I NEVER THOUGHT WOOD STAIN WOULD DO THIS! This is a must watch video for anyone who uses wood stain! 

The heat isn't what makes it combust. A guys pickup truck burned in the middle of the night because he had a bucket with rags from staining. Another RU-vid guy did this experiment on a cool day, and at the 5 hour mark, the rags started smoldering. Thank you for taking the time to make this video and confirm.

Just to be clear, the drying oil is exothermic which means the chemical process of drying produces its own heat. That means that you don't even need sun although it does speed things up. Enough rags and this could happen in your fridge just the same.

Actually, the sun has nothing to do with it. The three elements of fire are oxygen, fuel, and heat. The finishes you are describing cure by chemical reaction which creates heat. Using the sun to accelerate the heat element will cause the combustion faster, but it can easily happen in a darkened garage as well. The best way to prevent combustion is to either put the rags into a bucket of water, or to spread the rags out on a flat surface so they can dry. It’s the close quarters like the closed box that allows the heat buildup that allows the triangle of those three elements to achieve the right combination to create combustion.

This happened in a garbage can in my garage while building our house during the finish stage from staining wood. Luckily, our fire sprinklers were set off and put out the fire. We only had a few hundred dollars in damage when it could have been much worse. This is no joke. Thanks for making this video.

This is valuable information. I have been working with wood finishing products for decades, and I always let my rags dry completely in a well ventilated area before putting them in the trash.

This literally almost happened in our house yesterday after my GF stained some furniture legs. No sun. Room temp. Probably had more to do with the rags having a chemical reaction as the material broke down. We started smelling something. I picked up the rages that were sitting on the table and they were hot. Then I noticed a tiny bit of smoke coming out of them. Crazy. I'm glad we avoided a fire!

This is a serious problem if you're not careful have used wood stain many of times & polyurethane like anything you must be careful appreciate you sharing this video

Hi Clint , where I live right now is 106f and is 1239 pm. Thanks for your post many times we don’t realize the potential fire those rags can cause.

It will combust and catch fire here in arizona st the 120 degrees it is right now 👌 good demonstration video Broski @ToolReviewZone

If you are really paranoid about wood stain rags fires, opt for water based stain. However there is a trade off which is more prep work between coats and applying polyurethane after the stain but, it’s easy to clean up and dries faster.

I always throw my cloths into bucket of water after applying new coat of oil finish to my lovely oak desktop.

thanks for this video ! I will be more carefull from Now On!

Happen to me today, almost burned down my house, was already in flames when I caught it, it was with gel stain and not in the sun keep at room temperature , I thought it was electrical fire at first, crazy

Thank you for that demonstration. Great video. How about a tool test with fireproof boxes or containers that we can buy??

I like using foam brushes for applying stain good video Bro @ToolReviewZone

We had an in house contractor at our convention center for years. He had retired from a carpentry union, and was just doing it as something to do. One day, he has a little leftover wood finish and pours it into a garbage can. Not thinking about the wood dust someone had put into it earlier. Well all of that sawdust gave the finish the perfect extra wide surface to hit spontaneous combustion temperature and fwoosh, burning garbage can. Luckily the wood shop was kept fairly clean and it was essentially a concrete bunker. Walls, ceilings, and floor all concrete, with good metal doors. The sprinkler system was enough to keep it contained to just the garbage can and by the time the fire department got there it was effectively out. We got lucky.

Wow very interesting

If you roll your stain rags into a tight ball they will ignite sometimes it can take hours, but if you lay them out flat to dry they won't.

Believe it or not you would not believe how many people throw away that BBQ and leave their gas tank hooked up or just Place gas tanks out for garbage I tell people if there's gas in there and it starts to leak you will create a 25-yard container which is the size of our dump truck bodies you will create a bomb but yet you have to explain this to people that you just need a spark thank God we've had for garbage trucks fires and never lost a truck yet you're able to find vacant lots to dump the garbage my truck I just dumped so is empty after it knighted but that's why I check my fire extinguishers and in my house I have a fire extinguisher in every bedroom hallway so just upstairs alone I have 3 or 4 fire extinguishers through the whole house I can't even count I have so many not that I'm going to put out a fire but even if it's enough to get me out of the house that's all I care about so everyone should have more than enough fire extinguishers in their house not just one or two

Hey man thanks for the vid it was helpful. I live in Dubai where it’s blistering hot (hitting 108 F now) - if I leave my desk top that I stained outside to dry - am I at any risk? ) it’s my first time doing this so I’m not sure how safe that might be. Thanks in advance!

