- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 3,816
I was grinding away on a couple of blades for the Eugene show. Sparks were flying and the blaze belt was eating steel like the morning doughnut. I looked down at my trashcan spark collector and noticed the hose had separated slightly from the connection. Then I saw a glow coming from the intake pipe. The purpose for the can is to collect hot sparks and keep them out of the dust collection system. Well some steel dust had collected at the junction and was burning at a rather high temperature. So I just pulled the hose off and put out the fire. No Biggie. Well the dust collector was still running and I noticed it was glowing inside the elbow going into the can. Well now I got worried. I turned off the the dust collector and pulled the lid off the can. The steel dust in the bottom of the can was burning pretty good. It slowed rather quickly after the blast was turned off. I took the can outside and put about 3 inches of water in the bottom. I will run it wet from now on. I might get a little water in the collector but I would rather deal with that than a fire. I have had some minor burns in the past but nothing like this. It was not huge but could have easily caught the dust collector on fire and caused some serious damage.
Be careful out there and make sure your dust collectors are kept clean. Check them every so often while grinding and absolutely at the end of the day. Make sure they are not hot from the days grinding.
Be careful out there and make sure your dust collectors are kept clean. Check them every so often while grinding and absolutely at the end of the day. Make sure they are not hot from the days grinding.
