Fire in the shop

[ronkh]

Hi gentlemen,

I joined this site a few months ago and posted a few pics of my new machines and part of my garage i,e; shop.
Since then I took voluntary redundancy from work on the 10th of December. (I worked in Formula 1 for the McLaren racing team for 14 years and for the past couple of years hated it. Long story. Before that I was in the aircraft industry on the machine side)!
A little about my past though first-I have worked on machines for over 40 years. Manual machines, lathes, mills, grinders etc, and for the past 15 or so years as a CNC grinder of which I will post a pic of at a later date.
Anyway, the reason for posting my first "real" post on here and in this section is for a warning to you!!!
I, like most, if not all of you cannot throw things away. On this occasion one of these things was a cordless drill which gave up the ghost. Strip down, keep the gears and never got around to properly disposing of the batteries.
Well, the weekend after leaving work I decided to have a good clean up in the garage and dispose of "some" junk which included aforesaid batteries. Without thinking I tossed them in a rubbish sack, went indoors for a cuppa then noticed what I thought was steam coming from the central heating pipe. Only when I finished my tea and went out did I then realise that it was smoke coming out of my garage. Opened the door and thought "sod this", straight back inside house and called the fire-brigade.
Luckily my insurance have agreed to repair and replace damaged items including the brand new mill which suffered heavy water damage. The rest was/is smoke damage which can with elbow grease be cleaned up. The boat was beyond repair and I dread to think how many hours went into it.
It is sad to see this but the main thing is that both my boys and myself suffered no effects from the fire.
Well, maybe my pride took a knock.
So please gents, if taking anything apart that has these batteries in them, dispose of them properly otherwise you may not be as lucky as I. I'm still breathing!

 

[ronkh]

Couple more!

 

[ronkh]

New beginning once up and running.
I did not post these earlier as it, understandably, took a while to get back into the mood.
These were the last two pieces to be made at work on a CNC Mazak workcentre. I cannot remember what engine its for but will let you know at a later date once I'm back on my feet.
I think I might name this one the "Phoenix" :big:
Regards,
Ron.

 

[don-tucker]

Welcome to the forum,and glad no one was hurt,I had a fire a few years back so I know what you went through.
It was always my dream to work for a F1 team,what's it like.
Don

 

[ronkh]

Thanks Don,
Interesting the first years but as the rules changed over the last couple of years with no testing and it being seasonal work, only having to complete what was necessary for the season in a couple of months meant that all the work was done then and the rest of the year doing just odds n sods. Very boring although seeing all the celebs was interesting.

 

[Metal Butcher]

Ron, sorry to hear about your tragedy.

But I'm happy to hear that no one was injured! And I'm glad to hear that you can put the ordeal behind you and move forward with the rebuilding process!

Welcome to HMEM, and thank you for warning us about the dangers of battery disposal. The batteries probably shorted out on some swarf and heated it up enough to ignite some other flamable in the bin?

-MB

 

[ronkh]

Hi MB,
They were all connected as like in a chain and I can only think that the contacts touched each other and worked in a similar way as a toasting machine does??
I'm not a sparky by any means so that is the only description I can give.

 

[ronkh]

The thing is, at work we had all these Health and Safety lectures about aerosols, rags etc that it should of been drummed into my head. Most of them are designed to help prevent this sort of thing occurring but as is the case, not all of it stays in the old grey matter and is not always remembered. The scariest parts of the fire was knowing that I had a lot of aerosols in there plus a fully charged air compressor and that the firemen went in straight away with no hesitation. I would to be honest, rather of watched it burn down then risk my life as they do theirs.

 

[wareagle]

Ron,

The main thing is that everyone is okay. At the end of the day, health and humans are the only irreplaceable objects we have!

Workplace safety certainly applies at home just as much, and sometimes more than it does a t work. Over the years, I have known (or known of) quite a few folks that have had life altering injuries at home from breaking safety rules that we use int he work place every day. Fire safety is just one of those rules.


Pat,

Sounds like you are doing some good things in your shop to make it less risky for having a fire.

A point that I make when working in the shop is waiting at least thirty minutes in the shop after doing any kind of "hot work". If the shop is smoky (a sign of inadequate ventilation), then I will clear the smoke and wait the thirty minutes after clearing. The purpose of this is to make sure there isn't something that is left behind smoldering. If for some reason I feel that the risk is greater (maybe slag rolled into unseen areas), then I will increase the loiter time.

