Acetylene tank explosion

JimH

I have one of these and I absolutely love it. No messing
around with heat shields, and fast, too. Not much heavier
than a torch rig, but you do need 115/230 AC.

http://ridgid.com/Tools/RT175-Soldering-Gun/index.html

-JimH

Ted_9

on the news, Fox 25

I just heard about this plumbers ford Taurus blew up. He had his tank in the trunk from the night before. He opened the trunk with the alarm remote and it ignited. Crazy.


Massachusetts

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bob young

safety

AND the gauge & hose were probably still connected to the B tank & the valve on tank open. way too many mechanics do not practice safe operation when it comes to combustable gas. seen it a million times. tank never should have been left in the trunk to begin with.

Christian Egli_2

But did he get the trunk to open at least?

Bob is absolutely right, valves are meant to be kept closed tight at all times - and I highly dislike the awkward key valves on some acetylene bottles that are so inconvenient the bottle remains open. Maybe there is a good logic to the key, but I don't get it.

Plus

Acetylene is a gas that cannot be compressed at any reasonable level, attempts at doing so only result in bottles exploding. Kablooie. Especially with any mild rise in temperature, like that of a trunk parked in the sun. In a way, you're lucky if the gas only leaks out (sometimes there is a safety valve), the bottle won't explode...oh, but the exited gas might.

The danger comes from the fact that attempting to compress the acetylene gas is very easy to get into.

The only way we safely handle the stuff in bottles is by dissolving it in liquid acetone and so, the mixture remains at rather easy to handle low partial pressure. The bottles are filled with a sponge that is soaked in acetone from which the acetylene fizzes out like the bubbles from your Dr. Pepper. For torching purposes, we live on the bubbles only.

What happens when you tip the bottle? The liquid acetone spills out as if you had tipped your can of soda. Under the worse situation, you'll have lost enough acetone for the acetylene to start building pressure which will cause you trouble, let's say big trouble.

Acetylene bottles should never be laid on their side but temporarily, and only for the time of the transport. Don't ever use them in any other position besides standing up. Never. And give them some time to regain their composure when lifting them from the horizontal.

Never use the acetylene bottles in a horizontal position. If you see someone doing this, don't go near... just yell.

There, I felt like giving a lecture tonight: gasses go boom.

What colors are your acetylene bottles in your part of the world? Here in southwest Ohio, we have them equally in either red, or in gray or in orange - so much for colors, so much for standards. Is it different elsewhere?

Ted_9

tanks

Haha ha. The color of our tanks in Mass. are chipped paint and rust.


Massachusetts

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Steamhead (in transit)

Acetylene

What Mr. Egli says about the stuff is true. At pressures above 15psi it spontaneously explodes! Most people use it because that is what we've always used. Any combustible gas handled improperly is dangerous, but the extra risks of acetylene are not worth it IMHO. We use MAPP. It burns almost as hot as C2H2, is cost effective, the tanks are lighter (there is no acetone to lug about), and is safer. The downside is MAPP is harder to get in quantities greater than the homeowner-sized bottles.

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theprentice

my employer still insists that we use propane torches, granted we use the small mapp torches in tight spots but only being an apprentice i really don't know the difference.

ScottMP

hahahaha

Ted your right, everyonce in awhile you get one with blue on it

I think he is referring to what we in Mass would call the hardware store tanks. Those "little tiny" tanks they sell at True Value.

You ment a B-tank right ?

Scott

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Ted_9

Right

Your right, I just assumed it was a B tank that exploded. It could have been a small hardware store type. Blue is propane and yellow is Map gas. I don't know if Map gas is Acetylene.

Massachusetts

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Ted_9

switch

I would make the switch to propane but I don't know if it will work when brazing larger pipe sizes. If Mapp is safe and could get a professional set up, I'm on board.

anyone know?



Massachusetts

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Brad White_9

During the 2004 presidential campaign

the D. nominee was at the Boston Sheraton for a speech. We were overseeing some major chiller plant work so there were lots of B-tanks coming and going via the loading dock.

The Secret Service was not amused and practically went ballistic in their very professional way. The job had to close down and the stuff moved off-site for the duration. They know their stuff!

Christian Egli_2

Don't inhale

I reread the thread, and I am now wondering why I went on about my gas, assuming it was a tank of acetylene that blew up - I really was in the mood for a lecture...

Mapp and acetylene are not the same thing. Acetylene packs more punch than Mapp does, just like Mapp wins over propane. I think the next step beyond acetylene is hydrogen - melt down the whole pipe assembly, cool.

Mapp and propane are similar in safety handling procedures, they are both gasses that come liquified under some very mild pressure inside the bottle - just like one would force steam to remain liquid under higher pressure even though we were above normal boiling temperature.

Mapp and propane are easy to handle. Yet, compressed natural gas (as used in some greenish vehicles) is very hard to liquify - plainly impossible in normal daily life, and thus it is compressed at pressures that go up to the wazzu with all the same dangers oxygen bottles present.

My larger Mapp tanks are aluminum - no color to them. Otherwise, the small hand torch come in yellow. Handheld propane comes in green. I haven't seen anything blue in ages. Returning to propane for anything else but pilot lighting is hard.

Oxygen, I have in either mostly green, green and white, or blue.

I think I'm out of color now. So... what kind of tank was it in the Taurus?

Plumdog_2

Switched and switched back again

I tried the propane turbo torch with a 20lb bottle and found it to be a lot slower to use than acetylene. After a few tanks of LP I went back to the B-tank; it seems a lot hotter.

william_5

rembemer the 2006 supper bowl ????

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/6790966/detail.html?subid=22100484&qs=1;bp=t#