Scarey brass cleaning!

[joecob]

The day before 'Sandy' hit I was cleaning brass the
way I always have. Set the vibratory tumbler (walnut shell media) on the back
of my reloading etc. bench in the basement. Loaded the media hopper with 40
fired empty brass cases, plugged it in, turned it on and went back upstairs to
watch TV I could hear it running in the far background.

About 1/2 hour later I heard the basement smoke alarm go off. Ran downstairs
Flames were licking from the melting plastic of the tumbler I grabbed the nearby
ABC cannister extinguisher and squirted out the fire and soaked the charred
bench areas with water.

Good thing I had the extinguisher and religiously store powder and
primers properly and away from the bench (and everything else).
Looks like an internal AC connector finally vibrated loose enough to arc
and ignite the plastic. WHEH! I had been using that thing for 25 years
the same way without mishap. Guess I should have known to periodically
check the guts of a thing that plugs in and vibrates for a living?

Today I went out and bought a new even bigger 'Pro' ABC extinguisher,
dual detector smoke alarm and an ultrasonic cleaner.
That experience was scarier than the storm. Point out where I screwed up,
won't bother me at all and might help someone else to avoid a bad experience.

FORUM BOSS writes: Joe, Thanks for sharing the details of this incident. I think your story provides important safety lessons, so I've shared this report in today's Daily Bulletin:

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2012/11/close-call-tumbler-catches-on-fire-in-reloading-room/

 

[savageshooter86]

That is definately not good. Glad you were home and had smoke alarm!!!

 

[racesnake]

Was it a Midway cleaner? If my memory serves me correctly, I think they had an electrical fault problem, that could result in fire, several years ago and maybe recalled some cleaners.

 

[jonbearman]

After reading your story,I am horrified by the thought of a tumbler catching fire. I am gonna put in a gfi receptacle just in case. Thanks for the heads up and glad it didnt get out of hand and you were home to catch it.

 

[doc gordon]

gfi is a great idea for all !!!!!!!!!

 

[areaone]

I plug in to a power strip always, I assume this would be the same a gfi.

 

[timeout]

The tumbler catching fire has always been in the back of my mind. I have been using mine on the cement garage floor. I'm going to plug mine in outside in the driveway from now on. I have a very old Lyman and would be very interested to know what brand unit you had that went haywire. Also, even though they don't operate principally by vibration, sonic cleaners can become hot. I would not suggest walking away from one of those either.

 

[Cort]

I plug in to a power strip always, I assume this would be the same a gfi.

A power strip is not the same as a gfci. A gfci (ground fault circuit interrupt) will interrupt power to items plugged into them if the current flowing in the white wire of the circuit differs from the current in the black wire of the circuit. This condition would occur during a short circuit accompanied by fire. Removing power from a shorted device commonly removes the energy feeding the fire and the fire goes out. In most cases, a gfci protected circuit would be interrupted before the fire ever broke out.

A power strip just multiplies the number of receptacles available. Some power strips do have power conditioning to remove electrical spikes from the incoming power (these devices are recommended for powering sensitive electrical equipment). And a very small number of power strips include gfci circuitry.

So, again, a power strip is not a gfci.

Cort

 

[johnu]

An arc fault circuit interrupter (now required by code in bedroom receptacles) would have prevented it. A GFCI, likely not.

John

 

[Cort]

John,

Thanks for the update on AFCI technology. I am a bit out of date ;-)

I suspect a GFCI would catch the melt down of the vibrator too but the AFCI would definitely catch it.

Cort

 

[amlevin]

No more vibrators for me. I use a tumbler filled with water and SS pins. Less vibration and even if it did catch fire, the plastic drum would melt and cover the work surface with water.

Ditto here on the Arc Fault Detector. A good idea to retrofit to old construction even if not required to do so. Will protect against other hazards as well such as putting a nail into a wire in the wall when hanging a picture or a screw when hanging a shelf or tool board.

 

[people]

I am glad it worked out well for you. It could have been bad if you would have gone to the store or something like that. It is a good lesson for all of us.

Now to give you some good ribbing. You are cleaning your brass wrong. Fire should only be used for annealing your brass not trying to annealing your reloading room.

I am glad you are ok.

 

[amlevin]

I am glad it worked out well for you. It could have been bad if you would have gone to the store or something like that. It is a good lesson for all of us.

Now to give you some good ribbing. You are cleaning your brass wrong. Fire should only be used for annealing your brass not trying to annealing your reloading room.

I am glad you are ok.

Also with the intent to rib a little, When you get your setup back in order, put a couple of concrete paver's under the vibrator/tumbler. The concrete slabs will soak up some noise, cover the burn marks, and give you a non-flammable surface should the new unit decide to "self immolate" in the future 8)

 

[langenc]

I bet several of us would appreciate knowing what brand caused your fire.
I sure would.

Thanks

 

[SS427]

Yikes. I've been known to turn mine on and run errands for an hour or two, although I do sit it on my cement garage floor when I useit. Either way, I won't be leaving it un-attended any more.

 

[joecob]

Appreciate the replies.

Thanks for the tip on the AFCI. I will begin installing them. The tumbler
was plugged into a power strip. I now consider them just a multiple
switched extension cord (the switch probably just adds another potetial
failure point).
The tumbler was 25+ yrs. old and I can't remember the manufacturer and
if it was marked the ID was destroyed in the fire. The design and manufacture
has most likely changed by now, so no use casting aspersions on everyone
who made baby blue vibratory tumblers.

One point i'd like to mention is that: I made it down there in a minute after
hearing the smoke alarm and it already had melted down quite a bit, was
flaming and had significantly burned bench wood. The ionization only detector
reacted but took longer than I believe it should have. Only about a week ago
I saw a TV piece that claimed ionization only detectors were too slow and it's
a good idea to install the dual detectors which use both ionization and
photo-electric. I'm convinced the duals are worth the double price tag. It's
probably also a good idea to follow the new code and wire them in, the
batteries being only a backup. Over- reacting? Maybe but that fire really shook
me up.

 

[spclark]

Thanks for the AFCI tip! Your comment, then a quick trip to Google, brought me up to current (sorry for the pun!) thinking on electrical safety in the home.

Years ago after noting that moly-coating works better at elevated temps, I rigged up a small garbage can with a hair dryer plugged into a baseboard heater thermostat. This I'd invert over a tumbler, leaving a little gap at the floor for air flow. Worked GREAT... until the hot glue potting the bowl springs to the vibrator platform melted.... No fire, thankfully, but I found the weak point in my design.

 

[LHSmith]

Ditto on the recalled Midway unit. I remember sending it back under recall to install a small fan in the bottom of the unit.

 

[amlevin]

I'm convinced the duals are worth the double price tag. It's
probably also a good idea to follow the new code and wire them in, the
batteries being only a backup. Over- reacting? Maybe but that fire really shook
me up.

When you take a look at the deductible on your Fire Insurance policy, all those "expensive" detectors and arc fault circuit interrupters can look pretty cheap. Not just the deductible, think of all the items you could use and never recover their value.

 

[243Mendoza]

Why would a fuse on the power panel not have burned out when the vibrator circuit shorted?