Acetylene tank safety?

Call your insurance company or look through your pollicy. Call your fire dept. It seems that NOBODY likes acetylene/oxygen rigs in homes....don't tell them about mine.

I don;t have a O/A setup, but do have three of the prestolite cylinders. I keep one with the torch hooked to it in my shop, but store the other two in the shed. The other day when I was at my favorite welding supply house, they had a picture on their bulletin board of a Ford F250 super cab that was literally ripped apart. It looked as bad as those Palestinian and Iraqi cars do after they use em as a car bomb. The fellow had a cylinder of acetylene laying on its side in the rear passenger section on the floor board. Made a trip of

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This same thing applies to propane tanks. I believe that fire departments/ins co.s/bldg. codes don't like portable tanks because they need to be changed periodically, and since they're changed by non-licensed individuals (i.e. not plumbers) there is always a chance for leakage at the unhooking point. I too flagrantly violate all of the above. Gary Brady Austin, TX

This agrees with the advice I got from my welding supply house. It's OK to lay an oxygen cylinder on its side during transport, but an acetylene cylinder must be shipped upright. There's liquid inside (acetone) in which the gas is dissolved. If the cylinder is on its side there are relief ports that can get plugged up.

As for storage in a house or apartment, I wouldn't do it. Keep it in a seperate garage, tool shed or even one of those sheet metal garden sheds, but beware of high temperatures like a truck cab parked in the sun.

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The problem with places like basements is the low air exchange rate that such places have. This allows the possible venting/leakage of the cylinder to acculumate to the point where a flame sets it off in a nasty explosion. Keep the cylinder upright and the system of storage inside the cylinder of the gas will keep on working right.

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I asked the fire marshal at work about this - for my B sized acetlyene tank. He said it was legal to have it in my basement shop - but...

I asked if he would have one in his basement at home, and he said 'no way.' So I exiled my torch rig to the (detached) garage. I think the problem is not so much pilot lights (as long as the tank valve is not leaking) but rather, what happens if there is a fire for some other reason.

Jim

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That is pretty silly. Plugged up with what? The media inside an acetylene cylinder is monolithic... nothing that could plug a... well, fusible plug. These plugs are nothing but a eutectic solder melting at 212 deg. F.

I wouldn't hesitate to transport an acetylene cylinder laying down, but it needs to sit upright for a few hours before use... to make sure the acetone has settled back to the bottom... where it belongs.

Here is pretty good reference:

I think the foto of the phord that detonated probably had some other issue behind what happened. It's real easy to say "it was the acetlene cylinder" but I don't think those go off just because they are set down on their side for a bit.

Jim

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No, it is actually FAR worse. We had a welder in town who picked up a new Acetylene tank from the welding supply on the hottest afternoon that summer. He left it in his black Camaro in the front drive, and went around the back to visit with his family in the back yard. There was essentially NOTHING left of the car. He called the bomb squad, and after about an hour, the FBI got the picture together, and said "you left a FULL Acetylene cylinder in a BLACK car in the HOT sun, and you call US about a bomb in your car? YOU IMBECILE! You blew up YOUR OWN car, and your whole neighborhood, too!"

Technically, the condition is called a deflagration, where a near explosive wave propagates through unstable chemical compounds. Acetylene contains a triple carbon bond, which contains a HUGE amount of chemical energy. Heat, high pressure, or sharp impacts can set off a deflagration, and develop pressures somewhere in the range of

I don't use Acetylene, but Propylene (supposed to be the equivalent of MAPP, which is a trademark.) It is supposed to be impossible for it to deflagrate, except possibly if the whole tank was incinerated. It is also a lot cheaper, the tank holds liquid, and therefore MANY hours of torching more than with Acetylene.

Jon

I think the reasoning is that a fusible plug is only supposed to have gas at its base. If it has acetone, a liquid, it won't melt under the same amount of heat. Like trying to solder a copper pipe that's full of water.

Robin,

Heres a short video on bottled gas safety......

You can easily solder a copper pipe that is full of water if you have enough heat and an open system.....

Yeah. MORE heat. What I said.

Have you actually tried?

My experience is that the "enough heat" will burn the flux to the point where you can't a decent joint by the time the copper is hot enough to melt solder.

Hmmm.. Interesting.. I'd say you could weld the copper pipe but no way on the soldering unless you kept the heat on it until the water was gone.. A good example: try boiling water in a paper cup with a propane torch. Very easy to do. The cup won't burn where there is water contacting the interior of the cup. "Solder" a pipe full of water.. I want what you are smoking.. lol..

PJ

My buddy watched a plumber closely one time. If doing solder repair on existing lines, shove a piece of bread into the pipe. It keeps the steam from polluting the solder joint long enough for solder to set. It will flush out rather quickly when pressurizing the system.

mj

This is INCREDIBLY dangerous. A few plumbers are killed every year by steam explosions when they heat the wrong pipe by accident. It can even happen in systems that are open. Sometimes water sits in a low point, and then enough collects to develop a siphon and run down to where the plumber has heated a pipe to 800 F or more (especially if he's brazing). Even if there is a full-diameter opening somewhere in the system, the large volume of steam created can build enough pressure to rupture copper water pipe and cause a horrible death.

I'm sure there must be an OSHA web page somewhere about this hazard.

Jon

he he, that bread is pretty versatile stuff, I know a panel beater that uses it to stuff into the rust holes in your car before he bogs over it with bondo. jj

Now IIRC acetylene is heavier than air so a leak allows a cellar to fill with the gas. When the level reaches the pilot light, WHOOSH. Keep the bottle in a well ventilated building above ground and there's no problem.

John