Is Silica Dust Explosive?

[no_arc]

Just made a small temporary sandblasting cabinet (out of scrap plywood....go ahead....slam me!). Anyway, it needs a light inside and I was thinking of hanging an incandescent light bulb (100 watts or so) inside. Is there danger of the heat from the light causing an explosion?..........tks........no_arc

[TSOR]

No, it's not explosive.

Very bad choice for a blasting cabinet. Silicon dust can cause silicosis and lung cancer. Use an abrasive designed for a blast cabinet - NOT sand.

Link:
http://www.silicosis-net.org/silicos...a-exposure.htm

[Bobcatter]

TSOR is right, silica is silicon dioxide, it has already reacted with oxygen. But, heed his words about the other dangers! There are lots of abrasives to use that don't include that risk. Here's a list from a company that I have had good experience with, I'm not affiliated with them:
http://www.tptools.com/dg/183_Abrasi...ing-Media.html

[A_DAB_will_do]

make certain your cabinet is sealed up tight and take the advice already given regarding your choice of media. Keep in mind that the longer you use any blasting media, the more worn and smaller the particles will become. There's nothing good about breathing in small particulates of any kind. Think about the health hazards associated with whatever it is that you want to remove too.

Keep your temporary cabinet temporary. Put a piece of tempered glass or plexiglass in the top and put your light outside the cabinet. Use some other blasting media, replace the media frequently, and use good sense when cleaning up the dust generated by the equipment. (A good HEPA filtered vac, not a compressed air line)

[kbnit]

I'd recommend a good aluminum oxide media.

[mooseye]

Originally Posted by kbnit

I'd recommend a good aluminum oxide media.

Unless you are cleaning aluminum!!!

[kbnit]

Originally Posted by mooseye

Unless you are cleaning aluminum!!!

Everyone knows you don't bead blast aluminum to clean it....

[gnm109]

Silica dust wil be very hard on your work. I would use fine glass beads if you want a nice finish. There's nothing wrong with wood for your cabinet so long as you don't blast it with the gun inside of the cabinet.

Oh yeah, unless you have a carbide tipped gun the sand will eat your tips up very quickly.

[AnotherDano]

My blaster came from Tractor Supply and had cautions stuck all over it to NOT use sand - but 'garnet' instead. Guess what the pallets next to the blasters were stacked with?

Any thoughts on this?

[no_arc]

Thanks for all the responses. I was planning on wearing a carbon filter type dust mask and using a shop vac for exhausting the internal dust. I'll see if I can locate a good local supplier of a blasting media (other than sand), check prices, life expectancy, etc. Someday, I hope to have a nice steel cabinet, properly lighted, and proerly ventilated.............no_arc

[William McCormick Jr]

Originally Posted by no_arc

Just made a small temporary sandblasting cabinet (out of scrap plywood....go ahead....slam me!). Anyway, it needs a light inside and I was thinking of hanging an incandescent light bulb (100 watts or so) inside. Is there danger of the heat from the light causing an explosion?..........tks........no_arc

From my understanding almost any dust can be detonated. In the right quantity, and with the right ignition source. I have detonated saw dust a couple times, and sanding sealer dust once.

One morning I came to work and got the old black Porter Cable palm sander from the safe. About 1979. I turned it on, and instead of just jumping up to 10,000 rpm, it kind of just shuddered a bit. Never got up to speed.

I figured the brushes were jammed up from dust. So I gave it a bang against something. Do not do this. Ha-ha.

A cloud of dust came out of the sander as it started to gain more speed. The cloud grew to the size of a beach ball. And then detonated in my face. It took off some of my eyebrows and eyelashes, and a good deal of hair from my head and arms.

Just because something is not flammable or combustible does not mean that a cloud of it in powder form will not detonate with lethal fury. That is a rule of Universal Science.

If you have a chance one day, take some kiln dust from a fire place or stove. And drop the ashes back onto a good hot fire, or hot bead of coals. You will see that it will create flames. Sometimes give off a puff. And that is a small quantity, with just heat and flame as an ignition source.

