This is always good to read.



And, reread.



And, spread around.



Rick A. Shay

Colorado

^^^^^^^^



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Well Thursday really sucked. Had computer problems that kept me far behind
schedule all day, then come back from the bank around 5 PM to find a can of
linseed oil had spilled. Soaked all the stuff on my bench, ran down the
side of the bench and all over the floor. Never thought a quart could cover
so much area. Went through an entire roll of blue shop towels cleaning it
up. I have this nagging feeling something is wrong but I shake it off.



Comes 2:30 AM, and I'm still playing catch-up updating my website and the
smoke alarms in the shop start wailing. WTF? I haven't even been out there
since 9 PM. I open the door and gray smoke is billowing out of the trash
can, completely filling the room. I walk the can outside and hose it down
an turn on all the industrial fans and vents to clear the air out.



Can't figure out what happened. I smoke a pipe, but I wasn't even outside to
dump my ashes in the can. My friend smoked cigarettes, but he left around 7
and I don't think he'd throw a but into a can of oily rags.



Oily rags. Oily rags.



So I pull the can of linseed oil off the shelf an read what I had read once
before but not paid much attention to. Going day by day being overwhelmed
by warnings on my coffee being hot, the knife being sharp, the bag that can
suffocate, the bucket that can drown and yada yada yada it becomes easy to
start ignoring the warnings and "stupid warnings for stupid people and
sue-happy lawyers."



Well folks, I am here to tell you once and for all, the warning on the back
of a can of linseed oil that says "Linseed oil generates heat as it dries
and may cause spontaneous combustion" is 100% correct. It took
approximately 2/3 quart of linseed oil on most of a roll of blue shop
towels approximately 9 hours of drying to ignite.



It was fortunate I was still around to hear the alarms go off.



I will also be replacing my 5 gallon plastic trash bucket with a metal
trashcan with metal lid.



Experience is the name we give to our F-ckups. Intelligence is learning from
them. But as someone posted here yesterday, Wisdom is learning from other
people's mistakes.



[ May 03, 2002: Message edited by: gunplumber ]



--------------------



T. Mark "Gunplumber" Graham

gunplumber@...

http://www.arizonaresponsesystems.com



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