What do you do with your greasy shop rags?

[EddieWalker]

My shop rags are all old T shirts. I use one for cleaning up my grease jobs until it's more of a mess then my zirk fittings, then it goes out to the burn pile. I have more old T shirts then I use up, so the challenge for me is to get rid of them faster.

Eddie

 

[txdon]

Im not sure but wouldnt a metal trask can with a cover do the same,As long as your shutting off the air supply?Mabey someone whos a fireman could give us a little info on this.
ALAN

Petroleum based oil rags do not spontaneously combust.

They do catch on fire from sparks or open flames.

Only products like linseed oil or other natural products that can release heat through oxidation or fermentation spontaneously combust.

I throw mine in the burn barrel and add heat to make them burn. My county still encourages supervised burning of entire fields during a burn ban.

 

[Bird]

Iguess there is a danger of them catching on fire??So im told any how.

I can practically guarantee it!! I believe it was 1980 (give or take a year or so), when one hot summer Saturday, I changed oil & filters and greased our two vehicles. Back then we had a special rack (locking ring on a pole) that would hold a plastic garbage bag and had a plastic lid that didn't seal, but closed over the open top of the garbage bag. When I finished, I threw the old greasy t-shirt I was using in that garbage bag on top of about a half bag of trash that was already there, went and showered, and my wife and I went out to eat.

When we got back, the minute the garage door opened, I could smell something burning. I ran in the house and around through the house in a near panic to find the source before realizing the odor was strongest in the garage. When I opened the lid over the garbage bag, you could see the smoke and I found that my wife had put another sack of garbage on top of that greasy rag, while I was showering.

That entire greasy white t-shirt was charred a dark brown, was smoking, and was too hot for me to pick it up. I think if we'd just been another half hour later coming home from the restaurant, I'd have burned my house down.

As you might guess, I'm extra careful now. Greasy usable rags are kept completely spread out, on the work bench, over the vise, etc. so they get plenty of air. Otherwise, they go into an air tight metal container until time to go to the landfill.

 

[Bird]

Don, it looks like we were typing at the same time, and I know that you know more about fires and fire fighting than I do, but after that personal experience . . . what can I say? I nearly lost my home believing what you just posted.

 

[theonlybull]

Don, it looks like we were typing at the same time, and I know that you know more about fires and fire fighting than I do, but after that personal experience . . . what can I say? I nearly lost my home believing what you just posted.

being in the middle of a fire invesagators course, firefighter for 10 years. and maybe a little foolish, i can second what don posted. greasy rags will not self ignite, unless something else adds enough heat for them to reach thier ignition temperature.

could have been something else in the can, that created enough heat for a sustained reaction to occur. unless you use a vegtable based oil in your cars

 

[Ken]

I have and old Maytag washer /ringer machine. keep filled with soap and water for all shop clothes. when filled wash then dry the contents. this is also should there be any fires to be quickly put out with available water to put on.
ken

 

[Larry Jones]

I take mine back to work and throw in the can for the laundry guy. He leaves a pile of clean ones that I help myslef to. I am the boss there too.

 

[RalphVa]

I use the red shop towels for bowling wipes, car window wipes and wax/armorall/etc. wipes. For these uses, they get laundered. For grease removal or very dirty rag jobs, I use rags. Got a seemingly endless supply of old cotton rags of various sorts. I use these and burn them or throw in the garbage if the garbage is going out right away.

Don't pile up greasy rags. They can auto ignite.

Ralph

 

[Bird]

being in the middle of a fire invesagators course, firefighter for 10 years. and maybe a little foolish, i can second what don posted. greasy rags will not self ignite, unless something else adds enough heat for them to reach thier ignition temperature.

could have been something else in the can, that created enough heat for a sustained reaction to occur. unless you use a vegtable based oil in your cars

As I said, I know txdon knows more about the topic than I do. My old white t-shirt only had grease and oil on it, to the best of my knowledge. I had changed the oil & filter in 2 vehicles and they also had a number of grease zerks. Now I never used synthetic oils and grease, so I can eliminate that possibility. However, as I also said, this was summer time in Texas, probably 100 degrees or hotter. This was a heavy duty vinyl garbage bag that had some household garbage or trash in it already, and then my wife had dropped more trash on top of the t-shirt. What generated the heat? I can't say. I can only say that the t-shirt was the charred item on which I burned my fingers when I tried to pick it up.

 

[CurlyDave]

There is no way in &^% they are going through my wife's clothes washer

So what do you guys do? Just reuse till they are too dirty? Coin-op wash?

When we upgraded the washer, I kept the old one for my shop. Coveralls, greasy rags, whatever goes in there. If I am going to wear it on my body, I wash it a second time in the regular washer.