re: Watch those stain rags

A little background….I was a firefighter for 31 years in Dallas. I was fortunate to have men I worked with that mentored me and taught me a lot about cabinet and furniture making. Spontaneous combustion is a very real danger with some of the chemicals we use in woodworking. I made some pretty spectacular fires over the years that were the result of leaving stain and varnish rags unattended.

Conditions have to be right for the reaction to generate enough heat to ignite, but the best rule is to always place solvent soaked rags and sponges in a tightly sealed metal container. Its also a really good idea to put water in the container and keep it outside until you can properly dispose of the contents.