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Do you have a fire extinguisher in your lab?
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jogri:
Important tip for anyone who has a sand bucket as a fire extinguisher: Sand gets hard over time, chances are that your fine sand now has the properties of concrete. Go and check it, a solid 15kg chunk of sand isn't going to be useful to extinguish a fire.


--- Quote from: digsys on April 06, 2020, 09:37:58 am ---Got to admit though - I do get lax sometimes - went to a Formula SAE-E 18V pack fire - dropped it into the usual bucket of water setup - then into the back of my wagon and drove it 20Km back to base for analysis :-)

--- End quote ---

Yes, Formula E batteries are fun... In the student lab where people worked with those beautys they had one important rule: Keep all windows open and just throw it out in case it catches fires (the landing zone was concrete and nothing there was inflammable).
Magnificent little beasts, i still have a bunch of them at my home. They have the same size as my normal 2500mAh lipos but pack eight times the C-rating and twice as much charge...
SilverSolder:

--- Quote from: jogri on April 06, 2020, 11:13:23 am ---[...]They have the same size as my normal 2500mAh lipos but pack eight times the C-rating and twice as much charge...

--- End quote ---

 :o

No wonder they are borderline unstable?
Electro Detective:

--- Quote from: jogri on April 06, 2020, 11:13:23 am ---
Important tip for anyone who has a sand bucket as a fire extinguisher: Sand gets hard over time, chances are that your fine sand now has the properties of concrete.

Go and check it, a solid 15kg chunk of sand isn't going to be useful to extinguish a fire.


--- End quote ---

Depends on the type of sand, moisture retention, how long it's been sitting etc but an excellent heads up  :-+

I have two sand buckets (with decent handles!) not quite full with a piece of rebar stuck in to stab and stir the sand every so often, without it spilling about
and a clear plastic bag on top. Have never used them, do not intend to, but they are there.. just in case I stuff up or someone in the kitchen does   :phew:

I may 'upgrade' to 4 medium sized plastic painters buckets with air tight lids, and store them upside down and vice versa, and shake them about every so often.
you can sense from the shaking and rolling if the sand has gotten lumpy or not, well I can anyway ymmv/emmv  :)

This way they can be used on or near a workspace as props, weights, multimeter and DSO risers  :clap:  etc
rather than just sitting in a corner wasting space, getting in the way, 
FORGOTTEN  ???  and lumped up like concrete if or when needed on an unwanted surprise barbeque   :scared:


If doing this make sure the buckets and lids are similarly marked where they open up at the small finger tab, large 'panic proof' arrow to arrow marks   -> <-

There is NO TIME to be stuffing about looking for that small opening tab to pull up on, or wrecking your fingernails trying other spots and wasting time,
time you could have stifled the fire/flames with sand by now > every nano second counts to determine whether you win fast,
or lose and cop a face full of toxic smoke as a reward for being too slow and unprepped to begin with, especially if no mask to be found..  :(

put numbers for the buckets and matched lids so no mix ups or small size differences later when refilling and closing them up.
i.e. label buckets 1 to 4, lids 1 to 4 with arrow markers on the opening tabs

Alex Eisenhut:
My "lab" is my tiny condo... So there is an extinguisher in the kitchen anyway: a few steps away.
Stray Electron:
   I keep fire extinguishers all over the place.  There's one in every room in my house and at least three in my workshop and a big automatic Halon extinguisher as well. Also two in the passenger compartment of my truck and another in the bed of the truck and one in my wife's car.
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