Lit my garage on fire tonight.

[JohnnyEgo]

Did you give them a one-star review on Amazon yet?

Probably three, to be fair. Five stars for a remarkably even, blotch free coat. -1 for much less coverage than conventional stain for the same quantity. -1 more for catching fire in my house.

[Gman]

Glad to hear you're OK. Neighbor 2 doors down had rags spontaneously combust and burned out the garage, destroyed 3 vehicles, and damaged part of the house. There was smoke damage throughout. Took almost a year fighting with insurance and getting repair companies to fix it.

[FoxtArt]

That's nuts. Had no idea spontaneous combustion of rags was a thing. Who reads/follows those labels anyway... Have done a lot of staining, going to have to be more careful in the future.

[JohnnyDrama]

I just gotta ask, what did you build? I'm drawing plans for a spice cabinet. Because this thread is about spontaneous combustion, I seldom use oil based stains.

[SideShow Bob]

I have 3' concrete stem walls in my garage

That?s not a garage, that is a bunker..........

[SideShow Bob]

That's nuts. Had no idea spontaneous combustion of rags was a thing. Who reads/follows those labels anyway... Have done a lot of staining, going to have to be more careful in the future.

Why do you think most shops have covered steel cans for their dirty rag disposal ?

[BladesNBarrels]

I like the warning on the covered steel can -

Empty Every Night

Uh, where?

[ChickNorris]

I just gotta ask, what did you build? I'm drawing plans for a spice cabinet. Because this thread is about spontaneous combustion, I seldom use oil based stains.

Choosing an oil based or gel finish often depends on the wood used, in my experience.

[buffalobo]

This story is why all of my trash cans in shop are metal 15-30 gal, recycled/cleaned oil drums and sit out from the walls.

I throw paint/solvent/stain rags out on the driveway to evaporate/cure and pick up/place them in steel drum at end of day.

Have had can smoldering following morning when remove lid.

Never know when conditions will cause fire.

[JohnnyEgo]

I just gotta ask, what did you build? I'm drawing plans for a spice cabinet. Because this thread is about spontaneous combustion, I seldom use oil based stains.

Cheap ply cabinet that my wife had asked me to build her forever ago, and I finally decided to knock out this weekend to avoid the more tedious work left to go on the Pokemon Card Cabinet I am building. Not much to it other than a cheap(ish) sheet of Home Depot red oak ply, and a couple of sticks of red oak 1x2. All held together with pocket screws and glue. About four hours of work, until she told me it needed doors after I was done with it, which added another couple hours of work.

Red oak is very porous, and the top layer of ply was very thin. To which I added some sanding which nearly ate through that paper-thin veneer. So I anticipated it to be hard to stain. The conventional Minwax penetrating stain I normally use is very thin, and a lot of it gets absorbed into the wood. Because that top veneer is so inconsistent, I worried that I'd have uneven absorption across the boards, and they'd look blotchy. I probably could have pre-treated it with a thin coat of sealing shellac, but I had heard gel stains were a much better solution. And, other than setting my trash can on fire, it did come out a lot better.

I usually pick a regular penetrating stain based on the color of the can, not what it says it should resemble, and I often find the end result to be much darker than I would have expected. This is the first time the stain really resembles the wood it cites on the can. This really is the color of cherry wood. Very even, no absorption issues or splotchiness. I had actually anticipated it being about three shades darker than it turned out. So this isn't the look I planned for, but I actually quite like it.

Downsides are that gel stain is a lot more expensive than conventional penetrating stain, more messy to apply (although also more forgiving), covers about half as much for the volume, and of course, may light your house on fire.