Fire in the Foundry

[RWD3M]

Look into auto fire extinguishers

Not advised in a foundery.

I looked at these things:

ElideFire® - The Product

www.elidefire.fr

..about 6 months ago with a view to putting them in my shed but after extensive research came to the conclusion that they would be pretty ineffective.

I agree, the demonstrations on the web are quite impressive, but they appear very 'staged' IMO.

@The_Yellow_Ardvark What's your view (esp. as you've seen my shed)?

 

[R Kraft]

Neighbor welded in his barn and a spark must have rolled into the seam between the floor and wall.
He dumped water in the immediate area, but the barn quickly burnt down.
I weld out doors now.

 

[R Kraft]

Some fire hazards are obvious.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

I looked at these things:

ElideFire® - The Product

www.elidefire.fr

..about 6 months ago with a view to putting them in my shed but after extensive research came to the conclusion that they would be pretty ineffective.

I agree, the demonstrations on the web are quite impressive, but they appear very 'staged' IMO.

@The_Yellow_Ardvark What's your view (esp. as you've seen my shed)?

Pm sent.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

I think any smoke, heat, or ionisation detector would be something that had to be deactivated while I was using the induction furnace or gas forge and switched on at the end of a session. After all the objective is to make hot smokey things !

Any good fire alarm system can be planned to suit your needs.

 

[Brad93]

I looked at these things:

ElideFire® - The Product

www.elidefire.fr

..about 6 months ago with a view to putting them in my shed but after extensive research came to the conclusion that they would be pretty ineffective.

I agree, the demonstrations on the web are quite impressive, but they appear very 'staged' IMO.

@The_Yellow_Ardvark What's your view (esp. as you've seen my shed)?

I'm on about the powder extinguishers mounted on wall with thermal fuses

 

[DAPPH]

I was amazed how inflamable the thick heavy duty plastic Acco drain slats obviously are - they've burnt to cinders along their entire length.

Remedial actions:

A/ Fill the (redundant) drain channel with concrete (It dates from when the foundry was an uncovered yard)

B/ Remove the approximately 5 foot x 6 foot feather board cladding and replace with fibre cement properly sealed top and bottom

C/ Fit some sort of Smoke detector with a remote siren or maybe radio link to the house, but it's a long way - (perhaps 100 metres)

This morning I've taken possession of three of those plastic drains . it was a toss up between them and a cast gully with a galv steel grid at three times the price per metre .

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

I'm on about the powder extinguishers mounted on wall with thermal fuses

Only approved in a few and well controlled places.

 

[DAPPH]

Sorry , Probably shouldnt have used that word , and cant edit now ? my apolagies

Be creative in future and call him a " Pancake maker" .

 

[jsf55]

Fit a cheap webcam inside the building so you can check if there's ever a doubt in your mind, also and out of my depth, could you not fit one of those thermostats on the wall too an alarm if it gets above a certain temperature ?

 

[bricol]

Good idea, I'm sure he'd soon get fed up of coming down to the factory floor at the start of every shift to issue 15 hot work permits.

A good example of his mentality was the loading deck is a "hi-vis must be worn" area which didn't bother us as we wore them all the time, we were crossing the deck one day in a shut down and saw him without a hi-vis so challenged him "oh it doesn't count during shut downs"

So a welding cell set-up for automated jobs needs a manual, non-automated, out of the ordinary welding job - why would it not need a hot work permit - especially if it covers your backside if anything went up . . . ?

And a non-requirement for high vis in a shut down, non-working area sound at first listen, like a bit of the common sense everyone claims to want from H&S people?

 

[dobbslc]

Surely the shutdown is so maintenance can be carry out? ie people are working so silly ****** should be wearing all the same PPE as everyone else.

 

[Johnnybravo]

Early this afternoon I melted a bit of aluminium alloy - just pouring to ingot - less than a kilogram.

For some (very fortunate) reason I decided this evening to weigh it - and unlocking the workshop was greeted by a pungent smell. Got stronger as I went through the fire doors into the foundry - somethings burning.

