Things that go bang in the night...

[Bixxer Bob]

Inspired by Rob's gas tank repair in the Steamer's section.

I've been lucky (or careful enough) not to have a big bang involving gas tanks, but have been caught out in other ways.  Anyone who's welded up an enclosed space using oxy-acetylene gear will know that unburnt acetylene builds up in the enclosed space and sooner or later, when the oxygen / acetylene mix is just right, goes pop - sometimes rather loudly.  It's not usually dangerous, but can make you jump if you're not expecting it.  Anyway,  many years ago we were having an air display at RAF Cosford and in preparation, we were putting up fences to keep the crowds in line.  My job was to make some post hammers for driving in the posts.  These consisted of a central steel tube about 18" long and 3" internal dia with a piece of half inch plate welded on either end - one blank, one with a 3" hole.  This was then finished off by welding a piece of 1" tube down either side to form a handle.  The whole thing was quite heavy and the idea was to put the whole thing over the end of the fence post then slide it up and down thus banging the post into the ground.  I'd almost finished the last one, in fact I was on the last weld when we had a power cut.  I wanted to get finished, so thought I'd do the last weld with gas rather than electric.  I stood the whole thing on the anvil, put the biggest nozzle on the torch and picked up the biggest welding rod I could find. With the dark goggles down and the weld going nicely I was somewhat startled to hear an enormous bang just as I was nearly finished.  In these situations you get startled by the bang, but instinctively know straight away what has occured so it's not frightening. Although, lifting the goggles up and blinking at the light, I was a little curious as to where the post hammer had gone.  I'd just had time to think "where's the post hammer" when there was an ENORMOUS clatter from the other side of the workshop followed by one of the other technicians running over and demanding to know why I was trying to kill him, chucking post hammers about.  I had been startled, but he was in a serious state of shock.   :shock:

Engineering, you either learn quick or die stupid :roll:

Feel free to add your own horror stories....

[Chris Canning]

Oddly enough I know two guys who have burned garages out while welding cars,oddly enough they within 2 doors of each other  :D .

[NeilD]

few years back, friend of mine who was working on my car phonned me  and said "good news - the welding is finished.. bad news - I set fire to your car" !  :shock:  actually not as bad as it sounded but gave him a bit of a fright - he was under the car in the inspection pit, holding the gas welding torch, he unclipped the metal petrol pipe to move it out of the way and it split as he did so  :shock: brown trouser time for him and, as the door of my car was open, the flame flashed up the side of the car and burnt the drivers seat and door panel... he got out from underneath quicky enough (he's not sure how!) to stop it spreading any further... trip to the scrap yard  for a ford capri interior in classy 70's black vinyl and nylon, and all was well again!  :D

[TigerTrax]

.... and poor Neil Young . . .
who 'retrofitted' a Lincoln Continental automobile to be a HYBRID. It caught on fire while being stored in a warehouse...... burned the warehouse down . . . .

[Timbox2]

Ok it didnt go bang but.............

Many years ago a mate on his CB250G5 and me on my GT250 were out at night when his bike just suddenly stopped, we pulled into the side of the road and I was just getting off my bike as I saw him flip the tank cap and pull his Zippo out of his pocket to spark up and peer inside, I can still hear myself screaming nooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nimrod11]

As I posted elsewhere, back when I was in the army, some dumb ass decided to cut an old oil drum in half to make a BBQ pit. When he hit it with a blow torch, it blew the lid off, killing a poor soldier who was just walking by. Damn silly way to die.

But being safe is not always the best either... Recently, a friend of mine was going to do some welding under his car and noticed a lot of leaves. He then decided to get the leaf blower but, when starting it up by pulling on the cord, the cord broke, his hand hit the wall and he broke it! Plaster for a month! A true hero, he got the weld done before going to hospital! :lol:

[Bixxer Bob]

Ok here's another:

I passed by the workshop one Sunday (still Cosford) and noticed one of my workmates doing some welding on an old Mini.  I popped in to see how it was going and complimented him on his tinted windows.  He replied, "I haven't got tint.... F**K ME it's on fire!!! :shock: "

Luckily in those days the fire extinguishers were BCF (can't remember what that stands for but they were banned under the Montreal Protocol along with all the efficient refrigerants) and were a one-shot affair.  You banged them on something hard to set them off - once they were going there was no stopping until it was empty - threw it inside and shut the door.  Fire was out in seconds.  No real harm done, a new dashboard and all was well again.

