Fires

[Dan Crabtree]

Well, being as that we play with fire, figured this would be a fun and serious topic. What have you all lit on fire on accident?

plans for project, 2 sweaters, broom, pant leg, and shirt that was in a toolbox. The time I lit my plans and 2 sweaters was at the local monthly hammer in, It was the 2nd time I was ever there.... :oops:

[bruce wilcock]

managed to set a glass fiber three wheel reliant car on fire, it was going to be renovated for a colection, well i changed that idea, when we saw it afire the man that was striking for me tipped the slack tub over it and put it out .we just told him we were there first, and he could see what we were doing, and dont park cars with leaky gas tanks so close

[HWooldridge]

I will tell you the weirdest fire I ever saw. My first forge was a frame of angle iron with fire bricks on top. The pot sat in the middle and the sides were just 1x4's screwed to some tabs so the coal would stay off the floor. I used this forge for several years and always shut down the same way - let it cool, tear the coke out and then water it to death. I had been working all day, closed down normally and went home. Next day, went into the shop and smelled burned wood. Looked all over and finally found that all the boards were burned through in several places. Apparently, some coal dust stayed lit and the little cracks between the bricks fed enough air so that the fire marched right across the hearth until it hit the boards and then burned thru them. There was ash all over and on the floor. Sure glad I had a dirt and brick floor.

[JimG]

A refrigerator.
I was about 10-12
And those stories they tell about people suffocating in fridges cause they are air tight?..........well not in this case

[cross]

My first forge was not very well researched,I had an aluminum BBQ with a bathroom vent for air supply.Not having much success getting heat I decided my problem was air supply,thats when I spotted the old upright vacum abandoned in the corner.I plugged that sucker in,pointed the exhaust at my fire and was amazed and very happy with the rapid rate that iron was being heated.In fact I was so excited that I barley noticed when the entire molten belly of the BBQ fell to the ground . Lucky I was working outside in those days,and the garden hose was handy.

[JPH]

does setting your face on fire count?? I did that once, back when I actually HAD hair.(.I think like 1988.)....that was an "experience"...other than that just a smoldering shop cloth every now and then.

Although there was that one time I got some hot welding slag up inside my nose...it burned a bit..but the really uncomfortable part was the sizzling feeling of my sinuses getting cooked...

JPH

[T-Gold]

In a glass shop, lots of things catch fire that you don't expect... Often you'll have some not-so-bright character sweep up hot glass and drop it into one of the "dirty glass" trash bins with some newspaper... whoof! Melts a hole in the bucket, too. Or when someone is doing a hot cane pickup, and their assistant brings out the piece of 1/2" steel plate (on a fork) and rests it on the bench rail, which is 1/4" angle iron backed up with WOOD... starts to smoke perty fast, gotta keep spraying it with water. If I think of any others, I'll be sure to post 'em, I'm sure I've set a few things on fire while I was over there.

[mike-hr]

I melted off part of an ear, and some of my shoulder trying to start an old ford pickup with a beer can of gas down the carb... didn't even know i was on fire till my buddy jumped out of the rig and tackled me in the snowy gravel. The worst part happened at the doctor, the nurse had to take a scratcy scotchbrite-like pad to clean the gravel out of the burn...
Redneck last words-- "hey bubba, watch this!"

[Ed Thomas]

Me? Just a shirt sleeve... and a dog. "Hey, Ed... you might want to put out your dog." "I mean OUT, not outside!" oops. :shock:

But my favorite story I've heard so far was by Doug Hendrickson. He described a demo he was doing while wearing a ragged T-shirt. He was using a torch to heat his piece and knew his shirt was on fire but didn't want to break the flow. Spectators were yelling to him and he just ignored them... and as he finished heating and applied the finish... he tore off his flaming shirt in one motion with a flourish, used the smoking tattered remains to buff the finish on. "...and that's how we do things in MY shop."

[T-Gold]

LOL, Ed. That's pretty hardcore.

[irnsrgn]

Well here goes my story, unbelievable, YES, did it really happen, Yes, and I have a witness.

Belive it or not what I caught on fire was a MOUSE, yes a mouse one of those furry little rodents that come in for the winter and stay till the food supply runs out.

