When setting up a students new plane using some of his old gear from a crashed plane I, the instructor, spotted some frayed wires right at the junction of his old battery. Being a wise old man I mentioned how I wouldn't use that battery in a plane so he went and bought a new one. So far so good. I tossed the battery in my drawer and use it once in a while to set up planes or test gear, it works. Yesterday I was sifting through this drawer looking for some shrink tube and was tossing stuff around getting to the bottom of the drawer. I was finished and just about to leave my shop for the rest of the day but I decided to have a smoke and do some little stuff. A few minutes later I spotted black smoke wafting up from my bench, I right away looked at my soldering iron, nope, my smoke was in the ash tray so nope. My goodness it was staring to get thick and coming from my closed drawer!!! When I opened the drawer flames were licking up at me!! I got the flames out and spotted the battery and it was still cooking so I tossed in in the sink full of water then removed the cells from all wires. It burnt my compas and a screw driver handle plus some plastic bags full of screws. If I wasn't there I could have burnt down my whole shop, the shop is a guest house so it's not like just an old out building but part of my home. When I was moving things around in the drawer I must have bent the wires on the battery and shorted it out. So much for the wise old instructor. Today I got a crock pot to store my batteries in and if there is something wrong with any of them they will get a toss. This one little thing could have gotten very ugly very fast, leson learned!! [:@][&:] Knowledge passed on.

Gray Beard,
Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Unfortunately I've been there too. Had a similar experience myself. Been there, done that, and had the singed hair to prove it!!!

Glad you're ok and safe.

Ken

And hence my saying "Wish I wouldn't have done that" Even if some will not admit it we've all done stupid things. Glad everything turned out ok.

chopper

Thanks Ken, if I wasn't a smoker {I know} I would have walked out and lost my shop. Scared the pee out of me. I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one it has happened to, I haven't felt that stupid in days!!

I went flying with a friend. He had one of those planetary gear reducer starters I think it came from Hobby Lobby? It was older and the wire insulation had gotten bad so not being any good at soldering he had twisted on some lamp cord for a starter wire.

Now this starter was older

He started his plane and flew and then I flew

When he picked up his starter again it burned his hand because the switch had been stuck and the starter had been running for over a half hour hooked to his big boat battery. Burning his hand, he sort of threw the starter when he let go of it. Then the wires where he had the twisted junction shorted and all the insulation started burning on his new lamp cord starter wire.

One thing after another but he finally got the clips off the battery and used my starter the rest of the day.

Doncha just hate it when the airplane gods make you eat crow?

I'm at the point where I acutally have acquired a taste for it

Don't feel bad, the frayed battery pack I had years ago decided to burn up while I was flying with it! [X(][&o]

Gene, those frayed wires are more common than most people know. A faulty crimp on a servo or battery lead, and the covering pulls back and bares the wires. I discovered a voltwatch with such a problem and I have a 1000mah Futaba battery that I replaced the leads on, that I got from one of the guys at the field "after his switch shorted out" and burnt the leads up.

A couple years back, I was changing the housing on a battery lead and I shorted out the wires with my Xacto knife. No resharpening that blade.

A tip from my first instructor, I was putting the glow stick in my pocket after I started my trainer engine. He ask me if I had my car keys in that pocket and if so, he sure hopped they didn't find the live end of the glow stick. I'm kind of guessing that was experience talking, but I didn't ask.

Glad you caught it before the smoke and some melted plastic turned into something worse.

Don.

Never put a 9 volt battery in the same pocket that you keep your pocket change. Don't ask me how I came to that revelation.[:@]
Paul

A high capacity Nicad battery can easily source 200 Amps when shorted. Some of the really high capacity cells used in giant scale models can source as much as 350 Amps. Most automobile batteries can not match that. Fortunately, the fusing current of the wiring to the pack falls far short of these currents, so it should fail before a fire gets going. However in the very short term, molten copper in your pocket will provide plenty of dancing with commentary.

Happy to hear that everything is OK!

Gray Glad everything is ok...oh says smoking is bad for you

, Smoking saved your shop.


Bob

I have seen various causes of smoke and fires in models but what happened to me last summer was a first.

One of my club members runs a small mobile hobby store out of a trailer that he brings to the field a few times a month. I try to give him as much business as I can and on one occasion I purchased a 1400 mah NiMH Rx battery. The battery was in a sealed plastic baggie and I immediately put the battery in my jeans pocket and went over and sat down under the club shed. No sooner than I sat down I felt my rear end starting to get hot. I immediately jumped up and retrieved the smoking battery and was surprised to see the leads and plastic baggie melting and smoking. I managed to clip the leads and let the smoking remains cool on the bench. When cool, I returned the burnt mess to the seller and noted that it had never been opened. He swapped it out for a new battery which we both inspected carefully before I took it.

Because the leads were melted on the burnt battery it was deduced that the short must have occurred on or near the connector. The connector and pins looked Ok but all of the insulation was melted off the leads so it was impossible to see where the short might have originated.

Lesson learned: You can get you’re a** burned with a battery NIB.

I got sloppy while welding in the garage and left a small cotton rag where sparks could fall on it. Normally sparks just burn through cotton, like my jeans, tee shirts, etc. Back in the house, 30 minutes later, my wife in complaining about smelling smoke. Sure enough that rag was smoldering.

It's too easy to become complacent and the consequences can be severe.

Jack

Thanks guys, I don't feel as stupid as I did. I figured if this happened to me after all these years it could happen to anyone so I thought I should give a little warning to the newer people. As of now I have been going through most of the drawers in my shop and removed any and all batteries. I had removed the leads from a lot of batteries of different sizes and stored them in another drawer. I use them for setting CGs and making up battery boxes but I think I will just make sure I have the real battery I'm going to be using instead of keeping these old ones around. Fire stories I have aplenty!! I have started them in many odd ways myself and when I was a fire fighter I put out a lot of really strange fires, this was just a first for me and needed sharing.
Gene

It just goes to show that this is a dangerous hobby and no matter how long we've been doing it (50 years for me) we can still get bitten in the ***** now and then.

Chalk it up to one more lesson learned and hope it doesn't happen again... Knock on wood

I used to keep all my electric glider nicd packs in a plastic lunchbox my daughter retired (complete with winnie the pooh ), the type that has good clips on a hinged type lid. one day I closed it afetr I took a battery out, went for a flight, and when I got back there was a scorched plastic smell. I hadnt seen that one of the battery leads had poked out and when I closed the lid it stripped the covering nd shorted the leads which result in a hole melted in it that a rat could race thru The guys all laughed, said I needed a more suitable box but it destoyed my best 12 cell pack [:@]

The only reason I keep nasty ol black electrical tape around is for that very reason. Throw a quick piece on it and it is usually good.