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Barrels explode after being welded together.
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Previously:
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...820#post152379
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...582#post128261
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...396#post142544
Idiots, lucky they weren’t electrocuted as well because that generator was still running when it hit the water. :smash:
Should have poured out the gunpowder before welding them, or perhaps cleaned out whatever chemicals were in them....
Don't think that was a generator, more likely to be a portable welder, but yes the power lead was still connected, however, that is also likely to have simply blown the fuse off the wallQuote:
Originally Posted by Scrounga
Interesting the slow expansion before the rapid expansion
My brother in law, a lawyer, represented a client that was cutting the top off a 55 gallon drum. The drum came from a scrap yard out in western North Dakota. The client was cutting the top off using an OA torch. The drum still had the bungs in place, was upright, and as he pierced the top with the torch, the drum launched like a rocket, as the bottom physically blew off. There still was an estimated 1/2 inch of the drums original flammable product. As the drum flew upward, it deposited this burning liquid on the idiot, causing 3rd degree burns, my BIL said he looked like Frankenstein. He did win the lawsuit, the manufacture of the drum did not comply with required labeling (a technicality, as it did have a flammable warning label), and the metal salvage yard was also held responsible. The scrap yard industry now has can opening style machinery before selling a used drum, as the intended purpose back when this occurred was a burn barrel. This was more then 30 years ago.
And we all feel the side effects of these idiots. I was dropping off some scrap iron a couple months ago. There was a pile of totally awesome stuff laying there. Perfectly good I-beams, heavy leg (3/8" thick) aluminum angle, not huge pieces, but the exact kind of stuff you want in your "might need this someday" pile. I went to one of the guys and asked about it, was willing to pay for it. His response was "Can't sell anything, we can loose our insurance if we do".Quote:
Originally Posted by metric_taper
About time the insurance industry was told to sod off, and a sign on the gate of scrap yards to the effect that it is a condition of sale that the purchaser of scrap assume total responsibility for any outcome resulting from the manipulation of said scrap. After all, the vendors of other materials always state that no responsibility will be accepted for the use of their product, which is beyond their control.
When I was a teenager working at the blacksmith shop we removed the heads from drums regularly and sold them as burn barrels. The blacksmith had made a for lack of a better term giant can opener. Actually little more than a long pipe handle with a hook and a curved blade that functioned like an Army P38 C rations opener.
And ax and a hammer will remove the head from a drum but can create sparks an OA torch is absolutely TABOO. I could remove the heads of about 15 to 20 drums in an hour with it
A peripherally related comment: I bought a can opener of the type that cuts the can lid crimp ring from the side (instead of the lid itself) and I use it frequently to make shop storage containers since the separated lid still fits and seals onto the can. I've even been known to go to the grocery store looking for some food in a container that's about the right size that I need to later use once the food's gone.
Attachment 35162
If I have to torch cut into a barrel after emptying it, I always flood the barrel interior with Argon from my TIG torch first so if there's any flammable vapor remaining there's no oxygen in the barrel to support combustion.
That's the kind of can openers we use here as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crusty
Back in the days of working in the blacksmith shop a service station mechanic brought a gas tank over to be repaired. William took a long length of flex tubing connected it to his welding machine and stuck the other end in the tank then left the welder run for about 30 minutes or longer before he used his OA torch to braze the split in the tank. I remember him telling me that the exhaust gases from an engine without a muffler would heat up the tank once it was too warm to touch the air inside the gas tank would be filled with the burned exhaust making it less likely to explode, but there was still was still a chance that enough unburned fuel and oxygen could still be in the gas tank was why he allowed them to heat up to reduce the amount of oxygen.
I've used his method several times through the years, but I doubt that using the exhaust gases from todays super clean burning engines would displace enough oxygen to insure there would be no chance of properly killing the tank of any combustible oxygen.
I've heard a story about a welder called out to fix a crack in a leaking gasoline tank and supposedly the welder had the tank completely filled to the neck rim with gasoline, then set the top alight. While it was burning, he welded the crack closed since the flame atop was burning all the vapors away.
Ya really gotta trust your physics to do this but back in past days people were more willing to try things in an effort to get the job done.
I've welded up cracks in diesel tanks on heavy equipment several times by keeping the level above the crack the hardest part is to burn a rod hot enough that ihe arc is not contaminated by the leaking fuel but not so hot as to burn a larger hole while you are welding.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crusty
Even more exciting is to weld on a nipple to the lower area in the end of a 10,000 gallon diesel tank. then use a torch to pierce a hole in it.
Did that once as well I should say twice first and last time at the same time. At a construction site a tank was delivered then filled with diesel the problem was the tank had been positioned reversed from how they needed it to use and there was no nipple and valve for them to hook up their pump all of the equipment operators were sitting on the tail gates of their pickups about 50 feet away drinking beer watching me weld on the nipple, after welding it on and threading on a gate valve, I put a 7" long #4 cutting tip in my torch when I lit it up and proceeded to poke it through the valve and nipple to begin cutting a hole I heard a dozen pickups start up and begin backing away. I chuckled to myself and thought P***y's as I pierced a hole and held the torch in there long enough to make the hole as large as possible diesel and flame flowed out the hole with a vengeance until I was able to close the valve then it was just a matter of allowing the fuel on the dirt to burn itself out.
there was a lot of rumbling inside the tank as the molten metal and the flame of the torch was blown inside but rumbling was all it did. When I finished and they could see that the tank was not going to explode they backed their trucks to where they had been. You wusses got any beer left I asked. Man you must have stones the size of king Kong's to blow a hole in the end of a tank with thousands of gallons of diesel. Naa that is why I get paid the big bucks to drive this welding rig around now whos got an extra beer.
When we were in Russia a couple of years back we were given a big jar of home canned mushrooms. We brought it home and then pondered how to get the bloody thing open. That funky crimped rim meant that nothing we had would get under the edge and uncrimp it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crusty
Attachment 35163
We finally got into it without breaking the jar, the mushrooms were great!
One of the first things on our shopping list when we return is to get a jar opener!
Physics is a powerful tool. Chemistry plays an important roll also. An "empty" propane or gasoline tank are more dangerous than a full one. As the tank that Frank mentioned if there was just a little fuel in the tank, that would have been a much more dangerous (read deadly) process to attempt.
With all this talk of exploding barrels and fuel tanks going on wouldn't you know it my welder neighbor brought over a tank off of a Freightliner this morning. Frank can you weld up an aluminum tank for me I've never welded aluminum and would be afraid to weld on a tank anyway, but I spent an hour at the car wash trying to clean it out.
So I started to set up my wire welder with the spool gun and somehow managed to short a couple of wires which burned out the board (Lucky me)
I told him no problem I'll just weld it up with a torch like brazing on steel.
This I got to see he said, I may not know how to weld aluminum but I know that an OA torch is not something you use on it.
My rate is triple for holding class I said.
Well maybe I had better go and work on something call me when it is ready.
Attachment 35164
welded up in 2 places on the bead at the rim and the hole rubbed in the side
Attachment 35165
Hey Frank, be thankful that we weren't talking about digging postholes in clay. :cool:
been there done that almost added callouses to my calloused hands.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crusty
How come we never talk about finding extremely large sums of money or gold I could use some of that talk maybe I'd get lucky
The newsreels here did mention just recently of a woman driving over two big bags of money, but I don't recall where that was since none of it would ever come my wayQuote:
Originally Posted by Frank S
