Is it bad if your ct starts on fire?

Chris Hughes

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Mar 15, 2008
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So we set up this 18' radius stick and mount a 1010 to it to cut a template for this shallow arch we have to build up.  It is my bosses' first time cutting a segment with a router so I helped with the setup and thought I would shoot the cut on my iPod to post on the forum.  Well I'm watching the cut through the camera and about half way through the template starts smoking like crazy and I tell him to shut it down.  I went over to see what is going on and I see a nice column of smoke coming up from the channel we just cut and the 1010 is smoking from under the base.  The saw dust is on fire.  Well bad judgement kicked in and I decided we needed to clear the channel but with out disassembling the radius jig and hold down rig we set up to make this cut.  Now I have heard of vacuums starting on fire but never saw it close up.  Well let me tell you that within seconds the vac was on fire.

I lost a long life bag, two filters, and toasted the inside of my ct.  It sucks but at least I learned a lesson.  It turns out that my up cut spiral bit pulled itself down and was cut through the sacrificial sheet and was cutting concrete thus the hot spot.
 
Chris,

Sorry to hear of your expensive lesson.  Will you be fixing the CT or replacing it?
 
Sounds nasty. Do you have insurance that will cover the damage?

When are you uploading the video? [embarassed]
 
sorry to hear about you accident very unlucky .

Now where is this video? Not bothered if der is some bad language I can handle it I live in UK every sentence spoken here has a swear word in it either at the start or end  [popcorn]
 
I promised to not publish the video to protect the innocent.  Might post it anyhow but it does not show the vac as that happened after we shut down and were assessing the damage.  I will post the aftermath though it is not that dramatic since we pitched the bag and filters.  I'm going to buy regular bags and new filters to.

No insurance unless I burnt the house up so no new ct 26, darnit.  
 
Chris Hughes said:
It turns out that my up cut spiral bit pulled itself down and was cut through the sacrificial sheet and was cutting concrete thus the hot spot.

Chris:
Thanks for the post.
How did you put the fire out?
Seems like a good example why having a fire extinguisher handy even on site is a good idea
Did the bit come loose from the collet, or was it a combination of the bit being to deep and compression on the sacrificial sheet and the template that the bit hit the concrete?
Tim
 
Sorry Chris, don't mean to sound like a casualty vampire-
Spiral bits, once damaged, can be sharpened- but you lose the original dimension, which kills it for mortising with most jigs.
Are powder or halon- type extinguishers appropriate for woodworking shops? I've always thought, when I build my 'dream shop' that I'll build an external 'closet' for my collector in Leca or some other fireproof block medium.
 
jmbfestool said:
sorry to hear about you accident very unlucky .

Now where is this video? Not bothered if der is some bad language I can handle it I live in UK every sentence spoken here has a swear word in it either at the start or end  [popcorn]

what the f.. you on about.  oh i cant say that on here for f.. sake there i go  again
 
Here is that video of us starting a fire with a 1010.  It is so much easier than trying to rub two sticks together like on Survivor. [wink] 

In Dave's defense, I should have shut him down sooner.  About a quarter of the way through it started sounding weird and soon became obvious that the bit dropped and that Dave was not aware of how much resistance he should expect because this was the first time he used this type of setup for such a low arch.

Also, it was my decision to keep the jig and router assembly together while we attempted to avert the fire.  I did not think the ashes would stay together and that the smoldering would be dispersed.  I was only a little wrong and it only cost me 260 dollars in equipment. 

Blooper; cutting an arch and starting a fire 
 
The router sounds like it was struggling the whole time.  Your boss is braver than I am - no eye protection even.
 
That is he sound of a 1/4" up-spiral bit.  They are very whiny and chatter a lot.  I should have made the cut.  I have done this process at least a hundred times and no how it feels and sounds when the bit is moving.  This was Dave's project and he wanted to make the cut which was fine by me because I wanted to video the process.

The fire took me about 15 minutes to clean up and assess, then I went back downstairs and finished the cut after I switched bits.  We cut one more template with a much shorter radius within an hour of this incident.  No problems. 
 
Hi Chris,

For the record, I never doubted that YOU know what you're doing, but since it was his first time, I was wondering if he was making too heavy of a cut.  Personally, I would have made two or three passes at a quicker feed rate.

I'm glad that there were no injuries and you were able to continue work soon after.
 
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