torch safety

Taylortractornut · Jun 24, 2012

I have a friend thats a logger. He has 2 step sons that are the real life beavis and butthead. He gave them jobs this summer in their shop fixing flats and learning bassic maintenance. He usually has a shop man thats usually there to teach them and watch them. He had an emergency and had to go get a truck out of the road. The duo had a few more tires to patch up and he thought that would keep them busy. Well it didnt go that way. They were pulling a rim spacer off and it was bent so they decided to impress the shop man and take the torch and split it. They cut it off and during the process the torch tip started to bypass around the seat nut. It was onfire and they threw the torch into the leak checking trough. Its a 55 gallon drum split long ways to check tires for leaks.

Well it put the fire out but the bubbles it made while the head was under the soapy water caught their attention. They thought enough to turn the bottles off and ad the get the torch head out. But then they they recognized the danger of the bubbles. Instead of calling the shop man and getting help they decide so burn it off. They admitted to that but they werent clear on how. We did find a broom handle with a burnt grease rag on it. THey were inthe open sop door when it went off. Knocked one out of his shoes and into the retread pile and the other we dodnt know what happened to him. THe Foreman was headed back to the shop on that road when he heard the noise over his truck motor. He found them dazed out in the front of the shop. He got them to the hospital and they checked out with concussions and ear ringing and both of them had blacked eyes. THe foreman was taking it hard about leaving them but the step dad gave them a trial run on their own.

I looked at his shop today and it wa a mess, blew out a te smaller shop and office windows and all the papers off the bulletin board and all the dirt daubers out of the rafters. The explosion also emptied the tire check tank. My friend said first thing Monday is hes going to get out their shop safety exams he issued before they work and let them explain themselves and pay for the shop damage.

Shield Arc · Jun 25, 2012

That's not so bad, hey they're kids.:laughing:
I was on a job that had two derricks working, I was on one derrick, the other derrick was digging. The Crane operator, and deck engineer would fill the huge black garbage bags with oxygen and acetylene, with a frayed extension cord inside the bag. The deck engineer would tie the garbage bag to the clam shell bucket and the operator would lower the bucket into the water. Then the deck engineer would plug the extension cord into the welder. Once all the fish would float to the surface the deck engineer would go get them. Well one morning something went wrong, and the garbage bag went off on the deck, knocked both guys out cold! But the deck engineer was fueling all the equipment on deck, don't really know how many gallons of diesel went into the bay. But the Coast Guard wasn't happy! Now these two guys had at least 20-years each in the trade.

Ed of all trades · Jun 26, 2012

I worked with two brothers that did the garbage bag stunt out back of their fathers shop. set it in a poke berry bush, pored a gas trail to it and lit the gas. blew out two windows and knocked everything off of the shelves that covered the back wall of the shop. DADDY WAS NOT HAPPY.

Taylortractornut · Jun 26, 2012

Well we found out more to the story. They saw the bubbles and lit them then decided to try for a bigger bang. They let it buble up a few feet then got scared then lit it with an either stream. But still stood in the door way. I told dad about this and he told me when the Bonds Company had the hot mix plant at Burnsville MS that one of the employees was board and up on a tower over the in take for the kiln burner. He was watching cardboard and other things get sucked into it so he did the bag trick. Dad said the owner fired him but rehired him the next week. Dad was on a dozer about 2 miles from the plant and heard it.

I saw the 2 today and they look like racoons.