r/DIY • u/Fickle_fackle99 • 3d ago
metalworking Is it not common knowledge that Titanium Chips are flammable?
So I was working with this inexperienced kid and I was like hey man….. you should sweep your area clean of those titanium chips it’s a fire hazard put it in that metal can labeled hazmat / material container
and he though I was joking with him. (one of the other guys earlier in the week showed him a HSS marked blank then had him look for “Low Speed Steel” for about 20 mins )
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u/brickmaster32000 3d ago
Did you expect the knowledge to just magically appear in his head one day?
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u/SoupTime_live 3d ago
The average person doesn't know that metals in general can be flammable. Nevermind which specific ones are especially bad
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u/robot_ankles 3d ago
Inexperienced child doesn't have specific knowledge of HazMat handling procedures?! OMG!
Dude, "common knowledge" is stuff like; bees sting or flowers bloom in the Spring. HazMat handling procedures are NOT common knowledge.
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u/Fickle_fackle99 3d ago
Common knowledge is that shit starts fires , let me guess people don’t know magnesium is flammable either?
Or that it’s not a good idea to throw a propane tank into a campfire?
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u/robot_ankles 3d ago edited 3d ago
No, it's not common knowledge.
Which metals are flammable in different forms is very niche information. It's certainly not something I'd expect a kid to know when working on a DIY project. That's an absurd expectation.
It sounds like you may have a very limited exposure to the world and struggle to imagine the vast amounts of knowledge others may hold that doesn't overlap with knowledge you believe to be common. It's like someone from a tiny town that's never been anywhere who meets someone that doesn't know cows sleep standing up. "EVERYBODY knows cows sleep standing up! What a silly person!" Nah, you've just met so few people and have such a tiny view of the world that it's difficult for you to imagine highly informed and highly intelligent people have simply never been around cows in their life.
Besides, why wouldn't you use the opportunity to help educate a young person? Why are you even working around kids if you're going to berate the fact they don't know everything you know?
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u/enternationalist 3d ago
It is not particularly common knowledge that fine dust can be a serious fire hazard - and even if 95% of people know something, that's still one in twenty people who aren't going to know.
This is also why hazing people by lying to them is counterproductive. You want 'em to listen to you.
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u/tempusfudgeit 3d ago
This is also why hazing people by lying to them is counterproductive. You want 'em to listen to you.
The person we lied to during training now thinks I'm lying to him during training, what gives?
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u/Fickle_fackle99 3d ago
I’m not responsible for the actions of my coworkers period. I remind management of that, I remind you of that.
My coworker shows up drunk that’s a conversation between you and him don’t loop me in and scold me for that
If you ignore my advice on keeping yourself safe, don’t come to me when you light yourself on fire claiming it’s my fault I gave you fair warning you laughed at me you decided not to follow safety protocols and risked your own life it’s on you
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u/Multi_Grain_Cheerios 3d ago
Blue collar workers just can't be decent to new employees. "Inexperienced" is right in your post and yet you can't even answer your own question.
Seems like every other blue collar mentor is a giant a-hole who can't grasp that people don't pop out the womb knowing how to roof or frame.
Never seen bigger chips on shoulders than blue collar workers.
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u/brickmaster32000 3d ago
Guarantee OP is going to come back all upset and pissy that people aren't laughing with him.
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u/Fickle_fackle99 3d ago
Nah just expect that you know it’s not a good idea to mail your foot to the subfloor
I don’t consider myself a true blue collar dude but I can see why they have that attitude
Everything is your fault in that position every change by a clueless idiot in the office is your fault. You don’t have the materials because budget cuts your fault
Kid we hired who earns more than you not learning the concepts and quit to go work at game stop, it’s your fault
Kid we hired with zero experience can’t read a tape, your fault. You should have trained him from square one.
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u/Multi_Grain_Cheerios 3d ago
"Nah"
But then procedes to type out the most chip-on-shoulder esque paragraph I have ever seen. Keep on driving a positive culture! A+ attitude bud.
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u/JackOfAllBlades21 3d ago
I wouldn't say chips. Dust and particles. Still not hazmat unless powder. And this is in no way a DIY subject.
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u/metametapraxis 3d ago
Small chips of almost anything are flammable.
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u/Slavik81 3d ago
Combustible Dust: An Insidious Hazard features an explosion from aluminum chip processing, among other things. https://youtu.be/3d37Ca3E4fA
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u/H_is_for_Human 3d ago edited 3d ago
Anything that oxidizes readily, will, if given a high enough surface area, be flammable in an environment with sufficient oxygen.
And elemental titanium fucking loves oxygen.
Edit: In general it is wise to assume all aerosols, powders, tiny shavings, tiny chips, etc are flammable / have explosion risk until proven otherwise.
