metal grinding /cutting in workshop

[flying haggis]

having had a need to cut bits of metal rod/ tube in the workshop I have always been wary of sparks. so rather than rest on a milk crate! as I have been doing. I had this idea to fix my spare vice to the inside of the door. this now means sparks disappear into the lawn rather than the workshop floor and sawdust.

safety first and all that

 

[Keith 66]

Watch the lawn isnt dry, you might set fire to it!

 

[flying haggis]

not a chance, we have had about two inches of rain today !! but I know what you mean. the lawn as it is? is between the house and the workshop and never really gets dry as it is shaded for most of the day

 

[Sandyn]

I try and keep my metalwork and woodwork areas separate to prevent any problems, but I got a big heavy planer which I could get into my metal shop, but to get it into the wood shop I would have to get it across 7m of lawn. I haven't bothered to do it yet. I was cutting some steel bar with a cutting disk, finished cutting and looking at the part. I turned round to find a bag of shavings from the planer starting to burn. Nothing serious, but so easy to happen. Now I blow the area thoroughly with a garden blower and cut outside when possible.

 

[Keith 66]

Grinding sparks can go a long way, I saw a bloke in a boatyard ignite a container of acetone fortunately not large & easily put out with a burp from a Co2 extinguisher. Grinding sparks will also ruin glass & plastic windows as they melt into the surface leaving a rusty pit for ever more. Sparks will also burn into fibreglass gelcoat as a friend found out when the fishing boat next door did some heavy grinding & covered his boat in spark burns, that cost a heavy cut back & polish to fix it.

 

[D_W]

The two exist in my shop fine including a shower of sparks everywhere and an anvil, two forges and a cutting torch. The way you create a fire problem is something close to the origin of the sparks and lots of time for the stream going to the exact same spot....or flammable liquids in the spark stream, but i doubt anyone would do that on purpose.

 

[Boringgeoff]

Your English summer weather is similar to what we get in Australia in the winter so my comment is totally irrelevant to most of you. We have had some disasterous fires caused by angle grinders cutting metal outdoors in the summer. One, two or three years ago, in the Perth Hills took out a number of homes.
Locally, during summer, I get phone messages from my shire warning of a total fire, harvest and hot work ban. A fire in February that came very close to us was caused by a spark from a ride on mower when the operator wasn't aware a ban was in place.
My workshop wood and metalwork area is shared so I do a big sweep up of shavings and saw dust before cutting or welding and also am aware of where the sparks are going so as not to speckle the window as Keith mentioned.
I usually stop hot work an hour or so before I close up shop to be sure nothing is going to light up after I've gone down to the house.

Cheers,
Geoff.