So who else has blown anything up in their garage

Honestly who would have thought a wayward spark off of a grinder would have set off an entire stash of fireworks...Anyone else have a story about setting some ablaze on accident...

 

being careless with the arc welder when i was younger and arced to a half full gas tank. didn't exploded but the bang the burning fumes made scared the absolute shit out of me

 

blew my 72 vega wagon in my garage...o, sorry you said blown up!!!!!what the hell happened there!!!is that the left overs from a plastic gas can or what??? was welding on a tool box to install a heavier back on it ands blew up several cans of brake clean, carb clean and other crap inside it...scared the shit out of me, warped the hell out of the 1/8" steel i was just about done welding to the tool box..........

 

Ok, the question is WTF ARE YOU STORING FIREWORKS IN THE GARAGE FOR!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!???!!

AT LEAST THE ROADBIKE WASNT HURT!

 

Welding up a Brush guard on my work bench, and Airial fire work mortal detonated next to me. Was so sure i had died when i found my self on my back on the ground. ha

 

Many years ago, had our '72 Plymouth Satellite street stocker on the lift, rear end cover off, welding up the spider gears. 'Course, we'd left the drain pan with all the rear end lube in it at our feet...sparks coming down...started feeling hot...sure enough, had a full blown blaze in the pan...did I mention the pan was plastic and started melting, leaking a pool of fire all over the floor...yeah, that was exciting...

 

If your not blowing stuff up, your not doing it right

 

Never blown anything up, but never use the grinder while wearing thermal underwear!

 

The guy next to my was grinding a piece of metal in the vice and lit up a cup full of magnesium machining chips that he was saving for a yet undetermined application. Wow - that was bright...

 

33 years ago, me and my cousin used to check the status of a battery we would find by taking a coat hanger or what ever metal and touch both terminals +/- to see if it would spark. Spark would mean good, no spark bad. Once we had a battery on the charger for a day or two. Took the charger off and touched both terminals with a hacksaw blade. Blew the top off the battery, got battery acid all over, to include our faces, his eyes (I were glasses) and it made one hell of a noise. We were 14 at the time and learned by trial and error. Were both still around so there you go...

 

i set my 52 chevy on fire a few weeks ago...

i was grinding down some welds,,and 'UNBENOUNCED' to me i smelt something burning,,,

and it smelled like that window channel stuff that burns(that smell you become familair with when you have chopped a few tops),,,so i look around and dont see anything,,,but then look back and see the back seat on FIRE!!!!

i run and grabbed the fire extinguisher and pulled the pin and NOTHING!,,so then i ran around like a mad man...finally ripped the back seat outta the carin the process knocking the back window that was propped up in the rear window frame into 100000 pieces.. and put the fire out,,,,,yeah,that was fun!

 

If the battery post ever comes out of a battery, don't try and put it back in. (bad things happen)

 

I blew myself up.

I got away with spraying starting fluid in a cranking sputtering motor about 5,342 times, but I didn't on the 5,343rd time.

Also, if you are going slightly blow yourself up, don't leave the cap off the cowl gas tank with gas in it, b/c then you really blow yourself up.

Almost died, but after a stay in the burn unit for a week or so... about 4 months of serious recovery, I was good to go mostly.
That was 6 years ago.

Wil
www.sakowskimotors.com
Open House Dec 13

 

How many times have you done that since?

 

is it bad if i laugh about the fireworks?

 

Never had anything blow up but a while back I was welding up a tiny rust hole on the roof/rain gutter of a friends 39 Dodge truck and started the headliner on fire. I did not even know it until I stopped welding and lifted up my hood. By then the foam under it was melting and dripping down. I beat it with my gloves and could not put it all out. Hit it with a extinguisher and finally put it out. By then half the headliner was gone along with part of a side panel behind the door. Made a huge mess inside with melted foam and yellow powder from the extinguisher. Worst part was the interior was already redone and was the only part he did not want worked on.

 

I was working on fabbing up a new filler tube for the gas tank in my Hudson. I had drained the fuel at least 6 months prior, and assumed there'd be no problem. I was wrong. The tank blew up, sending a fireball straight at me.

It melted all the hairs off my arms, got my sideburns and eyebrows too. I thought when I opened my eyes that I'd be dead.

