Milling Celluloid and leaving all the chips on the machine!

[Woodfab]

One day I milled quite a bit of Celluloid material and left the milling machine table covered with chips.
A few days later while milling some steel some hot chips ignited the Celluloid which burst into flames.
Pretty Crazy how fast it burns. Luckily there was nothing near to catch fire.
And I'm pretty sure the fumes are bad to breath.

 

[addertooth]

Considering celluloid is NitroCellulose and (typically) Camphor. This is a known outcome. NitroCellulose is also known as "gun cotton" and is the propellant which launches the huge projectiles out of the guns of battleships.

I work with Celluloid as well, as associated with antique pens.

Old celluloid sweats nitric acid as well, and can discolor cast iron, if it is left in contact.

 

[markba633csi]

Guitar picks are nitrocellulose- light one and see! Poof!

 

[RJSakowski]

Early movie film was celluloid. They had some interesting fires.

 

[addertooth]

Early movie film was celluloid. They had some interesting fires.

Yep, celluloid is very hard to stabilize. The older it gets, the more unstable it becomes. It is sad to watch a 100 year old pen start to de-stabilize, lose it's color, and fall apart. I have had some literally crumble in my hands. It can really hurt when it is a multi-hundred dollar pen.

 

[C-Bag]

Even worse when a rare instrument has that happen to it. The binding and pickguards were made of nitrocellulose.

 

[jwmay]

I've had to throw away some beautiful old straight razors because the celluloid scales destroyed the blades. We always called it "gassing off", which was attributed to the material breaking down. It can really be pretty stuff, but I won't use it for that reason alone. One razor with rotten celluloid scales can ruin a whole pouch of blades in a hurry.

 

[addertooth]

I've had to throw away some beautiful old straight razors because the celluloid scales destroyed the blades. We always called it "gassing off", which was attributed to the material breaking down. It can really be pretty stuff, but I won't use it for that reason alone. One razor with rotten celluloid scales can ruin a whole pouch of blades in a hurry.

Yes, Hard rubber is an excellent (and period accurate) substitute. You can get it in a variety of excellent colors and patterns.

 

[Woodfab]

I was re-toping some piano keys.
They did come out very nice.

Here's the old ones.


Here's the new ones I made with the Celluloid material

 

[Janderso]

Ping pong balls?