[bluesman2333]

Originally Posted by OneMoreTime

One needs to get to a severely high concentration of fumes in the air to get an explosive situation..

Actually, it needs to be in the proper range. Too little or too much accelerant will NOT produce an explosion or fire in the presence of an ignition source. You need the proper oxygen/fuel ratio just like in an engine.

[Nim-Rod]

I was an engineer at a company that did production line spray painting. I have never seen a fire or explosion from spray painting but I did witness a fire start from booth filters that had been removed and stacked at break time. The painters returned from their break and found smoke rising from the stack of filters due to spontaneous combustion. Fortunately they arrived early enough to get it put out before any damage was done.

Commercial paint booths are required to have explosion proof lights, switches and motors to prevent any possible problems. While it takes a very specific set of conditions to create an explosion, you DO NOT ever want that to happen! The results are painful and possibly deadly with a strong possibility of fire to make things worse.

Home painting can be done safely with some pretty simple precautions. Eliminate sources of combustion that are close to the painting area and provide some sort of ventilation to remove the fumes.

[Sixguns]

I have painted several cars at home, have used a MR. Heater propane heater, torpedo heaters and gas pilot light heaters. A long time ago I painted a 57 chev and then realized the gas pilot light thru the fog of clear coat, and thanked God I did not blow up.
Many years later, I tought my Sons to paint at home, told them to be sure and turn off the heater during the spraying. One of my sons said he had expermented and sprayed right into an open flame and the paint did not ignite. Still we use common sence and turn off the heaters. but we still have the fans going, so it would seam were still at risk. I have no answer why , but I should have blown up and did not. Like you said,myth busters needs to do this.

[timothale]

My brother had a hardwood flooring business in the 50's . The wood was sanded in place then several coats of finish applied then left to cure. He was checking jobs his crew had finished. the floor was dry enough to walk on. he was about 3 steps into the living room when the draft took the fumes to the pilot light on either the water heater, gas stove or furnace and the house exploded. It blew him out the front picture window , his clothes on fire. It burned his ears enouogh that they are still shrunk and he can't straighten his little fingers out. a lot of skin grafts and one year in the hospital. He was lucky to have survived. I am very careful about using any solvent based material any where in an enclosed area.

[artsvettes]

Back in the 70's I knew a guy that sprayed in a small garage. The only heat sourse was those kerosene torpedos.After finishing spraying he went to plug it in and boom the garage door was blown out in the street. He was just shaken up

[kenseth17]

I've taken some dumb risks over the years, and fortunately never exploded.
When I painted in my parents garage growing up, all I had for heat was a barrel stove, and ventilation consisted of a garage door opened with a box fan. The fact that I painted in a fume filled garage with little ventilation and the health effects concerns me even more then the fact I was painting near an open flame. The garage was not insulated real well. It would be cold, but once painting the fumes would get the fire really roaring and finally would get warm inside. A friend in school also painted out at his uncles farm and it had a wood stove for heat.
I now only have a torpedo heater, but put less overspray in the air with a efficient hvlp guns, and have a much bigger fan for ventilation. I shut it down when painting, and allow garage to clear out well before thinking of firing up the torpedo heater again.
I have heard of shops burning down. One was down the road from where I use to work. Not sure what happened, but this shop actually had a wood stove for heat.
Another one recently burnt down, but was due to some rags or something starting on fire after everyone had left. With all the paint supplys in the building, it made a good explosion. I would expect that more fires are started due to flammables catching fire then exploding while painting.
It would probably require doing something stupid to blow yourself up, with a high concentration of fumes built up along with a open flame, or something causing a spark, but really only would take once to lose a bunch of property, or worst end a life. Thats why saftey is allways stressed and why shops are required explosion proof lights, fans, non sparking equiptment, no open flames, ect. and we advise to think about saftey first, no open flames, and have heat source in a separate room and vent into the paint area.

[Chris Kemp]

This a good one!

I was about seventeen years old and I was working for an older guy that had a little body and paint shop. He did as much insurance work as he could get but he also did a lot of used car work. He had a special that he did for the whole sale car guys that he called a dip job. What it consisted of was me washing the car with comet and then sanding and repairing any small dents that it had and not sanding the rest of the car. I would tape the car up and he would paint it with the cheapest car paint he could buy. At that time it was ZacLac synthetic (this was 1973). Because he was real good with a paint gun when the car was finished it really looked good and all of the used cars guys loved the dip jobs. In the winter time he would not use thinner he would set the gallon can on a hot plate and that would reduce the viscosity. Now in the summer time it was a different story. Believe it or not on these dip jobs he would use gasoline for thinner. It really made the cars shine good. Well the compressor was small, the booth (if you want to call it that) had poor ventilation and the shop was real small too and because of all of this I had to stop work when ever he painted. He kept the compressor in the paint booth off to one side and it had been acting up when it kicked on. During the time that he would paint I would usually walk to the corner store and get me some crackers and a cold drink. I'd then come back and sit across the street under a big oak tree and wait for him to finish. On that particular day he came out between coats and sat there with me for a few minutes. While we were setting there shooting the breeze we heard the compressor try to kick on and it made its usual humming sound for a second and then the whole booth blew up and went up in flames. Nobody was hurt but it caught the whole shop on fire and put him out of business.