I have a fold down cutting table made of flat iron on edge at the end of my welding table in the back room. I was using a gouging torch to gouge out a rather large crack in a piece that I was repairing and the very large amount of sparks were kind of concentrating on a pile of parts and pieces I had stacked against the back wall.

I happened to notice movement out of the edge of my cutting goggles and immediately lifted them up to see what it was. What it was, was a rather large (I found out later) Female mouse running from under the pile trailing a small stream of smoke from burning fur.

I almost died laughing from the sight and also pitied the poor mouse. I also learned that a small amount of burning mouse fur leaves a rather offensive odor behind. This poor smoking mouse disappeared under my Lincoln DC welder. This welder has the same generator as a gas powered Pipeliner Welder, but has a 15 horse 3 Phase electric motor for a power source.

End of story, well I thought so at the time. This happened on a friday afternoon, and we didn't work on Saturday or Sunday.

The Saga continues, The Mouses Revenge.

Monday morning about 9 AM, Dewayne my helper assistant had prepared a piece for welding and drug the cables over to the welding bench, set the welder, and pressed the ON switch. There was lots of yelling and a very large Dewayne was moving at Warp Speed right at me.

Not wanting to be trampled, I moved to one side to let him pass. Looking in the direction he came from and wondering what would scare him so, I saw that the air was a cloud of light brown and was settling to the floor in a layer on the floor. I immediately determined it was coming from the welder, so I hastily pushed the OFF button and retreated to let the air clear.

After the air had cleared sufficiently to see what was the cause, I made my way to the welder again wondering what would cause such a mess. To my horror there was all kinds of stuff sticking out of the slots at the end of the welder where the cooling fan for the motor is.

It appeared to be cloth, paper and some kind of straw or such. I quickly determined that it did not come from the internal parts of the welder, thank god.

Well the large mess on the floor was the first to be swept up, then I started pulling the stuff sticking out of the slots off. It didn't smell to good either. Next came a wire brush to get what was left. And you have to remember this machine is in a corner with limited access, what a job.

Next came a shop vac and an air hose. Finally I thought I had it all, so I turned the machine on again. OOPS another cloud in the air and a thumping noise. After the second mess was cleaned up I stuck a welding rod thru one of the slots and slowly turned the fan, and thats when I saw the mice, yes plural, one large mouse and quite a few offspring. Did you know baby mice are pink, hairless and have their eyes shut like other small animals when born.

Now the big question, How am I going to get them outa there so I don't have mouse innards all over the place. Its in a place where I can't move it out without at least most of a days work. So the sidecutters came to the rescue. I snipped one end of 3 or so of the metal between the slots, bent them out and reached in with a welding rod with a hook bent on the end and managed to remove the bodies. Bent the metal back and started the machine again, only a small cloud of stuff this time. I let it all get blown out before shutting it down again and cleaning the third mess up.

I think the mouse just wanted revenge for burning its hair off, and yes the mother did have badly singed hair over about 75% of her body when I finally got her out.

Funny, Yes, unbelivable, probably, a work of fiction, Definately NOT.

irnsrgn

[Stephan P]

lit a cat on fire once, apparently those real soft fluffy ones should wear DOT tags marked "Explosive"

[anvillain]

As much as it pains me to say it,you guys had some very interesting fires, but I'm afraid you are merely amateurs

First I have to give my dear old Dad credit for HIS fire ( no doubt it had a lot to do with my talent, which surfaced later.) Back in '53 we lived near an abandoned RR bed that not too long before had coal fired steam trains travelling on it. Well, fire was a tool which was very useful for cleaning fencerows, weeds and such. This was in the fall, dry stuff He knew could burn fast, but He had no experience with coal dust. Pretty soon it seemed to me the whole world was on fire, but actually it was only about a half mile of dust and cinders accumulated, it burned deep into the roadbed and when it rained it seemed like it just made it burn better. Now I know that it did, similiar to sprinkling water in the forge to clean up the fire. After about a month it went out.

Now mine: When I was much younger and working in a welding shop someone had brought an empty barrel in to have the end cut out. My boss DID tell me not to use the torch on it and I could understand why.
Sometime later that same barrel had been neglected but was supporting a boat trailer that I was welding on. I had just stopped welding and was walking to the restroom when I was enveloped in one Heckuva a boom and cloud of black dust. I looked back to see that boat trailer levitated eight feet off the floor on the cloud of dust. Apparently a spark had found its way to the fumes of some dreadful concoction inside the barrel. No doubt it was My Guardian Angel that spared me by inspiring me to take a break.

