Cleaning off nail varnish at the time? While lighting a fag?

We used copious amounts in the laboratory for drying glassware – rinsed more than once and then dried with a compressed air line. We were more careful when supplies were short and we swapped to using methanol.

Had a close shave with acetone at work, a sheetmetal worker was working on an engine thrust reverser grinding rivet stems. For some reason he had a plastic cup with acetone without a lid next to him. While grinding sparks flew into the cup and caught fire – he panicked and in trying to put out the fire ( which was small and confined to the cup) he kicked the cup and created a mini fireball under the wing! We were lucky the tanks had just been closed that same morning.. I wouldn't be here writing about this were they still open.

Loads of aircraft engineers on this forum, I think we gravitate to this hobby.

Yes, pure methanol burns with a flame that is invisible in daylight. There is a video taken form a helicopter out there of a crashed tanker truck be sprayed with water by firefighters, suddnely the firefighters fall over for no apparent reason. The video then switches to the thermal camera image which shows a huge fireball.
MEK and Toluene are other solvents with fire hazards. Thy can be ignited by static generated by cleaning with a cloth.

Robert G8RPI.

Used to use acetone regularly at work, because it will dissolve uncured synthetic resins (' Araldite ' and the like). It won't touch the cured resin.

Apart from tool-cleaning, and degreasing the work-pieces, it was necessary when we glued together stacks of individual parts, in jigs with large compression-screws.

Acetone was the only solvent to my knowledge at least, and the only one we used anyway, that would clean off the adhesive oozing from the compressed joints, whilst not harming anything; and with due care, it is relatively safe to handle in the modest amounts we used. (Lots of ventilation, suitable gloves and of course no ignition sources nearby.)

You can buy 1 litre bottles of acetone in any french supermarket or diy store. Freely available there!

Yep! go to Lidl (UK) for your Acetone, I bought a 1 litre tin of the stuff the other week, Lot better than buying the little bottles of expensive nail varnish remover.

Ian

Not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but you can buy it in 4L containers in any hardware store in Australia.

^ I've noticed the same.

I was told to provide waste bins for oily rags so turned to the metal basher and asked him to make some bins. He went ahead and used empty anti freeze drums about 20/30 liter size. Next thing I heard a bang and he came running out of the shop, he had no injuries but had started cutting the end of the drum with oxy/aceteline torch which of course ignited the remains of the antifreeze in the tin. I then introduced him to a cold chisel and a hammer.The drum he was working on was ballooned out and split.