Near miss!

Arc weld · Jun 12, 2013

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 · Jun 13, 2013

joshuabardwell said:
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 · Jun 13, 2013

FredH said:
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 · Jun 13, 2013

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.