Now admittedly there was a bit of a splash as I poured the ingot, but nothing exceptional - but here were are with the floor channel Acco drain totally burnt out, the timber of a stout castered dolly that was in the foundry still gently crackling with red hot embers, and charring round the fire extinguisher and up towards the only bit of timber wall cladding.

This could have been bad - and I mean REALLY bad - if that bit of timber clad wall had gone up in flames the whole back wall of my workshop could have burnt :bugeye:

Oddly there was a floor mop and bucket totally melted and burnt out that I'd used to mop up antifreeze spills from recently replacing all the furnace coolant - had it dried and spontaneously combusted ? I don't think so but have no proof - I THINK what happened was a splash of molten aluminium had got into the (dry) floor drain channel which probably had quite a bit of fluff in it, and as it burnt along it's length took the rest with it.

But heck - this is a rude awakening.

I've moved the still glowing bits of the dolly outside and doused it with a few buckets of water, and sprayed every where that there has been charring with a hand pump water spray, and will come back in an hour and re-check everything.

View attachment 387418

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View attachment 387420

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View attachment 387422

Hopefully that’s the elusive water leak dried out

 

[Robotstar5]

So a welding cell set-up for automated jobs needs a manual, non-automated, out of the ordinary welding job - why would it not need a hot work permit - especially if it covers your backside if anything went up . . . ?

And a non-requirement for high vis in a shut down, non-working area sound at first listen, like a bit of the common sense everyone claims to want from H&S people?

It's basically a metal box with non flammable materials in it so no permit required

The loading deck still had a couple of FLT's operating so hi-vis still needed.

 

[awemawson]

Hopefully that’s the elusive water leak dried out

It was the scrap that YOU gave me that I was melting !

 

[Johnnybravo]

Got some tubing ends coming up if you want them

 

[awemawson]

Got some tubing ends coming up if you want them

Cheers

 

[prepman]

Sorry to hear of the incident.
As you say it could have been much worse.
I fitted a wireless linked heat alarm near furnace to the 2 house smoke ones. Not too expensive. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265621471078
Each set each other off. In totally there are 4 smoke in house and 1 CO and 1 heat and 2 CO in workshop. We can't escape from house upstairs in the event of fire. Small cottage windows. So we need plenty of warning.
Often have a smouldering tissue on the floor after grinding/welding and like to hang around for a while...... or not do hot stuff late in the day.
Re-read your post...your workshop is a good distance away. So a wired system maybe?
Mine is attached to the house.

 

[prepman]

Lint in dryers is the single biggest causes of fires onboard ships. We had a ship from a sister company burn up and sink a decade or so ago, the fire started in the laundry. It sank because so much water was pumped aboard that the bow dipped under water and it then flooded the whole boat. It was taken under tow as it was pulling miles of seismic cables and if it stopped it would turn the area into a maze of floating marine hazards.

Good friend of mine was in a life boat taking pics, I have the whole set from start to finish somewhere.

Just a little big of fluff.. and......

View attachment 387442

View attachment 387443

Another reason I bought a compressor condensing clothes drier.

 

[awemawson]

Sorry to hear of the incident.
As you say it could have been much worse.
I fitted a wireless linked heat alarm near furnace to the 2 house smoke ones. Not too expensive. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265621471078
Each set each other off. In totally there are 4 smoke in house and 1 CO and 1 heat and 2 CO in workshop. We can't escape from house upstairs in the event of fire. Small cottage windows. So we need plenty of warning.
Often have a smouldering tissue on the floor after grinding/welding and like to hang around for a while...... or not do hot stuff late in the day.
Re-read your post...your workshop is a good distance away. So a wired system maybe?
Mine is attached to the house.

Yes that's the sort of thing I need - have you any idea of how far apart they can be? The foundry is probably 100 yards from the house and steel framed which doesn't help WiFi range.

(We've 9 smoke detectors and 1 heat detector in the farm house - all interlinked, and they make an enormous racket when triggered !)