A fun day on the ranch...........

A while ago, I built a gopher killer device. It puts propane and oxygen down a hole, and then ignites it with a spark from a stun gun.

I have a sequence of firing it. I have two spark arrestors in each line, plus the ones in the torch. I have made the trocar long, with a terminal valve I turn off before hitting the buzzer.

Well, today, I got out of sequence. I hit the igniter with the flow going, and it did what it was supposed to do. It lit. And then, I had a Roman candle at the end of the trocar. I immediately shut off the gas flow. But, the end of the trocar and the electrical lead was burning, and shutting off the fuel flow does not shut off an oxygen fed fire, as any welder knows. I was reassured by my triple level redundancy, and shut off the O2. Fire out.

What a pretty red flame, though. It was so loud, it sent the paint pony in the pasture adjacent fleeing and whinnying.

But it brings me to my point. When dealing with any welding equipment, layer safety so that if something happens, it doesn't domino on you. I've seen a lot of hose fires and hose incidents, but when the proper steps are taken, it's just a few anxious moments instead of running and ducking.

Now, to go get another electrical contact and fix my rig. Minor, really.

Me and the gophers have been having fun lately. Seems fall has stimulated the little bastards.

Now, if I could just find a way to quit setting frays on fire when I weld ................

Steve

"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers."

What a riot!

Some years ago I had a nest of ground hogs undermining everything at the shop. Holes under shop, holes under pile of pallets, hole under snowplow...

After seeing one go in her hole I took a 50# Co2, set the regulator to

35CFH covered the hole slipped the hose down a couple of feet and turned it on (I also covered all other known holes).

About 4 hours later I took the weight off the cover where the tank was and there was momma, above the hose with her nose near the surface... She was a little slow but managed to turn around and go back down???

I drove two stakes through the hole about 18 inches from the opening and put the cover back on after pulling the hose back to near the surface. Shut everything down about 2 hours later and removed the covers the next day. Got-R-Done.

I reasoned that putting the critters "to sleep" was more humane that what my neighbors were doing, one was killing by drowning them, and the other bow-hunting in the mornings. Larry (the bow-hunter), shot a big one near his sandblast building, the bugger dove for his hole and broke the arrow working back into his hole. The guys at his shop thought he was going the tear the metal building down....

Matt

Reminds me of Bill Murray in "Caddyshack".

V

He's my ideal, and that movie is a classic. Rodney is Rodney in that movie.

Steve

Matt,

Suffocation by CO2 is about as cruel as you can get. Physical reaction to CO2 buildup in the body is excruciating chest pain, akin to angina, and panicky urge to breathe. You can try it by putting a plastic bag over your head. Oxygen deprivation, on the other hand is a painless (even pleasant) way to go, as has been demonstrated in the deaths of pilots due to cockpit depressurization at high altitude. If you want a humane extermination, use nitrogen in the hole to displace air (which is about 20% oxygen).

Take the nitrogen suggestion and flood the hole with liquid nitrogen...

Dead is dead, and once they undermine my shop, garage, house, yard, driveway, whatever, I really ain't too sympathetic about how they get to heaven.

Personally, I use concussion from an explosion, and subsequent anoxia or tunnel collapse. Sometimes a wave of fire that shoots out of the tunnel like a rocket motor from unignited fuel that catches a secondary spark.

Maybe you could bore them to death, too. Never tried that.

Steve

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Personally, I think they need to suffer. Hold their eyes open with tiny toothpicks. Force them to read the political discussions in this newsgroup. BWA HA HA HAAAA! Vernon

The closest I ever came to dying involved nitrogen.

I was installing an electron beam lithography system. The instrument itself was located in a five foot pit below floor level so that the electron beam column could clear the ceiling. I had turned on the LN to fill the cold trap on the diffusion pump. I wasn't paying attention and because of leaks, all the LN was boiling off and filling the pit instead of filling the trap and stopping. I noticed that I was getting sleepier and sleepier until finally, half asleep, I pulled myself out of the pit into fresh air and revived.

As you said, no idea I was impaired, other than being sleepy when I should not have been.

My daughter is a scientist and has gotten the "how your dad almost died from N2 speech".

