Thread: Fire from grinding?

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I haven't managed to light any clothing like shirts, shorts and pants on fire yet, but I did learn that it is a smart idea to let the shop warm up before getting busy with the bench grinder. Apparently bulky nylon winter jackets are very flammable

I also learned that when cutting with torches under a car, there may be something flammable on the other side of the floor boards. I was cutting out some exhaust parts that the SawZall wouldn't reach, and I guess the torches got the sheetmetal of the floor hot enough (or there was a hole in the rusty bits) for the underpadding inside to start smoldering. Luckily I wasn't working alone and it was spotted quickly and we keep a water extinguisher handy when doing any oxy-acetalene work.

I realize that this is straying from the subject of the thread, but If anybody is interested in learning some really creative ways to start fires, may I submit a couple of my favorite methods?

My brother had an early Winnebago motor home. The lady in my life and I borrowed it to take a lengthy vacation trip to the Northwest. The vehicle had a very tired 318 in it and had a healthy appetite for oil so it required frequent transfusions. Well, we stopped for gas somewhere up in Dave Severson territory and I got out a can of cheap forty-weight and stabbed it with a filler spout. In doing so I crunched down the stupid paper can that oil used to come in. I stuck the spout in the filler hole not noticing that most of the oil was running down on a very hot exhaust manifold. Now, you might think that an open flame would be necessary to ignite oil, but it ain't necessarily so. We immediately had a nice cozy fire. Fortunately baby brother had a fire extinguisher next to the driver seat so we were able to drive her home to Texas.

That was stupid, but it wasn't as bad as what we did to the poor old Winnie next when we decided to replace the 318 with a rebuilt 360.

We had the new engine in place and were hooking up the ignition, fuel lines, etc. The gas line was not yet hooked up to the carburetor and was hanging down in the vicinity of the #1 spark plug. The plug wire was hanging loose beside the plug.

You can probably see this coming, but I reached in and "bumped" the starter.
The fuel pump gave a heathy squirt of gas.
The distributor provided a good hot spark.

AND HERE WE GO AGAIN!

Believe it or not the Winnie served us for several more years despite my efforts to destroy her.


Jim