Funny thing, the tank still holds fuel, but the "expanded capacity" will hod about an extra 2 gallons. ha ha.

 

What a waste of good fireworks.

 

Blew up the oil furnace in my shop once. It was one of those "pot generator" types that swirled the flame by pulling in air from underneath and making a blue flame in a pot in th bottom. Mine went out, apparently, and the "carburetor" on it kept fuel going in. the fuel hit a hot spot and reignited. It blew the damper off the vent pipe all the way across the shop and off the far wall. It was as loud as a 12 ga. shotgun going off. The bad part was I was standing directly in front of it with my head under the hood of my truck when it went off. I got out of the shop and was standing on the deck behind the house before i realised that I had even moved. then I realised that i had hit my head on the hood latch on the way out! I never relit that thing, i took it out to the curb for the junkman, but someone came along and grabbed first....poor guy!

 

Or a Patagonia or Marmot polypro sweater..........yeah twice

 

Just last month, not myself but a youg guy in my shop. Airing up a truck tire laying on the floor not in the cage. He walked away and forgot until boom. The rim stayed on the roof and didn't land on someone but now we have a skylight in the tire bay.

 

I caught my coveralls on fire while cutting 3/4'' tubing. Didn't know it until it got to the jeans. Luckily, I had my handy Corona "fire exstinguisher" handy. Wife thought I pissed my pants due to the location, until she saw the burn hole..

 

i hate to admit ,,,but i googled that^^^^^^^^, for a minute there,i thought you
were going METRO-SEXUAL on us again!!!

 

I was shaving the door handles on a Lincoln Navigator and caught the custom leather interior on fire. The owner still hasn't forgiven me.

A friend of mine was grinding the bellhousing out on his VW when we were in high school, apparently we hadn't taken chemistry class yet that told us Magnesium is highly explosive in powder form. When he hit the tranny mount stud with the grinder it went BOOM!!! He still has the scars!!!

 

I blew up a ping-pong ball over a bunson burner in Chemistry Class Senior year. I wasn't allowed in class for a week...but thats only because the secong ping-pong ball made a pop and then proceed to melt to the bench.


I honestly set my bench at work on fire 3 times a week. We use a good bit of Laquer thinner to clean my metal before welding and all too often leave my half soaked rags too close. My foreman got me my own personal fire extinguisher.

 

Yep........ sweater fire here also. The laquer thinner didn't help.

 

Fireworks and hotrod shops do not mix. When I was 18 I was a grunt at my first bodyshop. It was close to the 4th of July and we thought it would be fun to drop an M80 into an old 55gallon drum out behind the shop. I was holding the M80 over the hole in the top of the drum and the painter started to light it when a huge funnel of flame shot out of the barrel and burnt my eyebrows/eyelashes right off my face and I had flash burn over my whole face. I dropped that M80 into the barrel and took off like a scalded dog(which I was) when the secondary explosion from the drum stopped me in my tracks. After a quick count of all of my fingers and a look at myself in the mirror I quickly joined the Marine Corps where I got involved with bigger firecrackers. The ,moral of the story is never strike a flame over an old lacquer thinner barrel no matter how old and open it may be.

 

I just read this, and moved my stash of fireworks from the shop to the office.

We blew up a car, but it was intentional and on the ranch.

One '88 Honda Civic Junker
+
One Bottle of Propane
+
One .300 Win Mag
=
BOOM!

 

Helping my brother on a derby car . oilpump screen needed to be cleaned he cut a hole in the pan ,cleaned the screen,calls me to weld up the hole. While I make sparks he stands by with air hose the blow out the oil smoke so itdoes not blow up . then the phone rings... Guess who did not stop what I was doing. Almost done one more small bead...Booooommmm!!!!!! Hit my head on the front wheel almost knocked the car off the lift ,crushed my best welding helm,scared the crap out of me. Scared the dog to (he leaves the shop when you go near the welder now) Blew all the gaskets Pan ,valve covers ,front and rear intake to block seal. Laff about it now, Learned alot then.
rtp

 

Not exactly in the shop but behind the barn. About six years old in 1953 with a 2 1/2" firecracker. Put it in the tank filler of a old chev that had been setting there since before wwII. I'll never forget the chev making a slow front flip and landing on its top about 20' from where it started or the whuppin Grandad gave me. Then he told everybody else about it and all had a huge laugh.