The 150 degrees is not from the sun, The oil is producing its own heat as it evaporates 🔥

Sunlight has nothing to do with it. It will do the same thing in a dark basement.

Bro! You so smart!

Heres a tip whenever using stains and other wood finishes apply with a paper napkin when done purposefully burn the napkin in a safe manner like in barbecue grill or metal container then youve safely eliminated the risk of an accidental fire from that particular thing

Thank you for this test, was just looking for something like that after reading warning on can of linseed oil that it can self-ignite :thumbs up:

That’s crazy. I would have never thought that. I have always used a brush and would wash them out. Congratulations on the 69 k 👍👊

Great 🎥

great info

Doesn't even need the sun do combust.

Thanks for this

The rags don’t even have to be in the sun, the rags will create their own heat and combust.🔥

Dude I hate to say you don't need heat, if you have a bunch of oily Rags piled up a top of each other in the corner in a cold place it will still catch fire

I know he mentioned just the can alone, but what about simply the storage of cans that are mostly empty? There's at least some oxygen in the cans and probably a tiny amount of evaporation and some garages get pretty hot in the summer. Minimal worry or would spending $1,000+ on a flammable cabinet be practical?

Just wondering why the wood (deck) or whatever is stained doesn’t catch fire as well? Because its out in the open air possibly? Just a thought. Thx for the vid!

It will combust way faster inside a metal small trash can with a metal lid because the voc are trapped off gassing in a sealed metal container @ToolReviewZone

I was wondering what to do with my oil base stain rags after use. Would this also happen with foam brushes?

I have seen this happen many of times

I use minwax wood stain alot @ToolReviewZone

The sun is not your ignition source. Different materials have a temperature where they will combust WITHOUT an ignition source. Paper, for instance, will ignite at 451 F (thus the book title). In the case of the rags, the combustion temp is achieved thru the endothermic reaction created by the stain drying out. And the required temp to combust is much lower for oily rags than for paper.

Who just put every expensive tool in their garage and stained their deck 😂

At work we actually have a red container that's really tight so it doesn't allow a lot of oxygen into it but any time I'm working with any kind of lacquer thinner before I throw them away I soak them in water or I just washing leaving soaked and wet and put it in a safe spot outside the house somewhere but those can explode inside a vehicle that's why if you transport this in your vehicle you must have a triangle obviously my father when he did kitchen cabinets and formica he had stain lacquer thinners got pulled over the police actually had Hazmat come down to remove the small little square bottle that he had with the glue they made a big scene no reason

Stained rags that didn't ignite MAY OF BEEn too big of a box

What would happen if you used a Brissel brush and wrap it in a plastic bag?

Can rags hang drying in sun catch on fire

I had at the end of last summer I was driving one of the garbage trucks and my friend Gerard he was in a another truck sees me looking around because I see smoke he yells out to me where's the smoke coming from I looked into the body the passenger side inside the body of the garbage truck was on fire grab the fire extinguisher put it out started to drive it ignited two more times finally jumped into the back of the truck there was a piece of wood with cardboard that kept igniting and on the wall what is a splash mark that could have been anything that lifts the truck up thank God I was able to save the garbage truck from burning up

That's why a empty gas tank is more dangerous then a full gas tank because the empty gas tank has more Vapors

Pov: you’re here from the Tiktok

Can even happen with a pile of Damp ( water ) clothes and rags.

