Dangers of Acetylene and Oxygen Bottles

[ultrarunner]

I think I've mentioned it before, but many years ago, I decided I wanted a small gas welding/cutting rig so I went shopping for an oxygen/acetylene rig. Fortunately, perhaps, instead of box stores and such, I went to a real welding supply company. The salesman asked where I was going to store the rig. At the time, I lived in town in a house on a city lot, and told him it would kept in the attached garage. He recommended going with a Mapp gas/oxygen rig instead of acetylene. He said if there was ever a leak, you would not smell acetylene before it reached explosive levels, but that you would smell a Mapp gas leak before it became dangerous. I bought the Mapp gas/oxygen rig from him and never regretted it.

Very good safety point about Mapp Gas...

 

[dave1949]

A few years ago I had the air bottle (88 cu ft 4500psi), that I use for airgun shooting, refilled. Rather than have it rattling around in the trunk, I put it on the passenger bucket seat.
There was, doing 65mph on the interstate when the o-ring seal blew. There was a loud bang, fog filled the car and the bottle began dancing.
It's a wonder that I didn't swerve off the road and I'm lucky that I wasn't in traffic. I'm even luckier that I was driving my convertible, top up, as the sudden increase in air pressure might have burst my eardrums.

That would scare the bejesus out of me. Glad you didn't wreck.
Dave.

 

[Scooby074]

Point me to the last thread that covered this ?

Will, I searched and cant find the one i was looking for. I even searched through my past posts. I know for a fact that i posted in at least one regarding the fact that my local supply wont load up an enclosed vehicle.

Suffice it to say, just be careful out there. Common sense i know but theres alot of power in those tanks.


Moss, that pic is from the thread i linked too. I understand the explosion happen in australia.

WarrenF: despite the sarcasm in your post, Im not advocating banning all torches. Did i even say that? Nope., I have torches and use them daily at work and home. I also understand the risks. The pictures speak volumes about what can happen when gasses are stored without proper ventilation.

Point is, theres a major danger there, with both Acetylene or the more common propane, that some people who havent sat through the training fail to understand.

TBN attracts lots of first timers, many of whom havent had training in metal working and gas safety. This thread was posted for them. And to remind those with experience what can happen if we get complacent.

 

[MossRoad]

Moss, that pic is from the thread i linked too. I understand the explosion happen in australia.

Thanks. Sounds like they left it on in the van overnight. That could happen in a barn, building, shop, etc... too.

 

[Transit]

A while ago I posted a U-tube video showing how a gas cylinder becomes a rocket when the gas valve is broken off.
BTW, always store a cylinder up-right, changed and with the protective cap ON. And that goes double in transport.

 

[Bird]

A while ago I posted a U-tube video showing how a gas cylinder becomes a rocket when the gas valve is broken off.

I don't remember the U-tube video, but in 1966 (plus or minus a year), I was at the scene of a fire at a gas cylinder place in Dallas. Firemen were lying in a borrow ditch spraying water at the building. I was behind a building across the railroad tracks from the burning building, peeking around the corner of the building. As I was driving to the location, there was an explosion and a huge fireball rolled up into the sky. And while I was watching from behind the building, several gas cylinders came out of that building like rockets. One broke power lines over my head and was still gaining altitude the last time I saw it. I don't know how many of the cylinders had the valves broken off or how many just blew the valves off due to the heat in the fire, but it was a spectacular and scary sight. It was unbelieveable that there were no serious injuries.

 

[Bird]

BTW, always store a cylinder up-right, changed and with the protective cap ON. And that goes double in transport.

I agree, but did you know that before tailgate lifts were invented, oxygen and acetylene bottles were routinely hauled lying down and stacked like pipe on trucks? From 1945 to 1951 my Dad's job was selling and delivering welding supplies in southern Oklahoma to mechanics, welders, and blacksmiths. He also delivered oxygen to hospitals. He drove a flatbed truck with cans of carbide sitting upright across the front of the bed, welding rod, torches, and such in storage boxes mounted under the edge of the bed, and two rows of oxygen and acetylene bottles stacked on the bed and chained down.

 

[MossRoad]

I agree, but did you know that before tailgate lifts were invented, oxygen and acetylene bottles were routinely hauled lying down and stacked like pipe on trucks? From 1945 to 1951 my Dad's job was selling and delivering welding supplies in southern Oklahoma to mechanics, welders, and blacksmiths. He also delivered oxygen to hospitals. He drove a flatbed truck with cans of carbide sitting upright across the front of the bed, welding rod, torches, and such in storage boxes mounted under the edge of the bed, and two rows of oxygen and acetylene bottles stacked on the bed and chained down.

Which way were the valves facing? I ask because I distinctly remember taking a welding class back in the early 80s and the instructor told is to always have the valve facing sideways instead of forwards or backwards when HAULING GAS CYLINDERS IN YOUR CAR TRUNK so it blows out the side of your car when you get rear ended and doesn't come through your rear seat or go through the car behind you!!! Then we watched a movie where they launched a gas cylinder across a parking lot and through a concrete block wall. Then we all agreed that hauling them around in car trunks is probably a bad idea. Good teacher!

 

[Bird]

Which way were the valves facing?

Of course the ends of the cylinders had to point straight toward the front (cab) of the truck or toward the rear, but I don't suppose he ever put one on the truck without the cap on it. And back then, I don't guess anyone had a two-wheeled dolly to move cylinders around either. He'd just tilt a cylinder over and spin it to move it into or out of buildings. He could walk along spinning a cylinder in each hand; i.e., move two at a time. But he once told me a guy at the National Cylinder Gas place in Oklahome City walked 3 at a time; one in each hand and one in the crook of his elbow. Dad said he just never learned to do three himself. Instead of just a straight lift, dad would have a bottle standing beside the truck, would pull the top toward himself at the same time he put one knee into cylinder and would flip it up onto the truck bottom first.

We lived at Ardmore and I guess Dad worked a different route each day. On Wednesdays, he worked his way up old U.S. 77 to Oklahoma City, left the truck overnight at National Cylinder Gas for them to remove the empties and pull full cylinders on the truck and he spent the night at the Kincaid Hotel, then worked his way back home Thursday.

 

[Scooby074]

Did anybody see the Mythbusters where they sent the Oxygen bottles through a block wall?