PS: just last week I was burning some brush piles, it was very dry, it became very windy, fire trucks were summoned,water was sprayed,leaves were furiously raked, and it was under control after two hours, there were a dozen volunteer firemen that were NOT amused and my wife went to the truck which was some distance away so that no one would think she knew me. About two acres of the neighbors woods were purged of loose flammable material and one deer stand was slightly rearranged. I'm not proud of it and my wife DID tell me so.

Humbly submitted by Anvillain (but fire IS a great tool!!)

[Mills]

My first fire in a forge was rather memorable. I had had been lurking for about a year when I decided that I had enough info to actually make the effort worthwhile. So I rigged up a forge out of the bottom of an old drum. I bought a small shop vac that was on sale. It was all I could afford, I hoped it would be enough. I stoked the new forge with 10 lbs of the Kingsford edge and let it coal for a bit. Now when I flipped the switch for the shop vac I learned a lot about forges and forging very quickly:
1) outside is better than inside for experimentation
2) Yes a shop vac, even tho small, is sufficient to power a forge
3) the concept of a choke plate suddenly focused sharply in my mind
4) Flames grow larger as you add air and can get as high as the garage door that is over the forge
5) Briquettes sound like Rice Krispies but feel like biting flies
6) they also make a LOT of ash, kinda like a volcano

Lessee, that is about one second per lesson as I figger it.

Annealing a piece of steel is pretty straightfoward, get an amount of vermiculite and let hot steel lay in there for a while. Since we had a couple of bags at work that were to be disposed of I glommed on to the opportunity. I let a coworker have the bigger bag and I took the smaller one, that the label was illegible on. After carefully forging some coil spring and rather than opening the bag completely, I merely shoved the stock through the paper and went back to forging. Over the next several hours I kept smelling something vaguely familiar. When I saw the smoke rising out of the bag, "I thought vermiculite was inflammable" went through my mind.
I tore open the bag shook it out on concrete and poured dippers of water on to it. That is when the odor hit me that I had been smelling all evening, Chrome Ligno Sulfate, a drilling mud additive. Sure makes things slick and slimy when it gets wet. Clean up took about an hour as I went through all the burning crud and put it out. Threw away the remaining dry stuff in the bag, slopped the wet goo on top of it and felt awfully good about my thouroughness.
0200 hrs and I am answering the phone, my frantic neighbor is telling me that the house is on fire! I blaze out into the nippy fall weather to get my hose and put out the blaze in the large plastic trash can on wheels. The hose was inside the garage so I turned around to get it.
I can safely recommend to you fine gentleman that when you replace the knob on a door it should NOT be one that will remain locked even though it turns easily in your hands.
After arousing the Domestic Goddess by my incessant knocking on the front door I go into the garage again, get the hose, go out side to put out what remained of the fire. Fortunately it is a brick house and nothing caught. While using the water hose my feet got muddy and cold so I went to get more clothing and, you recall the door knob I warned you about? Finally got everything done and back in bed by 0330.

[mike-hr]

Strange chain of events today led to an adrenalin packed morning. A guy saw the headache/carry stuff rack on my pickup, and wanted one like it for his rig, '76 Ford F250. The bed was dinged up a bit, so I decided to fit the angle iron bed rails on the rig, so i would be sure they fit. Once I got the relief cuts made in the shop, we pushed the angle irons into place, and shimmed and clamped them into plane. I spent about 15 minutes shielding the cab, windows, and bed sides from errant welding sparks using masking tape, cardboard, and welding leathers held on with magnets. On the second tack weld, I heard a slight 'pheww', and stopped to investigate. The behind the seat gas tank was burp-burp-burping flames from the filler cap. Apparently the morning sun had came out from behind the clouds, and warmed the interior of the cab enough to where the full tank had decided to vent off some fumes, underneath my up-to-then ingeniously placed leather shields. I deployed the fire extinguisher, and was about to tell the customer to back away, when I spied his hat brim peeking out from behind an out building, 20 yards away...After everything settled down, we both had a giggle. I told him that in a week or so, this would somehow seem funny. Luckily, gas fires are somewhat honest, and don't behave like in action movies.... :oops:

[Daryl]

