B-Tank safety

william_5

he is not the sharpest tool in the tool box

Unknown

OK , this might sound like a silly question

coming from someone who's been handling B-tanks for almost 20 years , but .....

What do you do ( besides stain both side of your wears ) if an acetylene tank lights up at the stem ? What's the safest procedure to turn it off , if there is any procedure ? Or will it just go off like a bomb ? Did this ever happen to anyone ? I had a tank with a leaky packing nut at the stem and my helper was soldering a drip tube right above it - very close to both of us going BOOM !

J.C.A._3

Blow it out....

Then tighten the packing nut, and play with the "torch boogies" !(better yet, bubble test your connections when attaching)

Acetelyne is very stable, under pressure. When it gets out BEFORE the regulator, your gonna have a hellof a fire, and this is where it gets tricky.....it will ignigite from the friction of itself getting out.At that time, you'll just have to grab some weenies and stay far enough away so you don't get burned. Unless it gets back under pressure, you're going to be waiting for it to burn itself out. Chris

Scott Gregg

B-Tanks

This is probably the most hazzardous thing in the trade. About 20 years ago a very well know plumbing company buried a man and almost two. (He spent weeks recovering)

Seems that a helper had placed a b-tank rig in the gang box overnight. (He had done it before) This time it must have had a leak. The fellow opening the Gang box in the morning was smoking. He died. A nearby man was blown across the room and the blast did a good bit of damage to the floor of the hospital they were working on.

OSHA shut down the job for a while and its lucky more did not get hurt. Word spread through our little town fast, and every P & H person in the area gained a new resect for these tanks, but with a high price.

ScottMP

Hit it with a cup of coffee

Thats what my customer did.

Years ago I was working for a young lady and we had both become good friends. I was soldering in a new cabinet she had bought and was she was teasing me about being carefull with the torch. I waved the torch around and told her I " was a proffesional ".

You got it, the torch lit the leaking packing nut on the tank. I tried blowing it out, but it was'nt happening. My friend said stand back and doused it with the cup of coffee she had just brought me.

I NEVER heard the end of the proffesional remark.

We live with danger EVERY day. Be carefull.

Scott

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Darin Cook_2

Acetylene

Below 15 psi is extremely unstable. As Chris said it will ignite on its own below that pressure. I just had the handle on my prestolite burst into flames due to a small leak. I was wearing gloves that also had some pvc glue residue on them, they burst into flames. Kinda weird to look at your hand burning and not have it hurt. I ripped the gloves off and then turned off the stem on the tank since the handle was engulfed. I happened to be working on a concrete floor. No damage done. Sometimes you do get lucky.


Darin

JaredM

Take a close look at the stem of an acetylene tank...there is a samll fusible plug of lead or solder or something on the stem about halfway down. If the flame were to go down into the stem the plug burns out giving you a very impressive flame from the top of the bottle.

Don't ask how I know this.

-Jared

Weezbo

Not a happening piece of experience.

I have a lucky Superman shirt that i used to put out the fire *~/:)

do you have a thumb pilot on Your torch?

i havent been able to find another among any of my friends....the torch selections make finding parts for this torch a hassle.... it has a lever on the handle that you put on "pilot" when you thumb the lever the torch is right back on step. best thing going. for B torch.

Gene_3

Got ya beat

I'm going to read these to my class, with your permissions, we are about to go into soldering and brazing after covering torch safety.

I already made it clear that if I see anyone screwing around with a torch THEY ARE ALL DONE.

Years ago I was on a job and one guy had a LP torch, this particular individual was very flatulent. I smelled gas bad, and while he was soldering some fittings I was yelling at him that I thought he had leak, he assumed i was making a joke about his flatulence and waved his torch over his tank, which erupted into a ball of fire, it was a walk out basement through the garage, they said my feet never touched the floor, I was gone, up the street in about 3 seconds, when I stopped and turned around I could hear laughter. He had shut the tank off and no damage was done "luckily". They were too busy laughing about how fast I moved to fathom how close they came.


Also remember to strap your tanks down. If a tank falls and snaps the brass valve you have a projectile with no laser guidance or sense of direction,,it will bounce off things, you the wall, the inside of your truck, until it is out of propellant.

David Sutton_6

Gets your hair stading up..

i had a valve stem lite up...oh boy the blood moves real fast at that point... luckly was able blow it out, now i check EVERY time i get a new tank.
also had a helpeer put the tank away and he did not fasten it down and it fell and broke off the stem, it was a full tank we stopped the truck opened the doors and let it air out....the old shorts were sagging with the added wieght..David

jim lockard

Tied down

Both the acetylene and the nitrogen tanks get strapped in upright. WW Grainger sells a nice tank holder that will bolt to the wall of a truck. J.Lockard

bovide_4

Despite the seriousness of the topic, this is one of the funniest threads I've seen, especially the descriptions of our underwear when a b-tank ignites.

