Near miss!

[Dr Dave]

Coming up to a stoplamp, a young man, ran a yellow light, turning left onto a busy 4 lane residental street. Out flew a full sized compressed gas cylinder, with a regulator and hose. The regulator broke off and was leaking gas from the fitting, nitrogen?

We stoped and blocked trafic, till he turned around to gather his hose and regulator, he stood there looking at the tank, then he closed the valve and loaded the tank. He was darn lucky the valve did not break off, and kill some one!

Dave

 

[/pine]

I once heard about some vandals that broke into a welding supply shop and were taking the argon and mixed gas cylinders and knocking the valves off with a sledge hammer and launching the bottles into an adjacent retention pond...!

 

[FredH]

Myth busters did that one on purpose . Had the set up in a big hanger type building . Barely had the big double doors open with cylinder on ground and a sledge type drop knife come down when tripped . Seems like they had a couple of issue's at first , Then " Boom " , hit it perfectly . They had made a cinder block wall inside and cylinder went right through that one and hit back wall and damaged it . Punched a hole through their block wall like it was not even there . The high speed cameras were awesome .

Fred H.

 

[/pine]

I also once heard about a diver that had a scuba tank in the trunk of his car that got rear-ended...the tank (supposedly) went through the side of his car...completely through another parked car and embedded itself in a block wall across a sidewalk...!

BTW, FWIW...I heard both these stories long before the show you cited was on...

 

[crazyal]

At work we have to take safety classes. One of them is gas cylinder safety that includes visual images of damage caused by the valve breaking off. Surprisingly it was several years before someone realized that when transporting cylinders on the cylinder cart the safety cap needed to be screwed in place.

 

[Arc weld]

Just last week there was an explosion of a plumbers acetylene cylinder in the trunk of a guys car. It was in BC somewhere but made the news. No one was injured but the car was a right off. There must have been a small leak and the owner figures his remote car starter set the "bomb" off. That's why it's not a good idea to carry a cylinder in an enclosed space.

 

[brt]

In my early days as a firefighter (I just retired after 37 years of full-time career) I was on a church fire in winter and fell head-over-heels down the iced over concrete steps while wearing a breathing apparatus. Back then the bottles were steel rather than today's wrapped fiberglass. All I could think of while tumbling was that cylinder neck hitting something and sending me spinning like a rocket man. The bottles were 2200 PSI. Luckily the only thing that happened was some bruised joints.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Are you really supposed to put the cap on the cylinder when moving it in a cart? I would be surprised to learn that most welders put the cap on when moving their machine from station to station. I thought the cap was only for when it was unsecured, and a cart counted as secured.

 

[JCByrd24]

Has anyone ever gotten a bottle at exchange with no threads for a safety cap? My FIL brought one hope last time he filled it. I thought for sure that would be illegal/ non-compliant. Bottle almost looked like the threads had been turned off in a lathe.

 

[Ken45101]

Has anyone ever gotten a bottle at exchange with no threads for a safety cap? My FIL brought one hope last time he filled it. I thought for sure that would be illegal/ non-compliant. Bottle almost looked like the threads had been turned off in a lathe.

I assume that the safety caps are required to be secured while on the highway. Without threads, I wouldn't consider it "secure".

Of course, just because something doesn't follow regulations doesn't stop some people.

 

[Arc weld]

The real small cylinders don't have caps. On a cart in a shop you don't have to put the cap on to move them as long as they have a safety chain so they can't fall over.

 

[crazyal]

Are you really supposed to put the cap on the cylinder when moving it in a cart? I would be surprised to learn that most welders put the cap on when moving their machine from station to station. I thought the cap was only for when it was unsecured, and a cart counted as secured.

Others may say differently but yes. At some point in time you will have to get the tank onto and off of the cart. While doing it you could loose control of the cylinder and have it fall. Also while the carts are pretty secure they can tip over. Most people don't do it but if you go on a job site or a large company they may enforce it, I know the company I work for does. The simple fact is they are worried about someone getting hurt, law suits, insurance agents showing up, and OSHA. It's much better to be overly safe.

 

[hosspuller]

Myth busters did that one on purpose . Had the set up in a big hanger type building . Barely had the big double doors open with cylinder on ground and a sledge type drop knife come down when tripped . Seems like they had a couple of issue's at first , Then " Boom " , hit it perfectly . They had made a cinder block wall inside and cylinder went right through that one and hit back wall and damaged it . Punched a hole through their block wall like it was not even there . The high speed cameras were awesome .

Fred H.

Here's a link to the video >> MythBusters: Air Cylinder Rocket - YouTube

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Back in the day I was working on my hobby stock and had changed out my acetylene bottle on that Saturday morning. Mid afternoon I realized the bottle was leaking around the fitting going INTO the bottle and I couldn't fix it. I had to burn off the whole bottle, 140 cf. Acetylene is heavier than air and will settle in low spots. Striking an arc and having the floor go "poof" wasn't on my wish list.

My first welding involved working lead at the telco in the late sixties and early seventies in so Cal. One of our entertainments at work was turning on the acetylene and letting it flow into an ant hill. Some ant hills go mighty deep. We got an official no-no letter after someone broke a sidewalk doing that.

My acetylene bottle is in a locked bin on the truck. The floor of the bin is expanded metal for a very good reason.

 

[farmerhulio]

simply put god was smiling that day