A lot of the make shift booths that I see up here on this web site look similar to the one that he had. Proper ventilation and using the right material has been a must for me ever since. Make sure to keep the vapor away from any source of ignition.

Chris

[lugog]

Originally Posted by rdupree

I guess it is time I started contributing to this forum. I know of two experiences.

First, in the late '60's a good friend of mine ran a body shop, with a typical poorly ventilated room he used for his paint booth. His habit was to complete a paint job, grab a cigarette, and go into the room to inspect his work. Never had a problem.

Second, in the late '80's a former co-worker was going to get into the fiberglass body business. He bought a nice chopper gun setup, had his molds made, etc. His story was that it was a cold day, so he was using some extra hardener to help the glass set up quicker. As he was cleaning the equipment with acetone, the hot resin started a fire, and he was luck to excape with his life.

Ron Dupree

Fiberglass will catch on fire if you lay it on too thick with a lot of catlyst. The reaction creates heat and if you layer it on really thick it will go up in flames. Someone I know almost set their work on fire. He said the best he could do was pour water over it after it started smoking.

I second the mythbusters. I have my doubts on how easy it is to get a perfectly concentrated mixture in an area large enough to be combustible. Like you I have never heard of any stories of explosions with car painting.

[4 Jaw Chuck]

I once painted a car in -5C weather in a garage with no ventilation with a 55 gallon barrel stove in it, I used Acrylic Urethane mixed 50/50 with hardener. It was so cold my compressor water separator kept freezing up and I had to eventually remove it to continue, the fog created by the gun was so thick I had to hold my breath in between shots because the mask kept getting clogged. I made 12 coats in 12 hours and it took an ounce of fisheye remover in each mixed gallon to keep the paint from "eyeing". I had stoked the stove to try and get it warm but once I started painting I just let it go out.

There was never an explosion but I was very worried about it at the time, the paint took a week to flash to the point where it was dry enough to touch and the car looked like it had been dipped, truly spectacular!

I would never do it again because of the serious danger of explosion but the weather turned bad in two days before I could shoot the car and my father and law was adamant it be painted NOW!

I learned some things that day, painting when its cold out is a PITA but it sure levels out nice.

[Rob Keller]

Rob Here!




http://v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=166388








R

[dinger]

Originally Posted by Rob Keller

Rob Here!

http://v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=166388

R

Oh Man, what a loss, I would have cried!

[dinger]

The only thing I have seen like this is when I wrked (briefly) building waterbed frames from wood. The small paint booth we used was full of 2x12 boards, frshly stained and cleared with lacquer. The painter was standing outside the door, lit a cigarette, we hear a whoosh, looked inside where the boards were laid out, they had a flame hovering above the boards. We used the extinguisher and made a mess, powder type, got a real good butt chewing, but with the booth made of wood, it could have been much worse.

[SuthnCustoms]

http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/local...041234657.html

This is just one ive seen a while back when planning to build a paint booth,there is more thats been presented to us in safety classes and training on jobs that we are required to paint the fabricated steel in fab shops..i'll find them later and post...
Im a union ironworker and about every job we go on is required mandatory safety training on the type of job we are doing and the safety guys always have first hand vids/examples of the dangers to show us..
The danger is DEFINITLY there,not a myth..

All it takes is 1 unsuspecting right conditions and it happens at the blink of an eye.
I have to agree that alot of explosions/fires are not advertised in the media if it can be prevented because of lawsuites and denied insurance claims

[Chevrolet4x4s]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRw4ZRqmxOc
Coffee Creamer
Shane

[Deez]

Ha, saw a whole building full of paint burn, blow up and burn for hours once ignited. First was a very loud bang, and we just thought it was another accident at the intersection nearby. Nope, it was the initial explosion in a building full of paint and other flammables. Once it was going, not even the firemen were getting close. You could feel the heat from like 300' away. If you want to see just how fast something ignites in an enclosed space, like a garage or house, get yourself an EMPTY 3' x 3' x 3' box and place it in a wide open area away from anything combustible. Loosely ball up some paper to about 1/4 full and wet some with gasoline or laquer thinner - a small amount is all that is necessary, like a few ounces. Toss it into the box and stand back while you get the nerve to strike a match and fling it towards the box. When you get one near enough, the thing will make a giant fireball, suck the sides of the box in and blow 'em back out. It's quite the scene and exactly what will happen to any room or garage you are in. You get the picture.