Yes, I agree with you that it was wise to point out the effects that can result from using lindseed oil. I hope everyone reading this thread will check and see if they have any on hand. I went out and checked my accumulated assortment of chemical products just to be sure I didn't have any left from some long forgotten project. I suggest everyone do that, and either put a warning label on it or toss it in the garbage. I don't dispute the dangers of using linseed oil and forgetting that its combustable.....good that it was brought out in this thread. Beyond that, I don't think there is any big problem created by the vast majority of things that dirty rags contain when used on common projects found in our automotive shop environment. Excerpt from another website: Despite the claims of linseed oil manufacturers and salesmen, there is a commercial wood preservative that exceeds linseed oil's performance for almost every application. Perhaps the only reason to consider using linseed oil as a preservative is the price. Linseed oil is less than half the price of a commercial preservative. If I was going to coat a half mile of wood fencing or other non-critical application, I just might choose linseed oil.
I used to get every last bit out of a rag, but its not worth burning your shop down saving used rags. At least put them in a fire resistant metal can with a metal lid, better yet outside 20 feet from your shop.
I had a linseed oil rag spontaneously combust. If I wasn't lucky enough to see it smolder it would have burned down my shop and all the cars.
Not worth arguing about , folks. If I soak a rag in lacquer thinner, acetone, or wd-40, or linseed oil, if it's not going OUT to the garbage right away, I lay it in the middle of the concrete floor, away from everything, and let it dry out. If it were to catch fire, there's nothing around or above it to burn. Biggest risk is a black spot on the floor. Never happened to me, but why take a chance?
The alternate products vary depending on what your use for the linseed oil is. Linseed oil is like a catch all that can do several things that are basically unrelated. You just need to search on line to see what alternative suits your particular need.
Have to beg to differ on that one- an old friend lost his very nice barn/office, his nice '50 DeSoto, and his son's SS-RS Camaro ragtop (that had just been sold) and a couple rooms full of new high-end golf equipment to paint rags. He liked to hire kids from the local junior college for odd jobs to make some money, and had 3 guys paint the outside of that barn. They left a couple rags in the center of the concrete floor, and whoosh that night, lost everything. At the time, he was the West Coast and Hawaii distributor for one of the major golf equipment companies, and the with-him pictures in his office were a 40-year who's who of golfers, commendations and testimonials, irreplaceable stuff
Hello, As teenagers, when we were working on our cars, our clean rags were in a galvanized bucket. But, at the end of the day, the used ones got put into the weekly, larger gavalnized, trash cans that everyone in the neighborhood put out on the curb. It was filled with everything… It did not matter that we just wiped our hands or that it was used to clean off a drip of oil off of the floor, it got thrown away in the larger trash can. Why? Our mom had this thing about neatness in her sons’ clothes. To her, it exemplified how her actions as a mom was seen out in the community, from the local neighborhood, from the elementary schools to high schools, and the whole Long Beach area. That was how she was taught and was shoving it down on us. So, dirty Levi’s that stood up by themselves were never a factor in our house, despite us trying to hide the pants. (dirty Levi’s were a sign of a cool hot rodder) Since our mom did the housework, she cleaned everything everyday. That meant sometimes washing clothes two times a week. We had plenty of t-shirts and if they had a slight tear, rip or hole in them, they became rags. (this method has stood the test of our lifetime, as my wife now has a great supply of newly washed and cut up t-shirts for cleaning) Those rags were placed in the galvanized bucket. That is as close to hot rodding that my mom wanted to be in our backyard garage. She could not control our hot rod/drag racing, builds, or engine building, but she could supply us with an endless supply of clean rags. Jnaki Old rags bit the dust as soon as it was used in one backyard garage hot rod work session. We never washed them as the flow of nicely cut to size, “holey”, t shirts filled the bucket weekly. This method still works as my wife has her collection of clean, cleaning rags in an enclosed wired drawer stack rack. When finished, they get the “adios” to the local trash cans. Now, I am the one to find a hole or small rip in an old favorite t-shirt and out it goes to the cutting counter. I have a sack of hand size clean ex-t-shirts cut to fit everyday garage/car/home work in a drawer near the workbench. There is never a used or slightly used rag stored back in a drawer. Plus, there is a never ending supply of old clothes biting the dust monthly at our house. Many years ago, when we moved into our last small house, we had small random garage cabinets from the local big box stores. They had nice shelves and a hanging wire rack slid in nicely over the space in one shelf area above the work counter. It stored the rags until they kept falling out every time I wanted a new one. Plus, the door needed to get wiped every time, as we liked the rag rack hidden. I finally took this off, bent the slider rods and made a small holder for my external computer hard drives under the desk, cubby hole. The hard drives were hidden from emergency sprinklers, but exposed for cooling. Originally, the external hard drives were large and fit in this opening. It just felt like they were going fall out with the next big shake. So,the final wire storage/cooling rack was added for ease of security and quick removal in emergencies. One good thing is that the latest external hard drives are smaller, are solid state, and hold a lot more in a small size. They fit easily in the opening without fear of falling out in a big shake.
The Jalopy Journal
