Bench safety

[Greg Long]

I recently had a vacuum motor I use for another purpose starting to fail and that got me thinking about the flow bench. All of our motors are sealed up with no quick access, so I thought about a small deck plate or some type of easily romovable plate for fire extinguisher use. It would be a mess to clean but better than a real fire. Anyone using something like this?

[jfholm]

not yet. Although it sounds like a good idea. I have a 10 lb Halogen extinguisher and maybe I will plumb it into the bench like they do in dragsters. Not a bad idea. You always are betting on not having something like this happen but only once and it would pay for itself.

John

[RACEPUMPER]

Yeah great idea, really sensible.
I don't know about funny car style John, I would bump the button with a head
for sure!!!
That stuff sucks in carburetors

[Tony]

There is nothing actually inside a motor that can burn.
Generally they get a bit hot, smoke and smell, make funny noises, then go bang and take out the motor fuse.

That is not true of the bench internal wiring, which will very likely be in intimate contact with the wooden bench in many places.
If the wiring is properly rated it will take out the fuse or circuit breaker at the main power board before the wiring gets warm enough to do any damage.

The golden rule is that if the circuit is protected by a fuse or a circuit breaker at the source, all the wiring down stream needs to be rated at that current.
If you want to drop down to thinner wire, you fit another fuse with a lower rating where the thin wire gets its power.

I dont feel that fire is even a slight risk if the wiring is properly protected.
Flammable gasoline vapors are something to think about though....
And of course ground any exposed metal on the outside of the bench, especially the control panel if you use one.

If a bench did catch fire inside, blocking the very few air entry points should do the job, after all the whole bench is pretty solidly built and completely air tight.

[Hotz]

On old forum I showed the paint to help in firefighting ...