This is why I store chemicals in a cool dark place.

it was the lazer light that ignited it

I hope people aren't confused about the sun heating up the rags. This recently happened to me... I had stained a cabinet, in my livingroom, using a paint brush, but I wiped the excess stain off the wood with an old towel. The towel wasn't nearly as soaked with stain, as he demonstrated in the video. Once done, I left the bunched up towel on my steps, because I had a second cabinet that I wanted to stain the next morning. Wrapped everything up @ midnight. Next day, I went out to run errands... gone for all of 2 hrs, before getting a call from my local police department stating my house was on fire. This happened @ 3:45p. No sun... room temperature... lightly stained towels. As the stain dries, and cures, it causes a chemical reaction, that causes the material to heat up, which allows the fabric to self combust. The small print warning, on my can of Minwax, was so small I'd need a magnifying glass to read it. This needs to be made public knowledge... or at the very least, make this warning stand out more visibly on the cans.

Lassie what is it boy is Timmy stuck in a well again you got to stop you hold demonstrations and go help Timmy don't you hear Lassie barking in the background LOL🌞👊🔍

My grandma sold her lake house and just one year later, the whole thing burned down because someone was staining in his garage and the rags caught fire in the garbage can

Hey, my hubbie & I personally know that sunlight is NOT, I repeat NOT needed for the combustion of a pile of linseed oil-coated rags. As a (now retired) chemist I can explain: When fuel (a combustible substance like linseed oil, or “stain”, or grease in a flammable material like rags/towels) comes into contact with oxygen in the air...oxidation occurs...and heat is generated. When this rise in temperature is not halted, the combustible material, i.e. the rags/towels, eventually reaches its ignition point and bursts into flames. Many yrs ago we finished rubbing down a furniture project at 11pm one night in late-Nov. Hubbie in those days a serious woodworking enthusiast. We were using linseed oil. When woodworking in those days, we’d move our cars out of the garage, & do the work inside the garage (where our furniture-making tools are). In colder mos we’d have the garage door closed. As we finished up that evening we threw our linseed oil-covered rags into one of those big plastic garbage cans. Started to head out of the garage for the night, my husband hesitated for a moment...then went back into the garage & moved the garbage can into the center of the concrete floor of a large open area in the garage. Garage attached to house via breezeway. Then lights out, garage door closed, & we went to bed. Next morning we opened the garage door...and that big plastic garbage can was just a melted pool on the bottom of the garage floor. Thank goodness (!) hubbie had 2nd thoughts about the storage of those rags & his gut told him to move that garbage can away from anything else that could burn. We could have easily burned our place down (house covered in clear cedar clapboard). 10 yrs later a neighbor asked his handyman to “stain” his new Ipe wood deck. We not aware this was happening. Many hrs later I was awakened at 1:30am to the sound of firetrucks (sirens off, lights flashing) passing in front of our place. Threw on some clothes, grabbed phone, went out on our deck. Even though there were 10 acres of wooded Mtnside between our houses, the rising embers from his house in the black night were mind-boggling.Got a quick photo, tried to call neighbor as I was running the half mi between our houses. He not answer phone, but I found him safe at the bottom of his steep driveway standing only in his shorts & t-shirt, bare feet..didn’t even have time to grab his wallet. His custom dream house of 23 yrs totally gone in minutes. Pumper truck just hosing down metal beams bent from heat of the fire. Yup, the garage was under the main floor of the house, handyman stored the Ipe oil-covered rags in a large bucket in the garage...when it combusted it caught surrounding materials & cars on fire, no smoke alarm in garage, by the time my n’bor awakened in his bed the flames were shooting thru the floor near his bedroom. This is no joke people! This easily happens!! I reco buying 1 of those specialized red cans for tossing oily rags..the lid closes tightly, so if/when combustion starts, the oxygen in the can is used up, and fire is stopped. Thx Tool Review Zone for sharing this video 👍

The sun is not a factor at all. This happens due to a chemical process called oxidation. Through this, heat starts to build up. If the heat cannot adequately dissipate, it will continue to build until the flashpoint is reached.

But we are talking about fresh rags, fresh deks then yes this could happend.

This can happen at night when there is no sunlight. That may actually be more dangerous because you may be asleep when it happens. This is not new information. My parents taught me about this 60 years ago! Back then most paints were still oil based.

Use gloves next time homie 👊🤣

Wear gloves???

Spontaneous combustion has been documented for thousands of years, but 21st century woodworkers have to discover it for themselves. LOL. Here's a clue guys: the warning is on the can of stain FOR A REASON.