Explosive air gas mix

And good insurance...

Rodenator.com has the commercial version of it for nearly two grand. I figured it should be something I can build for a lot less. I have lots of local interest from ranchers, but have not had the time to devote to getting it right. I think I'll get that piece of sch 40 pipe, and do some controlled experiments. All I did yesterday was mess with it for about an hour.

Go to Rodenator.com and watch the videos. Pretty impressive, but two grand is spendy if I can do it for a lot less.

Steve

That's an awfully good point. I have said a lot about how easy this is, and having pulled some practical jokes with it myself. But I can see a lot of liability in using it to pursue gophers. If someone allows the gas to flow more than just a few seconds, the results could be real unpredictable.

If the gophers have hollowed an large area under a sidewalk, a footing or perhaps under a home with a crawl space, someone could easily be killed. Even flying debris, like a marble sized rock or something, could suddenly become a bullet. There just seems like too many unpredictable things that could wrong.

50 or 60 amp? That's starting current.

It was a commercial charger large enough to be mounted on wheels. It looked about like a 200 amp welder today. I think that was before they advertised "starting chargers". But starting chargers run in the 200 to 300 amp range. Things have changed a lot in the 40 years since this happened.

My dad's got one of those big chargers. Its almost as heavy as a cracker box welder too. We used it in the hardware store to charge customer car batteries before load testing and replacment if bad.

It could get entertaining real quick if somebody brought in a shorted battery.

-snip-

Remember propane is heavier than air- so its natural tendency is to go down the hole. Might that be your ignition problem? spark above the 'puddle'?

I hope you get to tell us about it when you finally get detonation.

Jim

That is what I thought. But I still couldn't get it to fire off the gas contained in a box. Probably lucky for me. It seems like a pretty simple principle.

In messing with it, I came to realize a few things. After trying to kill off some gophers with other means, it takes a little learning curve to figure out how to dig out their tunnel system and interpret it.

I also figured that the sparking device should be shielded so when you force it into the tunnel or bury it, you don't kill your spark.

I figured that one needed to put the gas input in the tunnel, then seal it good so that the gas would be forced down where the gophers are.

It all seems to be simple things, but as of yet, I don't have it working.

Pictures here. Suggestions welcome.

I'm going to dig out my stun gun, about the size of a pack of cigarettes, and try that.

Steve

As stated in original postings, this is for ranch use, not near buildings, or on public property. Not near any gas, power, or water lines. Anyone messing with this stuff in a confined space, such as a crawl space deserves whatever happens. Anyone who would use this close to a house would be your garden variety idiot.

Life is a gamble every time you roll out of bed. Mine starts when I either step on or do not step on my Corgi. Corgis are cranky when they get stepped on. They are notorious biters, although the AKC says "they have a tendency to nip." Bullshit, they bite and bite hard. From there, it's a minefield to the coffee pot. Then all that dangerous hot water. Slippery kitchen floors. Electricital circuits. I do not know how I make it day to day, or how I have lived so long. I've handled all kinds of welding stuff, including underwater. I've placed and detonated explosive charges. Once I even challenged my mother in law. I had an eight and a half hour heart surgery with my heart taken completely out of my body.

One either lives life or stays in a closet with a keyboard and thinks of things that go bump in the night.

Steve

Traps work well. Cheap, effective and no consumables. Exploding tunnels leave a huge mess to clean up.

I taped a breadbag over the end, and couldn't get it to pop. From some of the stories others tell here, that was probably a good thing, as a couple of quarts of volume would have given a pretty good pop. I KNOW the apple box would have been loud.

So, I'm rethinking this, and moving my container to a piece of sch 40 pipe so I can control the direction of force when it does click.

I'm busy right now with some remodeling, and don't get to tinker as much as I want. Do we ever?

Steve

Have you considered pumping auto exhaust down the hole?

I have traps, and haven't caught anything yet. And then you trap one out of a hole, and it's like a vacancy sign goes out on gopher Internet. That's supposed to be one of the benefits of exploding the tunnels. To keep another rodent from just moving in.

Time will tell. Either I'll get this working and it will be a success, so so, or a dud. In the meantime, it gives me one more thing to putz with.

Steve

Yes, actually, I have an ATV that would be easier getting in and out of these pastures with. But that still leaves the tunnel. I don't want to just do this on my two acres, but hire out and try to make some side cash.

Steve

Steve

I'm doing a similar thing except in a special effects environment. I use a torch body with a heating tip that I cut the last 3" or so off of. This fits nicely into a compression fitting. The compression fitting is threaded into a piece of 6" extra strong pipe that is roughly 36" long. One end of the pipe is capped, the other has a 6" x 4" reducer. The gas flows (propane and oxygen) into this chamber and is ignited making one heck of a boom. I use an exciter from a junked out military 5 ton for the spark. The exciter is part of the manifold heating system. The safest and easiest way to get a good mix of the propane and oxygen is using the torch with a heating/welding mixer and tip combo. My propane is maxxed out on pressure and the oxygen is adjusted to make the best boom. Too little or too much oxygen gives me no booms.

Good luck

Shawn

I had thought of that before, but didn't want to spend the $$ for a tip, then cut it off. At the time, there weren't any on ebay. I think what I am going to end up doing is buying a torch body, and a used tip, then cut the tip as you describe. I don't want to be switching one back and forth as I am doing now from my cutting rig. Bodies are reasonable on ebay, and a used one is good enough for what I want. I have been watching hock shops, but they just get the cutting torches, and they want way too much for them. (I don't know how they come to the prices they sometimes come to. Sometimes way to high, sometimes way to low. On a lucky day, you catch a low price.)

I can't seem to get any large sch 40 pipe right now, but have some 3" x 3" x .120" tube in various lengths, so will rig up a combustion chamber that can double for my Fourth of July and New Year's Eve cannon. If it's loud enough, that is. I want something that will really rock my little valley. It should be interesting, as I can wheel it inside before FD shows up. But this is such a small place that I can just go the previous morning and leave a note with a dozen donuts, and all will be well. I love small towns.

Steve

SteveB wrote: ...

If you can't smell propane, you aren't getting any/enough. You're using a tee as a mixer: if the O2 goes straight through and the propane comes in from the side, you should get some venturi effect to "pull" the propane in. If it's plumbed differently, try it this way.

Someone's comment about flashback was right on - you do have an arrestor at the business end of the hose, don't you?

It's my $.02 & I'm entitled to it, Bob

The place that you need it & the only place you *really* need it, is the furthest downstream point where you have *mixed* gas. Consider that the gases mix & then travel a single hose to the burrow, where they are ignited. That single hose contains an *explosive* mixture & the explosion *will* travel back the hose to the mix point. Except in unusual circumstances it will not travel back further that that.

In a torch it doesn't travel back to the mixing chamber because of the velocity of the mix. Not so in your case.

Bob

I have arrestors at the regulators, but am going to add two more where the hoses connect to the final mechanism whatever that is.

Steve