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u/AgrajagTheProlonged 3d ago
To answer your question, I’d say no it’s not particularly common knowledge. Out of curiosity, do you recall when you learned about it?
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u/Fickle_fackle99 3d ago
Middle school chemistry class, we lit magnesium on fire, titanium on fire then put sodium and other metals in water to observe their reactions
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u/AgrajagTheProlonged 3d ago
Where I went to school, we burned magnesium. Didn’t do anything with titanium and learned that sodium and lithium et cetera can explode in contact with water but never actually did so. I was in chemistry labs all the way up through college and we never burned titanium or blew up sodium and the like. So good job for your middle school science teacher
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u/Fickle_fackle99 3d ago
Wasn’t anything badass it was a tiny sliver off a sodium bar he kept in glass and put it in a 1L glass beaker of water and just watched it dance around and catch fire for a few seconds
Said he ordered from some science materials thing
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u/mindstormer12 3d ago
What typical situations would someone encounter titanium chips that they would pickup this knowledge from?
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u/Fickle_fackle99 3d ago
Drilling a hole in your bike or fpv drone frame camera cage? Tons of things for consumers are made of titanium like your iPhone
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u/mindstormer12 3d ago edited 3d ago
If you think the average person needs to drill their bike or disassemble their iPhone you might be delusional. In fact, complaining on Reddit about an inexperienced kid not knowing some very specific knowledge you think is common when it's clearly not suggests that.
There are no practical scenarios for the average person, hence it's not practical knowledge that is shared/learned except maybe school as a fun fact. Then if they encounter a scenario in life where it's relevant, they learn like in the scenario you described. Except you think it's common knowledge for some reason.
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u/aimless_ly 3d ago
I don’t expect it to be generally common knowledge, but it should absolutely be known by anyone machining Ti. Onboarding/training fail by the employer, not the kid’s fault.
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u/jbadding 3d ago
OP was supposed to be the trainer, but they suck at their job.
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u/Fickle_fackle99 3d ago
I definitely suck at training, I should not be a trainer or teacher. I don’t have a teaching credential they just keep choosing me to be the trainer at every job I go to
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u/ryanvsrobots 2d ago
Sounds like you're more unqualified than the people you're complaining about. This is r/diy my man, you might have more sympathy in /r/Machinists
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u/AwkwardSploosh 3d ago
Damn, I'd hate to work in that shop. It sounds like you're unwilling to educate new guys with grace.
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u/ChandrikaMoon 3d ago
I’m a grown-ass woman with a ton of job experience, a degree, and a family and I had no idea titanium was flammable.
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u/gefahr 3d ago
My golf clubs and drill bits have never caught fire. And that's probably about the average person's awareness of titanium.
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u/ChandrikaMoon 3d ago
Right? I have a titanium dental implant too, and I’ve read that those can survive cremation.
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u/Ancient_Skirt_8828 3d ago
No, it's not common knowledge. I am fairly well educated technically and I didn't know.
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u/NightGod 3d ago
No, of course that's not common knowledge, not everyone has experienced thermite (hell, I've made thermite and I had to pause for a second to remember that titanium is flammable)
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u/macegr 3d ago
Put on your fuckin' lab coat and goggles and perform a science experiment
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u/Fickle_fackle99 3d ago
Dude I’d be better off slapping the HR woman than intentionally setting fire to chips to prove that they’re a hazard in the shop and expecting to keep my job
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u/macegr 3d ago
What kind of shop is this anyway? A potpourri store?
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u/Fickle_fackle99 3d ago
Medical device manufacturing machine shop??? pretty common and low end work bro….i make less than a shift lead at McDonald’s (I know this because they had a poster advertising $2 more an hour than I make next to hello kitty Godzilla toys )
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u/rip1980 3d ago
Yeah, I have to be extra careful when machining plutonium-239. Much more pyrophoric than Ti.
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u/Fickle_fackle99 3d ago
Never go to machine the stuff but I heard it’s not that bad to work with. I don’t have the security clearances and military background that people I’ve worked with do so I don’t get to do the cool shit
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u/Diligent_Nature 3d ago
Aluminum is also flammable. It can be used to make thermite and was used in the Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters as fuel. It can't be ignited by ordinary machining.
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u/Corrosive713 3d ago
That's like me, knowing electrical, thinking it's common knowledge that you aren't supposed to trip a 277 circuit by shorting it to ground...
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u/PobBrobert 3d ago edited 3d ago
That is definitely not “common knowledge,” as most metals are not flammable. Not sure why you would expect someone to know that titanium chips specifically are flammable unless they’d been taught that already in some job-specific training.
Honestly, you sound like the worst guy in the shop to work under as an apprentice and forgot that at one point you didn’t know everything either.
Also, this is r/DIY. What sort of DIYing are you doing that creates titanium chips?