Spontaneous Combustion in my Sander.
 

I have had alot of experiance with conmustion in my stain rags and have
heard of grounding sparks starting dust fires. If I had given it any
thought I would have not let this happen, but that is the reason I am
posting now. To help someone else avoid the tragedy that I only avoided by
luck (or Divine guidance?)

I have been trying to fix a bad flooring finish job for a freind/employer.
Instead of renting a floor sander to take out all the sawdust, hair, and
bubles, I just decided to use my random orbit sander to take out the
imperfections of the oil modified poly finish. It worked great slick as a
baby's butt. Then I coated my first coat and I had some shedding of the
wool that I had not known to expect and I needed to sand before my next coat
anyway. The directions on the can said to use a 120 or equivilent sanding
screen so I did. Random orbit is a little more aggresive so if you ever do
it with an RO I would use a finer grit.

The older finish had sanded normally enough but didn't produce much dust in
the bag, so I didn't even look at it when I was done sanding MY first coat.
I just threw it in the truck. I later decided to take a late lunch that I
almost decided to skip because the time of day. When I got out to the truck
it was filled with a foul smoke and my seatcover was smoldering. I pulled
the sander out and removed the dust bag and it burst into flames at that
second. Be careful to empty the bag after using this product. I wouldn't
even use a collection bag again and maybe not even a small sander like mine
where the dust can get in by the motor.

Be careful!