So who else has blown anything up in their garage

i blow holes in the rear of my underwear constantly
in the garage and out..

 

THis happen to me last month came out to my garrage and was blown!!

 

The guy 2 houses up the street was into modified racing, about 2 years ago he knocked over a kerosene heater and set the garage on fire,and lost the house. I warned the Fire dept. about his welding tanks and they were outside when they blew.

 

this thread has me cracking up, who would of thought that fireworks and welding wouldnt mix . . .

pretty sure anyone who welds and grinds a lot has a few good stories to tell about collateral damage. my most recent one was about a month ago i set my model A coupe on fire chopping the top, stray welding spark hit the original insert and i didnt notice until i lifted my welding hood, could not believe how fast it spread, luckily i put it out before it did any major damage. also the first time i started my model A sedans stock banger i had the garage closed when the muffler exploded from having an obstruction in it (probably a rat nest) and i swear the rear wheels came off the ground, my neighbor rushed over to my garage thinking i had just killed myself, i looked like a chimney sweeper haha. but the worst one has to be when i slammed a spray paint can on the ground alittle too hard and the bottom blew off of it propelling it to mach one as it grazed my ear, covered me from head to toe in primer (including down my ear canal), proceeded to blast a hole through my garage door and almost though the roof! warning contents under pressure not to be taken lightly! it looked like i had been dipped in tar when it was all over and my hearing wasnt right for over a week haha.

 

I am a pretty short guy and they don't make jeans in my size so I hack the bottoms off ,then they get all fuzzy and raggy on the bottom .Kind of like the tinder you use for starting fires. Always keep a large towel in a 5 gal bucket of water handy when welding and grinding.

 

no----shit !! >>>>.

 

I was cleaning the floor of the garage with lacquer thinner and then the gas hot water heater (in the garage) lit. I heard the WHOO of the WHOOOOOOOMMM and ran out just ahead of the fireball. Didn't really do much damage, but it was exciting, to say the least.

 

do inflatable farm animals count ?








always a fun birthday gift

 

I was welding a bracket on a gas tank to mount on a mini bike . It hadn't had gas in it for who knows how many years so thought I was safe . The thing blew and flame shot out of the filler hole which happened to have my fingers inserted at the time . Took over a month for the skin to grow back .

 

I walked away from the compressor while filling up a bike inner tube. It took 20 seconds and BOOOM!
I almost crapped myself.

 

I thought you really ment blow something up like an ENGINE.. NOT SOME DUMB ASS SHIT LIKE FIREWORKS IN THE SHOP. With that being said I can say the wildest thing I,ve seen blow up in the shop was an engine on the dyno. The valve train came apart at about 7800 RPM and shit flew everywhere. I recall some of the pushrods flying out going through the fluoro tube lights and out the roof they went. Then came the clean up of that calf scouwry looking shit mess of oil on the floor !! Glad it wasn't my engine or my shop >>>>.

 

When I first got out of High School, 50 years ago, I worked out in the shop at Douglas Aircraft. We used to build these engine stands for C133's. They were made out of steel pipe, so we would cut the pipes, about 20' long and fill them with Acetelyne after we would get them in position to weld. Then we would call for a welder to come and weld it in place, it would look like the fires of hell coming out of the pipe and sounded like a sonic boom. We were lucky no one ever got hurt. It sure used to scare the hell out of the welder.

 

also don't weld on your back while wearing same, burnt a 6 inch hole in my thermal tops.

 

I sorta did the same thing a couple years ago, I was grinding something and some sparks landed on the top shelf where I had hidden some fireworks from my kids, I figured they weren't mature enough to handle them.

 

I was working on one of my never ending projects one sunny afternoon when my grandson asked if he could "nuke" something in the garage microwave as the one in the house was in use defrosting something.. Didn't ask what he was gonna nuke.. Figured a burrito or something.. When the microwave door went flying past my head following a loud bang.. I asked the question.. What the hell was that??? He replied.. I was making a hard boiled egg.. It took a month before the smell went away..

 

A couple weeks ago I was doing some welding under the car in a very hard to reach and uncomfortable position. I was wearing one of those insulated flannel shirts. I could smell something burning and thought it might be me. Then I started feeling some heat on my stomach and knew it was me, but I had a good bead going and didn't want to climb out of that position till the weld was finished. I was racing the flame till I could feel the heat on my face under the helmet. Finally finished the weld, threw down the gun and helmet and started patting myself out. The lining of the shirt had melted to the t shirt underneath, I was ok but it was close. It's not the first time I've set one of those shirts on fire, you'd think I'd learn.

 

Back when I was a senior in H.S. 2004 and the Teachers Aide at the welding shop, I introduced my fellow classmates to my BOOM BOX. It was a 4x4 inch 1/4 inch thick box with a hole the size of a dime just big enough for a rose bud tip to fit inside to fill with acetylene. I would wait for when the fellas were working on their projects with their welding hoods down to set it off. I have never seen a shop clear as quickly as those guys when they went running out. Shop teacher just looked at me and said "Can you warn me next time? I was trying to read the damn newspaper!" I really miss those days.

