Burning Corner Samples

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Ron Eggers

Ron Eggers

SPFG, Supreme Picture Framing God
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Joined
Jul 6, 2001
Posts
16,932
Location
Wisconsin
I'm going to embarrass myself here 'cause I think this is important.

I did a very dumb thing - worse than wearing mismatched shoes. Worse, even, than trying to shave my earlobes. It's right up there with reaching into a snowblower to dislodge some ice chunks or blowing yourself up with a gas grill.

I've been framing in a large room with a fireplace. I like the fireplace a lot, and I've been going through a lot of firewood.

I have a few hundred boxes of corner samples (MOST OF THEM FREE, BTW!) that I no longer use and really don't want to store. The vendors don't want them back.

I've been warning people about burning corner samples for years, but I burned a bunch of them yesterday. I figured, what's the worst that could happen?

The first thing I noticed was a really awful smell. The next thing was a mild headache and a slightly quesy feeling. So I stopped. And I left.

But it was too late. I've had a hangover for the past 33 hours, though the quesiness is pretty much gone. There is no question in my mind about where the headache came from.

Don't burn finished corner samples or scrap moulding in your fireplace.


And don't try to shave your earlobes.
 
Gosh, Ron, I thought you were our ROCK!

I DO hope that you will be alright, but if you don't improve and have to go to the ER, please get pre-approved first!!! Or you may have worse than a headache to deal with
icon45.gif
!!!!
 
OOPS, Hope you're OK & as well as can be expected. I guess that also means that old corner samples shouldn't be burned in the patio firepit for Smore making either, huh?

It must be the fullmoon. The dumbshitItis was over here too today. I shot myself with the Cassesse Pneumatic point driver while fitting the first job of the day. My first thought was that I bounced the point off my finger; then I realized that it was buried deeper than I wanted into my finger. I don't know which hurts more; the ache or the ribbing for winning the dumbass award of the day.

The moral of the story: Keep your hand out of the line of fire just in case you miss.
 
Ron, THAT could explain the spectre of your MIL lurking in the basement! Her ashes may object to the odor, or you may be hallucinating the whole thing.

If they were really GOOD (wink, wink, nudge) corner samples, you may still be living in your old place, and just THINK you've moved!
 
First Ron now Rick.....

Please don't let my sorry asp near a fireplace or a FACTS spoutin pneumatic wheelin from a place better known as Identification.

Rick you really are an Ida-Ho-an. Say hi to my sister if you see her. It is a full moon. :D

Ron if your insurance will foot the bill, barametric chamber for 24 hours, if not, a bottle of O2 for a couple of nights.

scuz me, but I'll now be back to my bottle, I jsut nitoced that htis is Fridya nigh and im no on warped.
 
Charles, luckily, this home-based framer has his workshop in somebody else's home - and they're not home. I AM still living in my old place. At least, I THINK I am.

Had I done that in my own home, I'd be a street-based framer now.

Baer, my new insurance specifically excludes acts of stupidity. How 'bout a bottle of brandy for a couple of nights?

This is nowhere near the worst headache I've ever had. (That would be CO poisoning.) But it's a persistent devil and it's starting to annoy me.
 
What were the samples made of? Was the composite toxic? If "just wood" were they treated with an insecticide (neurotoxins would explain the headache!)?

This could be serious Ron, consult a physian or poison control center, or at the moulding manufacturer and find out what you torched and inhaled.

2 suggestions, from now on the only samples you should mess with our the ones your doctor gives you! and follow Bill Clinton's example let it burn, but don't inhale!
 
Ron! What were you thinking!?
Fresh air-motrin-sleep-fresh air/ Take dogzilla for a walk.
Also make sure the flue is open next time.
 
Originally posted by P.T. Framer:
Take two wall buddies and call me in the morning

PT
Click to expand...
Hilarious!!!!

Ron, hope you feel better soon. And maybe your delusional illusions of your mom-in-law will go away when the wall buddies kick in. :D
 
What a wuss! The loss of a few neurons and the excruciating pain is a small price for staying warm. My major problem with burning corners is since they are so dry they flash burn so quickly that my beard and eyebrows singe. But they grow back in a few months, so what’s the big deal?

As far as the memory loss is concerned …

Ooooh, look at all the purdy colors!
 
I use a few shavings from my Morso and small leftover sticks as kindling to start a fire, but not as the fuel for the fire. Yes, the toxic fumes given off are foul from mouldings... probably mostly from the finishes. I wonder what chimney coatings occur when you burn too much also.

Luckily, with the tornadoes we had this past summer firewood is plentiful.

Now, I will take a cardboard box of moulding scraps to start a bonfire outdoors in our field, but never stand downwind or the sailor songs and limericks become even more rascally and the normally level ground in this part of Michigan takes on a new contour.

Dave Makielski
 
I think it was the finishes.

Feeling much better now, thank you. Lots of fresh air, Alleve and sugar cookies seem to help.

Now I'm going back to the workshop to pick up any dead rodents.
 
Sounds like the fireplace should be looked at. A properly operating flue should not of allowed vapors into the house. BTW burning the finishes can create all sorts of fun compounds such as:
Cyanide
Acrolein
CO
Acrylonitrile
Phosgene

Aren't you glad you have a headache and it's better now........
 
Ron, I am sorry for your troubles with toxic fumes. Glad you had recuperated.

I recently learned from TG that a winner molding’s first attribute is to be liked by the framer and his personnel. Well, you mentioned above that most of those burnt corner samples were free, which implies that you paid for some of them, right? That's an unexpectedly strong inference to me for I presume that you paid only for samples that you liked and wanted them badly, those samples being truly special to you as far as price, design and quality were concerned. While I accept that some free samples may happen/prove to be in fact big winners, by way of free selection paid for samples must necessarily be offering all the best attributes one may wish for in a molding. Of course, some of those very expensive 4-5”+ hand carved and gilded frames by Munn don’t sell every day, but I don’t expect that you had paid and then burnt such corner samples.
Ron, what kind of paid corner samples did you burn? Whose corner samples were they?
Why did you buy them in the first place and what was wrong with them to deserve be burnt like fire wood or free, unsolicited and probably undeserving other corner samples?
I hope to learn a ton from your honest answer, for which I thank you in anticipation.
 
The fact that the samples were free and the fact that I decided to burn some of them rather than store them is a reflection of my change of circumstances rather than the value of the mouldings or the company that gave me the samples.

I am now a home-based framer, and a part-time one at that. Some vendors will no longer sell directly to me. That's actually a policy I supported for many years and it would be hypocritical for me to criticize it now.

Regardless, I need to limit the number of vendors I use since I am doing 20% of the volume of framing I was doing as a full-time storefront framer.

The vendor in question doesn't want the samples back (I asked) because of handling and relabeling issues but I won't be burning any more of them. I'll find another way to dispose of them, since storage space (and wall space) is at a premium in my new location.

The only reason I mentioned this burning issue was to perhaps save someone else from a nagging headache.

And the only reason I mentioned that the samples were free was to aggravate you. ;)

BTW, I probably WON'T be burning or disposing of any Inline Oval samples. They are MUCH too valuable.
 
At least give me that much: I was quite patiently waiting two days for others give you their best advice before expressing my eccentric concern.
I didn't know that you had retreated at home and became a half time framer. I guess TG will earn the other half of your time ;)
 
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