Spontaneous Combustion and Safety With Chemicals

[Mulesaw]

9 hours ago, Klara said:

Completely off-topic, for general education: It's not hay in those plastic-wrapped bales. It's baleage, almost-hay that has been wrapped before it was dry and is now fermenting in a plastic bag. It's quicker to make than hay (because it needn't dry so long) which reduces the weather risk and you can cut the grass earlier in the year, when it is greener and more nutricious (and you'll get more regrowth).

The big disadvantage is that the bales spoil quickly once opened, so you need a reasonably-sized herd of animals who'll eat it. My sheep refused when we tested. Baleage is not popular with horse owners either...

Baleage is pretty popular for horses where I live, but it is not the same as for the cows.

If you make it for cows it can be bales and wrapped more or less immediately after it has been harvested/mowed. If you make it for horses it needs to dry first, kind of like for regular hay except you don't let it dry quite as long. After the drying it is pressed into bales and wrapped. there is a lot of work involved in the process when it is used for horse feed, due to all the regular steps so it isn't cheap, but the horses like it and it is easy to store outside during the rainy autumn and winter. But like you say, you need a sizeable herd to eat it before it turns bad.

 

[Littlef]

I'm in a condo, so lighting a bucket on fire on my patio would not be appreciated by the neighbors, or the HOA.  I take my rags and lay them out flat for a day to let any solvents fume off.  For BLO or Tung oil, I save orange peels and apple cores or whatever fruit I have, and wrap rags around the fruit to help keep them from getting balled up together.  Then, I walk them out to the steel dumpster.  It also helps that I'm just a hobbyist, and not running a business, so my oily rags are minimal.

[tsunkasapa]

19 hours ago, TomE said:

Another reason round bales are popular is the whole process is mechanized and one person can produce and store the hay.  It's getting hard to find kids who want to earn money bucking hay bales on a summer day.  

I worked hay from 6 until I was 18 back in the 60s, early 70s. At that time the harrow bed put us kids out of work The only hay to be bucked after that was packing it in containers for shipping. They even tore down a lot of the traditional barns to build ones that would accommodate the harrow beds. The round bales aren't used here at all, but there are a few that use the big 4x4x8 bales.

[chuck123wapati]

We fired our boilers with coal at the prison, the coal piles had to be constantly monitored for hot spots especially after rain or snow. I've seen them catch in sub zero weather. I've thrown my share of bales as well lol. Then graduated to pulling slips and throwing chain on an oil rig man life was exciting when i was young. As for spontaneous combustion i managed to survive an actual blowout one time, when we got the well shut in the whole rig from the crown to ground was covered in 6 inches of gas infused drilling mud. it looked like brown soda pop foam there was so much gas bubbling out of it and one spark would have been the end of me and four others. 

[Handstitched]

15 hours ago, tsunkasapa said:

The round bales aren't used here at all, but there are a few that use the big 4x4x8 bales.

The round bales are used a lot down here. When theres a  huge paddock full of them , they remind me of cheese. ( thinking with my stomach ...again)   The huge square bales are also used, mainly for export. 

14 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

As for spontaneous combustion i managed to survive an actual blowout one time, when we got the well shut in the whole rig from the crown to ground was covered in 6 inches of gas infused drilling mud. it looked like brown soda pop foam there was so much gas bubbling out of it and one spark would have been the end of me and four others. 

You're one lucky man indeed .  We look back at the things that has happened to us over the years and wonder how  we ever survived it.  

The really  dumb things I've done,  OMG , I'm lucky to be here . Someone was looking over us I'm sure

HS