make and ship the detergent to your local store is better used to wash things that are more valuable - like your clothes.

It's considerably more "green" to dispose of rags like this in the trash.

[Doug Shepard]

Weave them through the cyclone fence and let them stew for a few days then toss em.

[Dave Cav]

Finishing rags (BLO, tung, etc) get spread out on the workbench or the shop floor to dry. When dry the next day or next weekend, they go into the burn barrel. Oily/greasy shop rags (red rags used on tractors, motorcycles, oil changes, etc) go into an old milk crate. Moderately used shop rags are re-used for wiping grease off the tractors. When they are too nasty, they are used to START the burn barrel.

Dave C

[Chip Lindley]

Save a Tree, Burn an Oily Rag!! Rather than a trip to the laundrOmat wasting precious gasOline, OR spending hard earned coin to waste precious H2O and detergent washing the spent cotton, OR feeding the local landfill with petrOchemicals, I would be saving said oily rags in an airtight container and using them for *fire starters* instead of those paraffein-coated sawdust blocks, to torch off my shop stove during the winter months.

That is my *Green* approach to recycling. Who? Me?? A bit color blind?? At least since the heat is on me, I get some warmth out of it!! *grinzz*

[Dewey Torres]

Since most here told you about all you might ever want to know how to be green and dispose of the rags properly (and such) let me offer you this.

I think the origin of the thread talks about fire hazard and you end with the question of flammability.

All Sailors are fire fighters and I can share with you that fire only happens when you have three elements referred to as the fire triangle:


1)Fuel
2) Oxygen
3) Heat


Remove any of the three and fire cant burn. The big fear with these types of rags actually starting a fire with the precautions you have taken are no more than a common electrical fire that can happen in any shop at any time. Electrical fires "Class C" are by far the most common outside the kitchen. What you are already doing and throwing them in the trash (or whatever green method you decide) should be perfectly safe.
Side note
If you do not already have an ABC fire extinguisher in or near your shop, get one. They are inexpensive and will extinguish:
A) Fire that produces an ash IE wood, rags, people
B) Combustible liquids IE gasoline, oil, solvents
C) Electrical… already described above which you put out by securing the power then you are dealing with a class A

[Howard Acheson]

The rags that have a danger of spontaneous combustion are those that contain drying oils. Drying oils are linseed oil and tung oil. Other oils (motor, etc) are not in danger of spontaneous combustion. Rags that contain thinners or solvents--and no drying oil--are not a danger.

In reality, the most dangerous rags are those that contain BOILED linseed oil. The chemicals added to promote faster curing cause the heat produced by curing, to build faster and higher. Raw linseed oil and pure tung oil are relatively much slower curing and the heat generated is dissapated before it builds to a high enough temperature combust.

What most folks due with finishing rags is to lay them out on a flat surface like a walkway, driveway or lawn, or hang them on a clothes line either inside or out, and let them dry. When they are dry and stiff, they can be discarded in normal garbage.

The problem with putting them into water is that you have not created a potentially hazardous waste under most municipal regulations. So you now have to find a way to properly dispose of the water. Also, once the in the rags evaporates, the curing of the oils will start again. So, you may not have solved the problem.

[Ed Sallee]

I toss it in the burn barrel when I'm done doing what I'm doing with the rag.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I typically hang mine from a chain link gate to dry in the summer and from a metal ladder in my shop to dry in the winter. In a week to two when they are dry, they go into the trash.

[Jeff Mohr]

"Geez, I know times are tough, but these are USED RAGS we're talking about here! And who buys rags?"


I buy rags....but I do so at GoodWill. I just buy plain white t-shirts and use them. I get rags and money goes to a good cause.

And to get back on topic....

I just hang them to dry. Once dry, they go in the trash on trash day.