Burning the house down

This post has nothing to do with politics. The title is literal. I was about to burn down my house!

For months, and maybe over a year, I'd come into the sewing room and smell something burning. Chris and I searched high and low checking outlets and cords many times and never found anything.

Monday I was ironing and something was scratching on the fabric. I looked and some broken piece was coming out of the back of the iron. I turned it off and cooled it to remove the piece. That's when I noticed for the first time that there's a gap between the sole plate and the tank and element cover. After a closer look I saw lint stuffed in there. There's also a gap between the handle and the cover too. 

Sooo much lint! By the time I pulled out everything I could have filled a cup with lint. But take a close look. Some of that lint is brown and black. It's burned! My iron has been burning lint and the reason I didn't necessarily smell it while I was ironing is that I was smelling it smoldering.

​Clearly I've dropped this iron one too many times.

This iron is only used for ironing fabric for the shop. I never use steam and really just needed something simple and hot that doesn't have an auto-shutoff.  It has a designed gab between the sole plate and tank but it's wide enough that I'll be able to blow it out periodically. 

This iron isn't optimal but I needed something fast because I have stacks of fabric to iron so I'll work with it until I find something better. Meanwhile, Check your own iron just to make sure you don't have a similar problem happening.