Acetlyene Gas-Boom

kc custom

kc custom

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Apr 20, 2005
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A few years back in Wayne Goddards the Wonder of Knife Making he said a few words about a gas bang. The reason I'm doing this post is so pray to god this dosen't happen to anyone else. After 30 years of knifemaking I've still got all my appendages and think I'm fairly safe in my shop. I had just finished up soldering a frame for a slipjoint and shut off the torch and stuck the head in a partially open drawer cantilever like. Above it on the bench was a propane torch on low so I wouldn't have to use the striker for all the operations. I'm a pretty firm beleiver in before a mishap theres usually that split second that you know you shouldn't be doing what you're doing, in this instance I never had the thought. Fortunatley the phone rang 10 feet away and I answered it, thats when it happened holy geezus balls stuff came off the walls, coffee cups off hooks, the bottom of the drawer frame blown off a 2" thick maple workbench and down onto 2 air compressors, 3- 60 penny spikes pulled and it may be a day or two untill I've got the nerve to walk up to one of my grinders again. Enough gas built in the drawer and the above was the result. Yes I'm still in one piece and very thankful
Ken.
 
Geez. If that phone call was a telemarketer, I would've bought whatever they were selling based just on timing. Glad to hear you came out uninjured.
 
Acetylene is a fighteningly energetic inherently unstable gas. The reason your regulator has a red line at 15 PSI is that much above that it doesn't need oxygen to explode, just a good shock. it is actually dissolved in acetone in the cylinder to stabilize it. A kid ballon filled with oxy acetylenr mix and ignited has almost the explosive force and about 5 times the noise of a .357 cartridge. Glad you survived. are your ears still ringing?

-Page
 
Yikes! Thank your lucky stars, your guardian angel, your kinfolk in heaven and all the mighty powers that be...that you got that phone call! And, thank you for sharing this nearly tragic tale with us to remind us to stay mindful and on our toes.
 
sunshadow said:
Acetylene is a fighteningly energetic inherently unstable gas. The reason your regulator has a red line at 15 PSI is that much above that it doesn't need oxygen to explode, just a good shock. it is actually dissolved in acetone in the cylinder to stabilize it. A kid ballon filled with oxy acetylenr mix and ignited has almost the explosive force and about 5 times the noise of a .357 cartridge. Glad you survived. are your ears still ringing?

-Page
Click to expand...

I am living proof of the balloon thing. To make a long story short i light off a party size balloon filled with a mix of oxygen and Acetylene at arms length from my body and I must tell you i thought i was dead. A blinding white light a huge shock wave hit my chest and the sound was so loud that my ears could not handle it and blow out. i could not hear or see anything. my hair on my arms was goon my eye brows where melted and the hair on my head was singed. I was very very very stupid and am lucky to still be here. I eardrums where basically removed by the explosion and i had to get surgery to fix them. the doctor told me that the ear drum was gone with no trace. It shook the windows on my family's house that was 1.5 miles away and panicked my mom. So i know where you are coming from and am very glad you are ok. it is amazing how much punch this stuff has.
 
A guy I used to work with was working inside a drum style rock crusher. He dropped his torch over the side into the gravel beside the crusher and then got ready and struck up an arc with a stick welder. He said there was a horrific boom and the crusher drum shook (they weigh tons). What had happened was the torch was still on a bit and it flooded the gravel and when he fired up his rod sparks lit it off. Lucky for him he was in a armored drum because it blew a crater in the gravel pile. I constantly check to make sure I have shut off my bottles when I am done. Going into a shop full of gas and causing an ignition would be deadly. Even small volumes have a lot of power. Propane isn't all that great to have floating around free either.
 
Wow, I'm glad you're ok. We used to play with styrofoam cups in shop class when I was in highschool metal shop years ago. While it was stupid, it reinforced the dangerous nature of the acetalene.
 
Man, JT. You're lucky the overpressure didn't cause your brain to hemorrhage.


And Ken, we're all glad you're ok. Scary stuff, for sure. The most volatile thing I work with is propane, and I always carefully check to make sure it's off if I've been using the torch.

--nathan
 
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