The Chinese use corn, in M-80s for a similar purpose. The corn blocks ambient radiation, and increases the size of the core. The corn causes a powerful explosion, by it's dielectric or insulating nature. It causes time to pass before it can be destroyed.

A whiff of gas, and a cloud of sand and you have yourself a nuke like explosive. It is not the material that the powder is made of so much. It is the structure of a cloud, that causes the explosion. From my understanding you can even detonate a storm cloud.




Sincerely,



William McCormick

[turboblown]

If it is non-flamable, it will not burn in any quantity or mixture. It is not a fuel and cannot burn. Doesn't matter if it is a dust or not. Non flammable is non flammable. Most compounded oxides have already reacted with oxygen for the last time when they were created and will no longer react with oxygen (unless forced to do so chemically).

Certain non-flammable substances, when heated to a certain point, will chemically and/or molecularly change into other substances (or release other substances) that are flamable.

If you have a FLAMMABLE substance, it can explode when pulverized into a dust because it is a flammable substance AND it is mixed in the correct proportion with an oxidizer (air....21% oxygen)

By the way, corn and also partially burned fireplace matter is flammable. That's why it will burn.

[JeffB]

I can tell you from experience that extremely fine aluminum dust can be explosive. Ignited by static even. There were other factors, but according to OSHA and every other agency that investigated the incident, aluminum dust was the main cause.

[turboblown]

Aluminum will burn for sure. A fine steel/iron dust will also burn.

[William McCormick Jr]

Originally Posted by turboblown

Aluminum will burn for sure. A fine steel/iron dust will also burn.

The problem is that at ARC temperatures everything can be burned or disintegrated. Even the noble gases. Explosions often create ARC temperatures.

In powder form, the temperature to burn anything is lowered. The temperature to join or separate molecules is lowered.

Silicon burns just fine at the right temperature. Shock silicon with an initiating explosive and it explodes, with a super fast electrical crackle.

So when it is in powdered form, and you create that same kind of voltage by either static, electrical ARC, or small chemical explosion, and you have a large cloud of it look out.

The only reason an explosion does not destroy the entire universe, is that ambient radiation when blocked, takes the explosive material and spreads it out over an area, to literally create holes in the explosive material to allow ambient radiation to pass through normally again. To literally save the universe.

So now you have your fine particle sand cloud, maybe some gas fumes. Or maybe just air itself. Air burns very well, very hot, usually very violently when confined.

So much of the trouble is that not many understand the universe. Most are shown glass or ceramic taking enormous energy on the surface from ARC or even an explosion. However if you put the glass in granular form and lace an initiating explosive between the glass nodules it will become part of the explosion. Adding capacity to the initiating explosive.

Everything in our universe burns and explodes.


Sincerely,



William McCormick

[Sandy]

Everything in our universe burns and explodes.

Well beyond the shop or work place environment and not relative to the context of the original question; "is silica dust explosive?"

No it is not.

Might it explode when the next asteroid hits?

Yes.

[turboblown]

Time for a Prozac.

[William McCormick Jr]

Originally Posted by Sandy

Well beyond the shop or work place environment and not relative to the context of the original question; "is silica dust explosive?"

No it is not.

Might it explode when the next asteroid hits?

Yes.

We know air burns. We know glass can reach ARC voltage, more then enough to detonate air. I would not wait for an asteroid.


Sincerely,



William McCormick

[Sandy]

We know air burns.

That why I don't keep any in the shop.

[William McCormick Jr]

Originally Posted by Sandy

Well beyond the shop or work place environment and not relative to the context of the original question; "is silica dust explosive?"

No it is not.

Might it explode when the next asteroid hits?

Yes.

And although I was lucky to grow up in a family of space craft builders. And learned that all dust is an explosive hazard, in the right situation, and right sized cloud.

I also learned in my HAZMAT training that dust is a killer. Do not make it.


Sincerely,



William McCormick

[turboblown]

When the aliens land, they will bring planet Earth a solution for ARC.

[kelly_b]

Lol ^