Ronald Olds wrote:
>
> I just came back from my local Graingers with a five gallon can of Agitene.
> I'm a little concerned where I should locate my parts washer to use this
> stuff. I was going to put it in the garage but am concerned about the high
> summer temperatures and 105 degree flash point. I wanted to use it in the
> basement but am not to sure how safe of an idea this is either. Any
> recommendations?
>
> Ron Olds
Hi Ron,
I don't have a copy of it, but I posted a long message a month ago or so
about Agitene and the 105 degree flash point. In a nutshell, though,
you should not have to worry about it. Agitene is not considered
flammable, only "combustable," much like diesel.
The 105 degree flash point means that the vapors will not ignite unless
the solvent is raised to a 105 degrees--in other words, if the solvent
is at 104 degrees, you should be able to put out a match in it without
it "flashing". At 105 degree solvent temperature, the vapors could
ignite if you held a match to them.
For the solvent to actually reach 105 degrees, the ambient temperature
in your garage would have to remain well over 105 degrees, 24
hours-a-day, for days to bring it to 105 degrees. Only then should you
need to worry about exposing the fumes from the Agitene to open flames.
As a test, I went out to the garage today, poured a small quantity of
Agitene into a can and lit several wood stick matches, held them over
the Agitene, touched them to the Agitene, stirred the Agitene with them,
etc., with no problems--it will extinguish a burning stick match. If
you do no quite extinguish the match in the Agitene, and after pulling
it back out, it will smoke a "sooty," apparently burning off the
Agitene. It is only 80 degrees here on the westside of LA today, so I
set the can of Agitene on a black asphalt driveway in the sun for about
30 minutes--I did not put a thermometer into it, but it surely must have
been 100 degrees or more (the asphalt was too hot to stand on barefoot
while I was out there running the "experiments.")
Had I been wrong about all of this, I could see the headlines, "LA man
burned while barefoot in shorts and throwing burning matches into a can
of solvent." It would have been hard to explain....
I have 25 gallons of the stuff in my garage, and it is a lot safer than
the 5 gallon can of 93 octane sitting in that gas can.
On the other hand, I would not recommend using any solvents in an area
that is not well-ventilated (e.g., below grade like a basement) for
vapor build-up, flammability and inhalation concerns.
doug
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