for those of you who scratch-build structures, large, wooden matches (heads clipped/cut off) are a wonderful resource.
HOWEVER, those clipped ends are HAZARDOUS - especially the strike-anywhere. suggest those clipped ends go immediately into a metal container -with-a-metal-lid; and keep that lid closed.
also suggest that metal container be fairly small (i.e. altoid mints) so the potential volume of oxygen to feed an incidental flare-up remains small. if that container is small (and lid closed), any flare-up will make the container VERY hot - but the flame will not sustain itself.
AND, becareful how/where you dispose of those match-heads !
I’m guessing you found that out the hard way this morning, and when you got back from the hospital, told us about it? I’ll keep that in mind; they might be good for some N scale lumber ( cut down, of course).
This reminds me of when I was a kid on the 4th of July( Or as Jean Shepherd use to say: “I’m this kid see”) and… OOPs I am a retired fire proection engineer and Loather is right, they are dangerous. Kids REALLY do get hurt on the 4th with fabricated fire works. You can look it up. I was lucky.
Those guys are a joke. It’s amazing how often they get things wrong. If it’s a safety related issue, they’ll go out of their way to prove something can’t work, rather than investigate the possibility that it might work. They do good special effects though.
I can vouch for the danger of wooden stick matchheads. As a kid, we used to take two soda pop caps and fill them with matchheads and tap them together. When thrown against a hard surface, they would break into flame. If you did that today, you would be sent to the greybar motel!
Seriously, on the subject of safety, please wear safety glasses when using your Dremel moto tool, especially when using the very popular cut off discs. As anyone knows who has used them - they can easily shatter - and “you’ll shoot your eye out!!!”
And of course, don’t forget that soldering iron - to have a solid non-flammable surface for it to rest on, and a wet cloth or sponge to take the heat off items just soldered (and to clean your iron too)!
Now that is more like it though. A cut off wheel can so easily fling itself all over the place—I actually had a piece of one come off the Dremel and embed itself in the bookcase across the room from me. Safety glasses are a must.
How long was the fire department on scene? And thier response time? Don’t worry, your homeowners insurance should take care of the damages… They may be a little perplexed as to wht you were doing though…
I would never use a live matchstick… They’re too short. The sticks on live bottle rockets are much better! (and far more spectacular when accidentally ignited!)
A wet cloth. Now you tell me!! I’ve got these two white marks on my fingers, 1/4 in wide by 1/2 in long last night because my cloth wasn’t wet[banghead].
Catching a dropped Xacto knife by “closing your legs” is almost an automatic act for men when they drop something. While that can be really painful, dropping it on your foot can be just as bad (well, almost).
It really is a good idea to wear an apron when sitting at the workbench, but who does that?