torch vs saw experince

fastenal should have fire blanket...when i work on boiler jobs we literally have the stuff by the trailor load on the job site....what we use looks kinda like orange burlap, and it comes on rolls 50 ft long by 6 ft wide....i may not be spelling fastenal right..ive never saw the word spelled i just know thats where most of the stuff like that comes from in my area

if i were working at the moment i could send you as much as you could ever use...we are not allowed to use a piece for more than 1 shift..then it must be replaced......that stuff is very important when your working on 20 story structures and everything is grating ....

it isnt really fire proof completley.. it will eventually burn..the thing is that it will not flame up, if that makes any sense...it will kinda cinder away slowly like a cigarette that you are not puffing on.....you can put it out by smacking it or stomping it a couple times very easily

Fire retardant blankets are available in a variety of locations. I like Mech. idea of creating your own and love Wardarbr resource. As far as a fire extinguisher, I buy large boxes of baking soda and pour them in old laundry detergent bottles to keep it dry. It is much cheaper than and extinguisher and very handy.

Originally Posted by beardo

And Thank you for yours, I am currently trying to teach my teenage son situational awareness, or at least enough so he can live past his teens. Its slow going, maybe yelling and push up would help

if you are interested,,,the next time im at the hall paying dues i will see if we have anymore old saftey books...i know they have been trying to give a truckload or so away for a while...there are some with a lot of good knowledge inside them...im particularly fond of the ones on lead,asbestos,pcb, and radiation awarness....

folks who have never done any construction or scrapping often dont think of the hidden dangers....

I've spent all my 9-5 time in sawmills, where fire is a constant danger when doing repair work, with either torches, welders, air arcs, grinders or the like. And the torch is just about the no. 1 tool used in a sawmill.

One item that hasn't been mentioned is water. The absolutely simplest but very effective fire protection is a simple garden hose with a hand sprayer on it. Another item is a p*ss can...a can that holds about 5 gallons of water with a hand pump built onto the hose. These things are heavily used in the forest fire fighting business. In the sawmills, we would put a little winshield washer anti-freeze into them (environmentally friendly and all) so you could use it in freezing weather.

I use the cans when working around the farm-- easy to have with you and effective.

For those that do metal cutting with a saw, a combination of cutting to watch for is aluminum and steel. The combination of steel and aluminum can get you pretty close to thermite, which is a combination of a metal and an oxide. It only takes a spark to ignite. Its not explosive but will burn very hot--enough to melt steel. There's stories around where guys have machined aluminum in a lathe and then went on to machining steel without cleaning up the bed....and burnt their lathe in half. Just another thing to be "situationally aware of" when cutting metals.


Jon.

i agree with sawmilleg 100 percent , around my house or my little workshop i always try to keep a water hose handy when im cutting,,one of those old brass pump cans saved my trailor and truck once back when i was younger and dumber,,,i was burning something off an old jeep cherokee while it was loaded and chained to my car trailor...

in most of the plants i work in it is against the rules to attempt to extinguish a fire with water, unless you obtain special permission from the saftey office........any type of hot work at all requires a hot work permit....to obtain the permit the foreman has to coordinate with the saftey officer, his crew , anyone else in the nearby areas, and at least one regular plant worker...once the job has been surveyed out they decide how many fire watch workers will be needed and what equipment they will be issued in case of an accident...

most of the time they will give us 2 fire extinguishers and a couple 5 gallon buckets of some type of soda ash.. it is rare but some times we will be given a water hose and told to keep the area wetted down..this is very rare and is usually in chemical plants and not power houses...the biggest part of the time we are specifically told under no circumstance to use water...these plants contain various types of chemicals and even flammable metals, also electric lines are involved a lot of the times...