While demonstrating at a Historical site, a fellow smith was helping me as striker. A group of pre-school kids were in watching the goings on and asking questions while we hammered away. Then they ALL fell silent while my partner and I stood there. Then one of the teachers said calmly, "As you can see, the blacksmith shop was very dangerous. They always had to be careful with thier fire." Then they were all hustled out of the shop. :shock: We looked up, and part of the roof next to the chimnet had already burned through. Luckily, we had the fire out in a couple minutes.
God has a sense of humour, too. It was scorching heat for weeks before and up that point. After a hole was burned through, it promptly rained before we could repair the damage... a steady stream to right where you stand at the bellows. :roll:

[acoop101]

Bumping the random things you've caught on fire thread.
I was teaching Mig welding to some freshmen and one of the students had one not so new pants. The spatter from the duel shield welding caught the cotton fibers on fire. That was the first and only time I've had some one hurt them selves in my class.

[Dr Dean]

Jr your mouse story brings to mind one told at our shop. Apparently a couple of individuals that no longer work there thought it was a good idea to light up a mouse with wd-40. Other than it not being a swift kill the other reason it's a bad idea is that mice generally know how to hide even when on fire. The mouse ran into the wall, steel siding on the inside. Obviously they had to go after the mouse so tin started coming off the wall. About this time the owner came through the shop, all he said was I don't want to know and kept walking. The story ends with the singed mouse being captured and no damage other than time wasted for thier stupidity.

[philip in china]

A couple of times when I have lost my lighter I have welded over a stack of paper and used the resultant fire to light the forge.

Here the traditional way to light the fuel blocks is to take a fresh one to a neighbour who has a fire lit and exchange it for one of his which is already alight. So possibly one fire in China could be retraced to a prehistoric lightning strike. (Maybe not).

[dablacksmith]

ive had mice setup house in my propane forge ... they like ko wool for theyre nests I remember a time when I was lighting the forge as the mouse was running out...i burned my clothes various times .. usually in demos..also did sumthin stupid .. thaught i could burn out a ant hill poured gas on it and lit it... and caught the telephone pole on fire ... and to add insult to injury the ants were still alive...

[habu68]

While working at Rock Ledge Ranch historic site, on the edge of The Garden of the Gods park in Colorado springs, My master smith and I were working in the smithy at the far end of the complex. Andy was also the Ranch director and had strict rules on the use of cell phones during open hours at the site. In the middle of our demo his cell phone rang. It was Elizabeth our very proper young Victorian staff member in the Rock ledge house. She calmly explained that there was a fire in the smoke house. Andy responded with "yes you're cooking in there today."
"No Andy" she said sweetly "the smoke house is on fire"

We looked up to see 30ft flames above the Rock Ledge Historic house, silhouetting the golden leaves of the fall oak trees that surrounded the house and rose into the natural landscape of the Garden of the Gods Park. we were later told that the garden had not been touched by fire in 150 years since the Ute Indians burned it to drive off the Arapaho Tribes living there at the time. It was also a high fire danger summer and fires were burning over many parts of Colorado. It looked like the Keystone cops. 200 yard dash from the smithy to the smoke house , finding and rolling out the fire hose wrong way round, manning the hose and nozzle, we managed to get the fire out just as the fire department arrived.

Lesson learned. Saw dust behind lath and plaster in a wood frame building may have been the period correct way to build a smoke house but it will no longer meet code.

[Ten Hammers]

2007 Midwest Old Threshers. Myself and John Teslow were busy. I am in overalls, John in jeans and teeshirt. John had a project ( and the project really escapes me ). Hotcut was being used for stock removal from some bar stock ( 3/8 x 2 IIRC ). In any event John was in the fire and I was on far side of anvil runnin the hammer and hotcut ( onto a piece of aluminium on top of the anvil ). John was ready and we cut the piece ( him holding and myself runnin cutter ). THis is done so that crowd side ( camera side) is protected from flying ( possibly ) stock goes towards smith and fire side of anvil. without re-typing I now recall that the stock was a piece of leaf spring and was in fact 3/8. After straightening John wanted to remove stock for handle of knife( tang ). First cut made fine and stock was removed with tongs. Another heat and second cut was about to start. I made the cuts initially for reference and then went back to finish. First ( short) made the trip through the stock to the aluminium and was about to make second. John re-positioned a bit and I made second cut severing stock. Severed stock ( perhaps 1/2 wide and inch and a half long launched in the air.

