What to do with bucket filled with water and danish oil rags

[Ryan Wood]

So I have a little bit of a problem. A couple weeks ago i finsihed a maple magazen rack with danish oil. I took a bucket and filled it with water and put all the rags and news paper that had danish oil on it because i was concerned about the rags catching on fire. Now i have a bucket filled with danish oil soaked rags and i dont know what to do with it now. I dont know if i should just dump it out in the street and get the water to go down the drain out there. I know i should of thought ahead but I dident and know I dont know what to do.

[Joe Spear]

If you're concerned about contaminating the storm sewer, just wring out the rags in some kind of wide tub, pour the rest of the water in there, and let the water evaporate outside. There should not be much residue left in the tub, but what there is, you could wipe with paper towels, spread them out to dry, and dispose of in the trash. You can also spread out the rags to dry (on the ground or a fence or somewhere like that) and dispose of them in the trash. Initially, you could have done that with the oily rags without the bucket of water. That's what I do with mine. I hang them over the edge of my trash cans until they are cured and hard and then throw them away. The danger of spontaneous combustion comes when the rags are balled up, and the heat of oxidation builds up inside the wad enough to ignite the oil. If the rags are spread out, any heat from oxidation dissipates into the air with no problem.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Ryan, you have received great advice from Joe, let the water evaporate from the bucket and deal with the residue.

When using an oil finish simply hang them in a manner in which they are all a single layer on a fence, clothes line etc, or lay them out flat on the floor until they are dry.

Regards, Rod.

[Ole Anderson]

I agree. I never could understand why the safety types give the bucket-of-water solution instead of just recommending that you spread them out until they dry. I don't think they were thinking ahead to the problem you experienced. I have a hunch some corporate attorneys were performing a CYA trick.

[Ryan Wood]

Thanks for the advice. I am going to put the bucket outside and hang the rags up. Sorry i took so long to reply

[Stew Hagerty]

I had a utility sink/tub installed in my garage when we built our home. It is one of the best decisions I made. I simply take my oil soaked rags and rince them under the running water then hang them over the edge of the sink to dry before placing them in my dedicated red oily waste can (which I very highly recommend every woodworker get).

[Ole Anderson]

I had a utility sink/tub installed in my garage when we built our home. It is one of the best decisions I made. I simply take my oil soaked rags and rince them under the running water then hang them over the edge of the sink to dry before placing them in my dedicated red oily waste can (which I very highly recommend every woodworker get).

Rinsing oily rags under running water? Unless you add detergent and scrub them, the oil is still in them and when they dry, you are back where you started. I don't see what you gained.

[Bill White]

I just hang mine to dry (or they make really good starters for a bonfire).
Bill

[Stew Hagerty]

Rinsing oily rags under running water? Unless you add detergent and scrub them, the oil is still in them and when they dry, you are back where you started. I don't see what you gained.

It keeps the rags moist while the oil dries. The object is not to "wash" the oil out, but to saturate the fabric with water. Wet rags are much less likely to ignite than dry ones. By the time the water has evaporated, the oil has mostly dried. I was taught to do this by an old master furniture maker and finisher years ago, and I've never done it any other way.

[Larry Whitlow]

I agree. I never could understand why the safety types give the bucket-of-water solution instead of just recommending that you spread them out until they dry. I don't think they were thinking ahead to the problem you experienced. I have a hunch some corporate attorneys were performing a CYA trick.

Because the loss control types are concerned that people will not be careful about where they dispose of (throw) the rags. Bucket of water or UL listed disposal can eliminates the fire exposure.

[Ole Anderson]

Because the loss control types are concerned that people will not be careful about where they dispose of (throw) the rags. Bucket of water or UL listed disposal can eliminates the fire exposure.

As does simply spreading them out to dry.

[Larry Whitlow]

As does simply spreading them out to dry.

I do the same thing Ole. I'm not sure I would trust everyone to be as careful, especially if it were my property or I was insuring the place, hence the need for a disposal policy. Kind of like driving and using the cell phone. Everyone knows it is a bad thing to do, but lots still do it.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I know for a fact that the water dunk was done many years before the CYA's and corporate legal staffs had anything to do with anything - other than finding tax loopholes and ways around the labor laws.

When I started working in a paint store in the late 1960's, the practice had been around for a long time prior to that. Since a lot of the "old timers" that came into the store were in their 60's and they were third or fourth generation, I have no doubts at all that the water dunk method is over 100 years old...

There was also no concern at all about how to dispose of the water. It was simply dumped out where ever they felt like dumping it.
Usually some place in the back yard...

[Ole Anderson]

I can see why the water dunk was a standard/rule. If that was the only allowed method, all was safe. Otherwise people you had no control over would get sloppy, or forget and viola, a rag fire.

[Prashun Patel]

The Danish oil is not soluble in the water. If the water displaces any DO in the rags, the DO will be on the top and can/should be skimmed off. However, it will likely evaporate quickly, leaving little/no film on the top. Therefore, the water will remain fairly relatively uncontaminated.

Because of this insolubility, if you just dip an oily rag in water and take it out, you really haven't done much to prevent any issues of flammability. If you let it soak for a long time, then some of the water may displace the oil in the rag, rendering it less flammable while any remaining oil dries if the rag be taken out of the water. But I don't know how to control that. I'm with the camp that leaves them spread out until crusty.