Look at what happened to my acetelyne bottle!

The way I figured it, as long as it was blowing flames like in the pictures, the tank had positive pressure and was blowing gas outward. I didn't figure that with as much pressure as was there that an extinguisher would be able to kill the flames, and I figured that even calling the fire department would just result in them standing around doing the same thing I was - watching and waiting.

And as volitile as acetelyne is, if there was a cloud of gas floating around this area, all it would take is some idiot with a cigarrete to walk through it, then boom. At least this way it burned itself out.

 

While ur there, buy a pair of "backflow" check valves.....They are made to prevent this and have been required by OSHA for construction use since the late1970's.

Mine is built into the torch handle at the supply valves.

Glad you are OK.

 

real quickly from memory, people do lay them down and seem to get by with it......however, in your tank is a honey comb looking stuff, and acetone......the acetone and acetylene are separate from each other when store upright.........when laid flat for any period of time, the two mix to together........that is why you are supposed to allow them to stand for (i think) several hours uprightly.....this allows them to separate again......i let them set upright for a couple of days before i use them.......

i can't quite remember from my cl*** and i don't have a book but i think the acetone keep raw/liquid acetylene from entering the line.......acetylene is a liquid and as it "hits" the atmosphere it boils off as a gas......

maybe someone else can take it farther...

also, our instructor always told us to open the oxy bottle fully (turn the valve open until it stops) because the oxygen valve is a double seat valve (the oxy tank has MUCH more pressure than the acetylene)......he always told us to open the acetylene tank no more than "one running step" ...in other words if everything starts going crazy, you can shut the valve off (say a 1/4 turn of handle) and get out of dodge......

before i took the cl***, i thought "oh, how hard could it be" it would really be worth everyone's time to read up on oxy/acetylene usage....i mean it!

 

Ditto on the check valves. Cheap insurance for sure. One time at the jewelry store I had a mishap that sold me on check valves forever.
I was casting some gold and my acetelyne line blew. It was apparently chafed at the torch body. When it blew, it severed the oxygen line which fed the flame. Now I've got a wild flaming snake of a torch line flying everywhere and spitting a 2foot tongue of flames and burning the small diameter hose towards the tanks like a fast fuse. I had a couple of seconds to decide whether to run for it or find the tank wrench and shut the thing down. I somehow managed to get it shut down when the hose was only about 2 feet from the tanks. I started with about 5 feet of hose. Left the floor and walls of the shop charred but otherwise no harm done exept to my nerves.
And yeah, Had I not just taken a big **** in the bathroom before I started working, I woulda taken it in my pants. The worst part was having to listen to the shop owner tell me I must have dipped the hoses into molten gold cause it never woulda happened otherwise.
Geez.
So, Check valves for me from here on out. I hate to think what a tank spewing flames for two hours would have done to the store.
Glad you made it out allright!!.

 

I'm guessing your next purchase will be a fire extinguisher.

 

I have/had a fire extinguisher. I didn't think it would work on a tank with that much pressure inside pushing the fire outside. I compared it to those natural gas or oil wells where the pressure blows out and they catch fire. Extinguishers don't work on them, so I didn't think it'd work here - so I didn't use it.

I DID/DO HAVE AN EXTINGUISHER AND IT WAS CLOSE TO ME, AS IT ALWAYS IS WHENEVER I AM USING THE TORCH OR ANY OTHER FLAME INDUCING ITEM.

 

Sounds like you transported it laying down and didn't stand it up long enough before you used it. You should have let it stand a day or so to be safe. There are some other threads that address this.

 

So, I'm still not clear, did you have flashback arrestors installed or not? I'm not trying to lecture or beat you up, lord knows you prolly have tons more experience with this stuff than I do, I just want to see if this is something more preventable than 'put more time between righting the bottle and using it' as I've seen 4x4 guuys literally take a tank from lying down on their truck bed to rolling it down a hill to a stuck buddy to using it in like 5 minutes time. I know everyone hates Harbor Freight, but I've got a set of these on my tanks...

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=45674

 

Could A should A would A.... Thank God you and your family are safe.
Not knowing if it was going to blow up or not I think that was quick thinking getting it out to a more open area away from other flammables and your house ........ do you have bowling balls for nads?

 

The shop will do nothing for you period- except say you should be happy to be alive. Sounds like the acetone was still un settled, coated the inside of your hoses and then burned all the way back to the tank safety valve as a result of flash back. This is your second chance- most people would not have one since they would be dead!

Flash back aresters at the torch and check valves at the tank would of made this not an issue.

http://store.cyberweld.com/flarandchva.html

For everyone if you have older torches that have been around make the investment in safety. Also if your fuel tank needs a key it should be on the tank while in use.

The longer you are around a process the more likely you are going to get lax and it will bite you back. I don't care how long you have been doing it but if you don't understand what happened it might be a good time to take a cl*** and learn the right way.

danny

 

It only works if you give it a chance. Fire department should have been notified, if not for your safety, for those nearby. A burning acetylene tank is about the most dangerous, unpredictable thing to ever be parked in your driveway. You are damn lucky, fortunate no one got hurt.

 

I'm surprised more guys don't know about not laying acetylene bottles down....

anyways, good to see it ended up not as catastrophic as it could have been. Nice pics!