That would seem to be a perfectly humane way to do executions. I'm against cruelty. Except to gophers. V

Liquid nitrogen is not readily available to the common hobbyer. Bottled nitrogen is. Nitrogen is one of the most dangerous gases there is on an occupational hazard level. The person overcomes has no idea. I am familiar with this gas from my commercial diving days, and the increased partial pressure of nitrogen at hyperbaric levels. Common translation, 80% nitrogen ambient pressure (sea level regular air) quickly gets to a medically hazardous level underwater. At 185', surely, and less for other individuals, it has a narcotic effect very similar to NO (nitrous oxide, or laughing gas). The sinister part about this is that the effected person has no idea they are impaired. In situations where persons entering confined spaces with 100% Nitrogen, they became impaired, then unconscious within seconds. Rescuers the same. Odorless, colorless, tasteless. Necessary and a building block of organic compounds, present throughout the living organism, essential to organic chemistry, yet deadly by itself. Yes, nitrogen would be a good gopher killer. Some ranchers and farmers who have it prefer anhydrous ammonia! They hate gophers that bad.

Steve

Personally, I think they need to suffer. Hold their eyes open with tiny toothpicks. Force them to read the political discussions in this newsgroup. BWA HA HA HAAAA! Vernon

By Gawd, you are a cruel man. The tiny toothpicks are nothing, but the political discussions ..............

You might as well take them to an Obama campaign speech, you cruel bastard!

Steve ;-)

Hi Steve,

Re: Suffocation by CO2 is about as cruel as you can get.

I guess that shows what I know about groundhog extermination... S**t, now I feel bad.

Matt

Hi Steve;

Better wipe my eyes, I just responded to jwdoylejr and addressed you?

LOL, after your description of the results using a fuel gas method, I can imagine a screaming critter about 30 foot in the air with fire all over its butt!

Matt

Of course it is. I get mine at the same Airgas branch I get my other gasses at.

In the context of handling LN2 at home and using it to kill gophers, there is virtually no risk.

"Had" gophers? Definitely not, if you are referring to "the biblical sense". But we have a farm. And it has gophers. V

That would seem to be a perfectly humane way to do executions. I'm against cruelty. Except to gophers. V

I can see you've never had gophers.

Steve

"Vernon" wrote

"Had" gophers? Definitely not, if you are referring to "the biblical sense". But we have a farm. And it has gophers. V

How do YOU deal with them?

Steve

Steve, We haven't yet figured out what to do. I'm told there are some sub-sonic, solar powered sticks you can use to drive 'em out of town. But rattle snakes work. Otherwise, we just tolerate 'em. However, my wife was steamed that they ate her pumpkin plant roots. So we will probably reach the point of "no more mister nice guy". V

Steve, We haven't yet figured out what to do. I'm told there are some sub-sonic, solar powered sticks you can use to drive 'em out of town. But rattle snakes work. Otherwise, we just tolerate 'em. However, my wife was steamed that they ate her pumpkin plant roots. So we will probably reach the point of "no more mister nice guy". V

REPLY:

Let me make a suggestion. Make a trocar (looks like an IV needle). Two foot long, as some burrows can be that deep. A piece of conduit is perfect.

90 on one end, 45 on the other. Find a dowel that will fit inside. Make a probe out of 3/16 or 1/4" steel rod with a 90 bend or a T welded on it.

Probe for the tunnel with the T about to feet from the mound. When you find a tunnel, pull the probe out, and insert the trocar with a twisting action. Do this on the vertical. Do it carefully so you don't collapse the tunnel. Put the trocar in until you can find the bottom of the tunnel. Then lift it up about 2". Insert the dowel to clear the trocar. Insert a piece of bubble gum flavor of the type that is approx 1/4" x 1" long. Insert the dowel to make sure the gum drops out of the bottom of the trocar. USE THE GUM THAT CONTAINS XYLITOL. Trident is a common type. Xylitol is being offered in a lot of brands now and is printed in big letters. Don't use the regular flat sticks, as they won't fit through the trocar without a hassle. DO NOT ALLOW DOGS TO EAT THE GUM, AS IT CAN BE FATAL, AFFECTING THEIR KIDNEYS. They won't eat it if it's placed underground like this.

This does work, but since I've made this other contraption, I'm having fun with it. Sometimes when I don't want to drag all that stuff over there (it's on a little 4' x 4' trailer and the )2 bottle is 150#), I'll get out the bubble gum. The blaster is infinitely more fun and has its exciting episodes as mentioned. It's just fun blowing up stuff.

The Xylitol is poisonous to them, and the solution is reasonably priced.

Yer welcome.

Steve