I have done the things of removing flammables and combustibles from areas that "hot work" is performed in. All of the paints, solvents, and oils are stored in a fire cabinet that is at the opposite end of where the hot work would be done. There are also four commercial sized ABC fire extinguishers strategically placed. No where in the shop am I more than 15 feet away from one.



It usually isn't the big stuff that comes back to bite; it is the little things! Such as a battery shorting out in a trash container!

 

[steamer]

What W/E said!

Welcome to the forum Ron! Best of luck with the reconstruction and many happy engines!

Dave

 

[Steve_Withnell]

Good to see no one got hurt.

The smallest battery I've seen cause a fire is a PP3 (the small 9volt ones) NiCad re-chargeable. Any re-chargeable battery is clearly a fire risk, now worrying do I know where all my salvage is!

Best Regards

Steve

 

[bentprop]

I'm glad no one was hurt in the fire.
But just as a point of interest,if there are no recycling centers for batteries,what do you do with them?I confess I'm guilty of just tossing them in the bin.

 

[mklotz]

Speaking of batteries...

Don't mix near-dead batteries in among the toxic waste that seems to form the surface of all too many workbench tops. A bit of steel wool shorting a 9 volt battery can quickly ignite all manner of materials. (In fact, that's an effective way to start a camp fire if you don't keep a butane lighter in your emergency kit.)

 

[Swede]

Some of the smartest guys on batteries are the R/C flyers who are using cutting-edge LiPo (Lithium Polymer) batteries for their creations.

To save weight, there are rarely internal (to the battery) safety circuits or mechanisms, and what can (and does) happen is that with improper recharging, the batteries puff up, and if they burst, raw lithium metal explodes into violent flame. Guys have lost their cars, or worse, when this happens.

Most charge their batteries inside ceramic pots or special ceramic mesh bags to contain the flames. There is a LOT of energy in batteries! Glad no one got hurt.

 

[Deko]

Hi Ron
Sorry to hear about your fire, A chap called TerryD had a workshop fire and lost everything about a year ago.I have the same small mill as yours but I added a long table from Arc Euro Trade which makes it much more versatile. May I sujest that you pay a visit to the model engineering show at Harrogate on the 13-14 or 15th of May before you spend your insurance money, as you could well find some real bargins there

Kind Regards Derek

 

[Chippychap]

I guess the least we can do is separate the batteries from the rest of the cr@p
The old wire wool trick was an experiment I still remember.
As an ex fireman I think looking at your family and thinking "at least you guys are still here"
should put things into perspective.
Bet there are a few of us who will now have a rummage through our scrap/rubbish bins.
Take care guys.

 

[HS93]

Nice to see you on hear Ron, sad to see the damage to your boats , I rember the builds of some of them ,

Peter

 

[Scota4570]

Lipo batteries should be treated like fireworks, if not more carefully. Piercing the battery wrapper will cause the battery to spontanious burst into flames. Discrarging too fast, shorting the +/-, plugging it in to the device with the polarity reversed, or improperly charging one will all cause it to burn.

They are very popular with RC airplane flyers. I am one. I have witnessed a plane burned to the ground as the result of a lipo pierced by an unnotticed screw. Once a lipo gets going you can not put it out. They burn vigorously, about like smokeless gunpowder. If interested to an internet search on "lipo fire".

If you are not a lipo expert you shuld no not take apart lipo tool battery packs. Frankly, I am surprized that some government safety people have not restricted them. It may have something to do with alternative energy. The Tesla Roadster uses thousands of these cells. I would have expected Tesla cars to burn once in a while, I have never heard of it though.

 

[willburrrr2003]

Happy to hear that you were not hurt in the fire! Hope the cleanup has gone well, and the insurance company is speedy so you can get up and running in there again

Best regards,

Will R. Everett, WA.

 

[ronkh]

Hi gents,
Many thanks for kind comments.
The insurance company finally paid up at the end of April so a long, very frustrating wait.
The only machine that needed replacing was the mill which I traded up for a Sieg X2 super mill, which after just three weeks of use had to be sent back as the bronze traverse nut sheared!
Got it back May and since then, I have 4 models on the go. One finished which is the usual one, Elmers fancy wobbler.
Once I work out how to sort out downloading pics (of which I have many), with some help from my sons, I will post them.
These will include pics of the new shop, machines and of course, the models.
I'll say so myself but the shop does look rather good.
Kind regards,

Ron.
Ron.