Aidan (UK)

Acetylene bottles

Over here, there are pressure relief devices which are built into the tank/bottles, before the isolating valve. If the tank overheats, it is supposed to relieve the pressure of the gas before the pressure bursts the steel tank. It would be releasing an inflammable gas, but that's obviously preferable to an explosion releasing the inflammable gas. Your tanks are probably similar.

These valves often leak a little, especially after moving the tank. If you read the instructions that come with the tank (which no-one does), it says something like, after moving the tank you're supposed to stand it upright for 24 hours before using it and you're supposed to check for leaks from the valves with soap solution or a flammable gas detector.

So there was once a Pipe Fitter who was working on a job Iwas responsible for. He was cutting up a steel water tank, in a boiler room in the basement of a 7-storey building. His cutting equipment has been inspected & approved by the site Fire Officer (good hoses, flash-back arrestors fitted, regulators with current 'Use-by' dates, etc.,), he has got a signed Permit-to Work and he has an appropriate fire extinguisher close to hand, all done by the book. A piece of hot metal flies too close to the acetylene tank. The tank safety valve is leaking a little and a small plume of gas is ignited.

The Fitter shuts off the torch, climbs down and turns off the gas at the tank valve. The gas continues burning. He picks up the adjacent fire extinguisher and discharges it all over the top of the tank. The gas continues burning. The fitter leaves and hits the red alarm button by the exit on his way out.

The site Fire Crew arrive, expecting to extinguish another litter bin. By now, there are big flames dancing around the top of the gas tank and thick black smoke is accumulating in the boiler room and the corridor. They realise that the tank might explode.

"Goodness!" they all exclaimed (or words to that effect) and evacuated the building. 300 people made their way to a distant car park in their shirt sleeves. They thought that the site fire crew were attending to another burning litter bin and that they will soon be allowed back to their offices. It is February and it is cold; car keys, coats and bags have been left at desks.

The Fire Brigade arrive. I think there were 6 fire engines, but I didn’t get to count them. The Firemen realise the burning tank might burst and leave the building through the roof. They shut the road outside. No-one is allowed near the building whilst they attend to the burning tank.

The Firemen eventually extinguished the flames; I’m not sure how they did this, because I was nowhere near. I think they put some container over the top of the tank and filled it with water immersing the leaking valve and the attached molten regulators. On the lawn at the front of the building they then constructed a temporary tank from ladders and tarpaulins and filled the tank with water. After some time they carried the hot gas tank out of the building and dumped it in the tank. They left it there to cool until the following morning and taped off the area. No-one was allowed near the building until then.

The 300 staff had dispersed to near-by pubs. No one had told them what was happening because the Firemen are too busy with the hot gas tank, no-one else knew what the Firemen are doing and nobody wanted to go close enough to ask them. Most of the staff have left their keys and coats but have taken their wallets. The staff all have a good time since they won’t be driving home. The pub has record takings.

The gas suppliers collected the gas tank some days later, saying they would examine it and send a report. Nothing has been heard from them about the tank since. I have been told that there was a stack of similarly scorched and blackened tanks in the gas supplier’s yard.

The procedure for issuing a Permit-to-Work was amended. By chance I wasn’t on the site on that day, so no one could blame me. I have the press cuttings somewhere.

Read the instructions with the tank. Test for gas leaks.

Gene_3

it's funnier in person

catching the expression

only when no one gets hurt

adayton_2

Flatulence is

not always so funny. Story goes at my High School shop class an Oxygen bottle fell, broke off brass valve, blew right through THREE FOOT thick concrete block wall, whipped around the parking lot outside heavily damaging several vehicles. Our teacher instilled a healthy respect for proper tank handling procedures and rigid no horseplay rules.

Alfred

kevin coppinger_4

just another ...

reason I use MAPP tanks...no acetleyne...kpc

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Mitch_6

Have had a couple of fires

on B and mc lite tanks after the regulator and was able to put out the fire with a rag.

Had a hand held propane when they first came out about 25 years ago catch fire I was working in an outside air shaft at a hotel I was able to toss it out like a grenade it burned a little while then popped.

One guy I work with had a B catch fire on the stem, he could not put it out but was able to through it outside on the lawn, fortunately when the fuse plug blew, it incinerated a small tree not the customers BMW in the driveway.

Crazy stuff that happens to you when you are young in the trade then able to laugh about when you are older and suppose to be wiser.

Mitch S.