A more recent event on myself. I was inside my old dirt track racer welding up a rollbar and was almost through when I felt heat through my jumpsuit and smelled burning flesh from my arm. I finished the weld, lifted my hood and all I could do was laugh at myself. No use in getting angry. My nephew was nearby and said "Why are you laughing?" and I just showed him the burn and said, "No use in getting angry what will that solve? Learn from my mistake bud"

 

Only things I've blown up lately were tires. One I filled for a spare for the Hudson I towed home a while back - those old tubes don't like 35 PSI. Okay, lesson learned, when I moved the Chevy a few weeks ago I only ran them up to 30 or so. Well, the one that had had air left in it, I get some 6 or 7 miles along, boom! goes off like a shotgun blast. Good thing I picked the 30 mph street with the parking area on the left instead of the interstate and 65 mph.

 

Nah, the closest I ever got was the time Splinter dropped a cutoff wheel.. Sent little chunks flying everywhere. Good thing I wear jeans and engineer boots year round. Dumbass..

 

1980-1981 ,was about 16 or 17 so was my friend mikey .. he was working for jon gee's union 76 station ..jon was cool , let us kids fart around after hours .one day mikey wants to cut a portion out of the roof of his 74' (?) ltd , kinda targa top look.. he starts on the drivers side on top with a cutting torch ,i'm on the other side were both on standing on to stack wheels to get a good look at what we're doing ... he gets half way and passed the torch to me ,i cut about 16" and next thing i know i getting sprayed with water from behind from the other kid who worked there then jon gee joined in with the fire exstingisher..mikey and me ,wet ,white, and a fuggin mess... cutting torch + headliner = melting firey goo dripping on the seats ,that burned the shit out of them.. about 4-5 hours of clean-up and taking out the front benchseat..we drove home after, me sitting in the backseat him sitting on a tire ........damn kids ..haha

 

About 12 years or so ago I was helping a friend put rings in a Mazda truck. Got everything back together and started it up. Damn thing was running great...... For about a minute.

Then we heard the loudest noise known to mankind..... The sound of a connecting rod going through the side of an engine block.

Truck still running, I shut it off and with the most dead pan; non excited voice, I asked - "You did torque everything.... right?"

"What do you mean torque?"

It was his truck so I didn't care, but what a mess. Took out a huge piece of the side of the block.

 

I was trying to refire the 460 in my Lincoln last year after pulling a head to fix a broken valve spring. Crank crank, no fire pump pump crank, crank sputtter, no fire.... (can you see where this is going?) Kaboooom! (big enough bang to make my wife come down to the garage) Turns out I had the dizzy in 180 degrees out. Fuel ignited in the exhaust pipe on one bang. Muffler went from flat to round! Never muffled any good after that!

 

was working on an old flattie once, it was running fine. I switched it off, and heard a rushing noise, and noticed that the LH coolant hose was slowly lifting off the outlet at the head. i knew the coolant was hot, so reterated a safe distance to watch. the hose came off, and the gush of boiling coolant hit the strip lighting 10 feet above it. The bulbs shattered, and the fitting swung down and landed on a battery that i had on charge and shorted ot out with a bang. some of the sparks landed in a jar of dirty petrol i had used for cleaning parts with, and went up.
I put out the small fire, closed the garage door and went to the pub.

 

I was making a garbage barrel for the owner of a small dealership using just a hammer and cold chisel. Progress was slow so the owners son thought he would lend a hand to get it done quicker. Just as I turned to look behind me, I saw him light up the cutting torch and point it at the fill/siphon hole on the top. just as I hit the concrete floor I heard a loud HISS followed by a very loud BANG! It was an ALMOST empty anti-freeze barrel. After all the cursing by both the owner and me he realized he was lucky to be alive. The explosion ripped off the lid and spun it like a frisbee. It flew 20 feet up to the ceiling and bounced over 3 bays to a wall where it slowed and settled while banging off the side wall and a brand new Jeep on a lift. Never a dull moment at that shop!!!

 

Yup... The good ol' insulated flannels. Have a few of them myself that are burnt. The ones that really flare up are the ones with the wool lining...

When I built the chassis on my 91 GMC, I set the undercoating tar shit they use on fire a few times up front. Set the undercoating on fire in my 71 Sub along with the plywood rear floor.

Gas tanks I've learned that you fill with water BEFORE you weld...

 

I was welding something in a buddy's shop many years ago when I heard a loud boom and felt something go by my head. Lifted the hood and ran out the garage door. Looked back inside and saw a fire on the floor right beside where I was welding. Went in and put the fire out and under where the fire was there was the round bottom of a metal 5 gallon can. The rest of the gas can was what went by my head. Seems that he had left the lid off the can and sat it right beside the welding table. Luckly it was almost empty and there wasnt much left to burn.

 

I shot a .45 ACP hole in my kerosene heater - luckily the round found a nice thick stack of plywood just beyond, otherwise...........

dj

 

My ex brother-in-law did something similar. He was charging a battery in the Kitchen of his house. He went to take the charger off the terminals and did not turn it off. The sparks started the hyrdogen gas on fire and blow the top off the battery. It was lucky for him that here had turned his head when it blew up, so he got acid on his arms and hands, but ruined the kitchen floor and counter top.
George