On Wed, 29 Mar 2006 00:20:55 GMT, Lew Hodgett
wrote:

What everybody is dancing around is "LEL"

No, not at all. Fill a reasonable router extractor hose with typical
levels of fine larch dust, initiate it pyrotechnically and I have no
doubt at all that you can have your very own wood dust explosion.

You'll not do it from static though. That's the demonstrable case where
you can't initiate it.

or "Lower Explosive Limit".

It is that point where the dust volume in the air WILL explode.

No, far from it. It's the lower limit for where the mixture _can_
explode. Below this it's impossible to explode, at this limit it's
barely possible. It isn't especially likely (depending on other
conditions regarding ignition sources) and it certainly isn't any sort
of spontaneous ignition as suggested by your emphatic "WILL explode"
comment.