Safety reminder

[Hal A Looyah]

I know that we must be careful in every aspect of casting, reloading, etc. Just when we think we have taken every precaution, danger arises. Just a friendly reminder or warning of what could happen.

I was simmering JPW on my hot plate to make some 45/45/10. It rapidly boiled over and caught fire. I was in an open garage at the door. I safely threw pot, hot plate and all into driveway.

What I learned. Simmer in a much larger pot. Watch it constantly. Position pot at lower level to see into pot better. Have nothing overhead to catch fire. Have a metal lid or snuffer to snuff fire in pot. No children or pets nearby.

Nothing more than a sooty garage door, but it burns like gasoline.

[waksupi]

You should be using a double boiler for flammables.

[1Shirt]

Yep, like Waksupi says! You were lucky, but luck runs out about the same time that common sense does also!
1Shirt!

[fryboy]

the best thing to do with stuff like this besides low temps that is ( granted in the heat of the moment it may not be remembered ) is to smother it , the lid would of worked , even using my double boiler system i make sure that my pan has a tite fitting lid just in case . glad you're ok tho !!!

[monge]

I did the same thing the first time I made the 45/45/10 scared the **** out of me didnt think wax could burn that way!

[John in WI]

I very nearly burned my shop down about 10 years ago. I ground a blade out of a leaf spring, built a forge to heat it evenly, and the plan was to "edge quench" the blade.

I knew veggie oil could flare up, but was totally unprepared for what happened next--a series of bad choices coming together like this. I submerged just the edge of the blade in the oil and it flared up. No worries--until I dropped the blade. Like an idiot, the container it was in was a plastic oil draining pan. It burned through, and about a gallon and a half of flaming vegetable oil roared to life. By the time I got the fire extinguisher it was largely out. But that could have caught the whole thing--the 20# propane tank, the welding tank...

Thanks for the tip--I've only been doing dangerous/flammable operations out in the driveway. So in the worst case, I can abandon whatever is going on. Not burn down the house or garage!

[10 ga]

Ya never know what's gonna happen and even with safety first you don't always see what is in front of you. Worst thing I ever did was put a bagel into the toaster, and the wifes new curtains were hanging over the counter, ....... I ended up having to buy new curtains and creating another spot for the toaster. Lucky I was waiting for the bagel instead of somewhere else waiting for the toaster to "pop" the bagel out. Glad you were not injured. Best, 10 ga

[mongo]

I just made another batch, I put the hot plate on a stool in the back yard just in case, Put the heat on low, just enough for the JPW to smoke a little, Reduced it by about half in about an hour. The first batch I made about a year or so ago I used the propane grill. The next day I got the hot plate.. I was able to extinguish it with the lid, Thats one lesson I will never forget.

[Bloodman14]

The best lessons are learned the hard way.

[dromia]

Bain-marie all the way for lube work!

[utk]

I never understood why a lot of combustible solvents should be cooked off and then some added back... Very risky.

Knowing that JPW is Paraffin wax, Carnauba wax and a solvent - why doesn't anybody experiment a little?

So I decided to do some experimenting by first melting some paraffin and carnauba in a double boiler, then adding a bottle of Lee Liquid Alox.
I had to adjust the viscosity slightly by adding aliphatic naphta (deodorized mineral spirits) because my LLA bottle was old and the contents had thickened.

When I got the consistency right, I tumble lubed some boolits with my mix. After drying they were totally non-sticky.
I gave the bottle to a friend who tumble lubes (I use lubesizers). He hasn't come back with a report yet, though.

What do you think?

[dromia]

Have you got the proportions?

[utk]

Well, not exactly.
The MSDS doesn't say exactly how much of every ingredient there is, but I first made some polishing wax by melting 15 grams of Paraffin wax and 5 grams of Carnauba in a double boiler. When melted, I added 50 milliliters of Aliphatic Naphta.
The result was a white, slightly yellow pasty substance, with which I polished part of my kitchen linoleum floor. Shiny and very slippery it got...

When making the lube, I added LLA to the waxes instead of Aliphatic Naphta. I don't remember the exact proportions I used but the above could serve as a guide for further experiments.

Sorry I didn't write it all down, but it shouldn't be too expensive to experiment for yourselves.

[ShooterAZ]

Same thing happened to me, it caught fire and I had three foot flames shooting out of the pot. Thankfully I had the lid sitting right next to it. I decided to quit messing with making it (no pun intended) and bought a lube sizer.

[fishnbob]

If I understood Recluse's directions correctly, you don't have to boil the $#it outta it, just simmer it along until the desired results are reached. Remember the old addage, "a watched pot never boils over."

[utk]

Why boil anything if you can use pure paraffin- and carnauba waxes and just add the LLA?
Of course, the waxes have to be melted first...

[dromia]

Well, not exactly.
The MSDS doesn't say exactly how much of every ingredient there is, but I first made some polishing wax by melting 15 grams of Paraffin wax and 5 grams of Carnauba in a double boiler. When melted, I added 50 milliliters of Aliphatic Naphta.

The result was a white, slightly yellow pasty substance, with which I polished part of my kitchen linoleum floor. Shiny and very slippery it got...

I don't remember the exact proportions I used for my modified LLA but the above could serve as a guide for further experiments.

Sorry I didn't write it all down, but it shouldn't be expensive to experiment for yourselves.

Thank you for that, I'll make up my floor polish first then add the Xlox.

Just experimenting really as I don't have an issue with Xlox in the few applications I use it for.

JPW isn't available here so I've tried Trewax in Recluse's recipe as recommended. The lube works fine, isn't sticky but does leave a greasy mark and feel on your hands so not totally dry. Interestingly a colleague of mine makes 45/45/10 with JWP he brought over from the the US and it is equally greasy.

I have plenty of paraffin and carnauba wax about the place so if nothing else I'll have a good wood polish.

[utk]

Do make some polish if you like. But for the lube itself use paraffin and carnauba only.

I would try melting 15 grams of Paraffin wax with 5 grams of Carnauba and add 50 milliliters of LLA instead of aliphatic naphta.

You only want to add waxes to the LLA, not more solvent.

[dromia]

That was going to be my approach, I was going to keep the mineral spirits to the end for adjusting consistency if necessary.

[utk]

Very interesting! Please report the results of your experiments.

Perhaps in a new lube thread?