Look at my right hand. Directly under it in pic is a chair. I have 2 chairs. The other one is blocked by me. It was setting in front of the tent ( background ). On the other chair was a pair of house shoes. Hotcut piece of steel launched and landed in one of the house shoes. Of course instant smoke and fire ( fortunately it didn't go into the tent ). John put the fire out in timely fashion. 2007 became the year of the house shoe and will be remembered in that way. I still have the trophy in the trailer. Thats my story and I'm stickin to it.

[Ice Czar]

I can't seem to go a whole month without lighting myself on fire somehow, Ive lit up hammers, gloves, shirts, pants and the last time, my shoe

Doing the patina on a large rail in bright sunlight, was unable to see the flame from the propane weedburner I was using to heat the rail. Between the wind, the ground and the cap I was heating it was whipping back around and lit my brand new boot on fire

Burned a hole right through the toe before I got it out

[Phil Dwyer]

Dan you got an imagination to come up with this thread. Who would have thought there'd be so many heated tales to tell? That mouse one was a knee slapper for sure. The house that gets even and locks out its wayward pyro was pretty funny too. I guess the month long fire takes the cake for magnitude.

I haven't thought of my early days with fires for many a year. Guess I had hoped to forget them. My first brush was as a preschooler playing with matches. Set a leaf pile on fire. Boy did it get big in a hurry. Way beyond my ability to cope with it. Some construction guys next door spotted the thing and ran over, grabbed the hose form our house and managed to put it out. My folks were, to say the least, out raged at my sneaky misbehavior. I got a spanking every hour for the rest of the day. (They took consequences seriously in my neck of the woods!)

Fast forward a few years. I've decided to make a torch. Brought a few cattails home. Brought them up into our tree-house along with a can of gasoline. Yep, dipped one of those fluffy down cattails in and lit the sucker. Once again, out of control. Threw the thing down on the tree-house floor and tried to stomp it out. Bad idea. That gas soaked cattail down spread all over the place. We managed to get it out and the folks never did find out.

By now you'd think I learned not to fool with fire. Wrong. Fast forward a bit again. This time I have a great idea. I'm going to make a super-ball. You know those little hard rubber nearly spring-loaded bouncy balls? Not sure what I was thinking, but I pulled the rubber caps off the ends of my folks' croquet mallets and proceeded to try to melt them down. Not sure what I expected or planned to do, but never got that far. The rubber caught fire and once again was not very stomp-out-able.

Now you figure I'm cured for sure. Wrong again. Fast forward to my pre-teen years. Now I'm mixing chemicals to make my own combustibles. Stuff that makes sugar burn like no tomorrow, concoctions that ignite with water, or upon impact. Really neat stuff. I have one main goal (I won't talk about that home made zip pistol right here): to launch a tin can as high in the air as possible. Oh this time I'm smart, I'm going to be able to ignite it remotely. So I take apart a flash-cube and get a small flash bulb out of it that I figure I can make go off by hooking up a battery to it. In an effort to test it I put it in a small glass jar (one of my empty chemical jars) along with one of my "gunpowers." I insulate one of the leads to the flashbulb with tape, hang both leads out of the jar and screw the lid on. I set the jar on the workbench (I'm in our basement) and put a battery to it. Did anyone say bomb? You bet. My mom comes running downstairs to find me on the floor, back against the wall on the other side of the room saying, "it worked." Unbelievably, I'm alright, but that may have contributed to some of my present day hearing problems.

I wish it ended there, but I'll trouble you with one more event of absolute unconscious tomfoolery. Boy scout camping trip, camp fire, dinner time, canned something-or-other, place can in fire (whoops didn't open it). Did someone say boom? You bet. All over the bloody place. Set half the tents on fire. Got a free ride home and thrown out of the scouts (got invited back to be senior patrol leader later on). Again, no one got hurt.

These are just some of my exploits of growing up, which it is down right amazing I did. Talk about guardian angels! Guess I'll have to cut my boy some slack when he ventures out with his own versions of shenanigans.

[Ten Hammers]

Phil, in my teens I set a pick-up cab full of fireworks off with one M-80 that didn't make it out the wing vent. Sounds like we went to the same survival school.