 

http://www.firenuggets.com/x_ARDSIllIIlllllIIIllIlIlIIIllllIllIl/tomcorporandy8.htm

That link explains the dangers of Acetylene and how crazy it can be (neat pics too). It even explains why bottles need to be transported upright. I'm sure there are better links out there, it's just the first one I saw.

Fire extinguisher or not, you shoulda called the FD first and foremost. That's their job, and you don't get billed... what did you have to lose at that point? That link says that the vapor density of acetylene is 0.91... which means it woulda floated away and not laid low like natural gas. No harm if it woulda been extinguished and evacuated. Tid bits I'm learning in the fire academy!

You and your family are very lucky.

 

You not only need arrestors but you to buy or make a real welding cart! That dolly with a couple of straps is a disaster waiting to happen. You have a serious gardian angel watching over you and I bet they're getting tired of it! -stick

 

I'll admit I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and I learn something new each and every day. I've been around these all my life, and apparently technology p***ed up what I've always used. Unfortunately, this happened. I hope everyone learns something from it as I have.

Always remember, hindsight is always 20/20. Coulda, woulda, shoulda done something different doesn't fix what happened or how it was handled this time. That being said, in the end and aftermath, everything has worked out okay. Given the exact situation, I'd challenge anyone else to do something differently.

 

Wow. Glad that wasn't me. Scary. I do have check valves on my hoses. We use them at work so I use them at home.

 

****TING PINK *****IES! damm near cooked those *****ies.i talked to my local welding supply safety guy and here is what he tells me: never transport acetyline bottles laying down, very ustable stuff. check out the trucks that deliver them, always standing up. "flash arrestors" are a must. they have ABC dry chemical extinguishers in their fillng area and entire building. i'm set up to use propane for cutting,cheaper and readily available on sunday. it doesn't burn as hot but it gets the job done. when your done cutting just hook the bottle back up to the barbacue and relax.

 

A question for the experts...what kind of extiguisher would have been best around a disaster like this?? Halon?? What kind of designation, numbers, etc.
It's been a couple of years since a good OA torch safety thread on here...what else should we know about these things??

 

The quote of the day from that link - 'Flashback into the breached or fused cylinder is not only possible, but also likely. ' Sounds like you lucked out. Thanks for making this post so that we can learn things that may save our lives.

 

Glad to hear that you, your loved-ones, your car, and your garage are all right.

Great flame pics!
Did you happen to get a picture of the *****ies(TM) that you p***ed?

 

I didn't look at the pics close before, but is that a rubber bungee cord holding the tanks to a $20 HF hand truck?

That oxy tank can fall over, and knock the (fairly soft, br***) valve off and that tank can shoot through anything in it's path (walls, cars, people, etc).

Under the cir***stances it's lucky that they were in a rolling cart of some kind, but they need to be in a more secure cart, chained in, or secured to a stationary object, like a wall. That goes for any gas under that much pressure.

 

In the end i think it was "Fortunate, this happened. I hope everyone learns something from it as I have. "

Your taken the learning curve well and as you have seen it has given others a wake up call.

Acetylene is pretty close to liquid dynamite, The tanks have to have the porus filler and acetone in them to keep the molecules from colliding and going boom on their own.The sad thing is lots of welders die every year from working with oxy fuel setups.

You can transport them horizontal but it would be a couple of days before all the acetone would settle propperly. And for most saying you have to come up with a safe way to move them verticaly in and out of a truck is not going to happen.

The flash back arresters and check valves have been around for some time. Safety is just a habbit as dumb as it sounds.

One of the better tests i had to do was a simple ***embly, test, and then breakdown of an oxy-fuel set up. Do you know which hose is left hand thread? Just like the hamb there's lots of welding sites with good info. Before every use you should have a good routine down.

Check the tanks, check the regulators, check your hoses(or slag collectors as they can become), and finaly your torch.

If your fuel tank takes a key it sould be on it when in use-
Oxygen valves are special due to their pressure and need to be opened all the way. Fuel on the other hand should be just opened enough to work. Do not stand in front of the regulators when you open the tanks- all that br*** stuff inside will be a missle if the regulator fails( think what could happen with 2000 psi of oxygen gets loose) Do your homework and check the charts for your setup and the material you will be working with. Every manufacture has there own numbers and settings for there euipment- and 01 tip may not be what you think sometimes. Your buddies rule of thumb may not apply to your setup also. If your tanks are not in a cart and chained then the caps must be on them. If you are transporting them then the caps must be on them- it's a D.O.T. law.

As lame as it sounds a communtiy college cl*** one night a week makes for a huge difference and is hard to beat for the small cost compared to what a setup goes for. Plus they have good things like, huge shears, breaks and all the fancy stuff you can't afford but can play with.

Once you can work out a good routine for oxy-fule you can then worry about the number two killer- CONTAINERS! Take a bit and think up how many containers you can come in contact with-

Remeber anything that can hold something is a container, and you bring fire and oxygen to the equation when you weld.

In any case, your gonna be more informed and safe, and as a result some others are also thinking which is good.

So thanks to you and good luck-
danny

 

they make inline ck valves you can install at the torch end on your hoses that prevent backfires from traveling back up the hoses to the regulators. sounds like you had a backfire at the torch tip that traveled back up the hose and blew up the regulator. worth repeting here is something most everyone knows but for the 1 in 1000 that doestn NEVER lubericate the threads on the regulators as the ox rushing over the oil will cause it to exlode.