And another:

I had my own Ford Capri up on the ramps welding on a new sill.  I stepped back to admire my handywork and caught the PLASTIC   :shock:  fuel hose with the flame in doing so.  Fortunately the tank was brim full so nowhere for the flame to flash to, and the pressure meant flashing was unlikely anyway.  Problem was I now had a 10ft jet of flame blazing away.  First reaction was blind panic followed by thinking "I'm never gonna find an extinguisher big enough to deal with this"  followed by the return of rational thought.  I picked up a pair of Mole Grips (vice wrench I think some call them)  crimped the pipe flat, pressure dropped and I blew the flame out.  

I got a round of applause from the other techs for that one!!

[TigerTrax]

While in the Navy as an aircraft electrician myself and an engine mech were testing a plane at 'high power' . . . where you take a plane, chain it down, and run the engines up to full afterburner.... for testing purposes.

I was standing on a ladder 9 feet off the ground, in front of the 'idle' engine while the mech was in the cockpit. We were probably watching tail cone temps. He ran it up to almost afterburner.......
the engine sputtered, coughed, went BANG, and a 15 ft ball of fire blew out the front of the engine.....

I turned and jumped to a sand pit.... about 12 ft away...... I hit the ground and the mech hit it just about the same time!

No more fire. The engine just whined down. Then the mech says... that sometimes happens . . .but not like that!

[Bixxer Bob]

  I'm familair with static engine runnning (Tornado, Buccaneer, Vulcan (now that's impressive to see..) what aircraft was yours TT??


I saw similar on one of those TV shows that you send in your clips of idiot stuff a while back.  Two F***wits had bought an APU (auxiliary power supply - a kind of small jet engine used to provide power when the main engine's not running) and were fitting it to a trike.  They'd learned enough to get it running because the vid started with them parked on the drive and this thing whining up.  It spluttered, threw out a jet of white smoke, sputtered again, coughed, and then spat a 3ft ball of flame straight across the street which then enveloped a small fir tree on the neighbour's lawn.  The result was biblical - literally!!! Instant burning bush - gone in seconds!!  


But after I'd finished crying with laughter the gravity of what had just happened began to sink in...........  Imagine for instance if a small child had been wandering past :shock:

[TigerTrax]

We had North American Rockwell  A5A Vigilante; Heavy Attack & Recon.
Running 2 GEJ79's ... same as F4 Phantom. Pilot / BN and a bunch of fuel!

I would have liked to been around the Tornado.... I always liked that aircraft from what I've seen in pics.

FYI:
In one of my motorcycle rider classes I had LCDR Charles Lewis ( call sign SilverFox) . . .  he was in most of the flying scenes in the movie Top Gun.  He told me that in the scene where they 'buzzed' the tower on land ..... they actually set a dead pine tree on fire next to the tower! Cool!
You can see his name in credits on the movie.

[KuzzinKenny]

But after I'd finished crying with laughter the gravity of what had just happened began to sink in...........  Imagine for instance if a small child had been wandering past :shock:

Where can i get me one of these small jet engine thingys ??   :twisted:

KK

[Bixxer Bob]

Where can i get me one of these small jet engine thingys ??   :twisted:

KK

Not hard to find - mainly junkyards and govt surplus auctions....

Oh, and Ebay of course:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Garrett-GTP-30-67 ... 2a0b8883e6

Edit:  I found it, although it's not quite as I remembered it, they were in his back garden, about 2 mins 30secs in.  I saw this trike at Santa Pod dragstrip two yrs ago.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 157469251#

[John Stenhouse]

Not as spectacular but equally as stupid, was welding up an old Range Rover the LWB one with air suspension.

Heard from under neath, "here what's that hissing noise.....Hey this thing is sinking!"

Air suspension pipes ar plastic and burn easily when you try to weld through them

 :roll:

[KuzzinKenny]

Gutters !! they go bang in the night   when the 1ft of snow on the roof started makin it's way earthbound it took them with it    

i got loads O work, just nowt that pays me  :(

O well, as long as it never landed on anyone, eh !!  :roll:

KK

[Bixxer Bob]

Just go careful on that ladder Kenny,  I was sorting my guttering and fell 2 storeys onto my concrete drive in the mid 90s and got me a head injury; I was away with the pixies for 18 months.  Wife says I still am.... :roll: