I thought you might chuckle while reading this

where I took another semester of ornamental welding. I like making stuff (s hit) for the yard. I'm building a 16' lifeguard stand now. I'm about a hal f-mile from the lake so I figure I'll just stick it over by the deer trail. Anyway, this semester the instructor was making bells out of oxygen bottl es. He would cut the top off and hang it by a string. You smack them and t hey ring for a long long time. So I was at the reclamation center (dump) a few weeks ago and I found a little oxy bottle just sitting there waiting f or me to show up. What a stroke of good luck I thought to myself. I was w aiting for this moment. So I took the lone bottle home and put it in my sh op until I got around to cutting her up. So eventually I get the thing on my chop saw and tear into it. I got a fairly good bite into it when the inv erter kicks off. We are off grid here so these things happen. I reset the breaker and head back up to the shop. I get ready to continue the bell ma king mission and get on the saw and pull the trigger. Suddenly an overwhelm ing feeling of doom crosses my mind. I shut the saw down and promptly let the oxygen out of the bottle. So for the grace of the good lord above I am hear to tell you this little tale.

I'm sure there is some kind of lesson here.

I do wonder what the heck would have happened if I had continued. I figure my chances of surviving would be about zero. The bottle would have shatter ed and my eyeballs would probably be a few miles away from the scene.

Reply to
PowerSupplyGuy
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Since oxygen doesn't burn I imagine all that might have happened would be that if you got the metal hot enough it might have started burning. But as soon as the abrasive wheel was disengaged the exothermic reaction probably would not be enough to keep the steel burning. Sorta like the way a cutting torch works. I don't think the cylinder would have ruptured. But it was a good thing you let the gas out anyway. Eric

Reply to
etpm

Bottle was full. I would like to run the test. A crash test dummy and a vi deo camera. Maybe those young men on tv would set it up.

I think there would have been a point reached before the saw went all the way through that the bottle would have failed. The 3000psi gas would come rushing out and tear the pinhole open from the inside. It would have gotte n quite windy and I believe the oxygen would have torn my face off.

Reply to
PowerSupplyGuy

The bottle no doubt had only about 2000 PSI in it. It's strange, but aluminum SCUBA cylinders are filled to 3000 while industrial steel cylinders are filled to 2100 PSI or so. I also doubt that the cylinder would fail, that is tear apart and release all the gas nearlt at once. High pressure cylinders rarely fail that way. Though they do sometimes and the results are spectacular. People do indeed get all torn apart. Nevertheless, 2000 PSI or so venting through a small slit could for sure blast stuff off of your skeleton. Or drive pieces of the abrasive wheel into your body. Deep. It's a good thing you stopped. I just don't think the cylinder would have failed explosively. I think the dummy and video camera would be a good way to test. Mythbusters shot an aluminum SCUBA cylinder with a 50 caliber bullet and it just vented. They were testing the "JAWS" scenario. Eric

Reply to
etpm

It depends where in the world you are as in the UK 3000psi or more

Reply to
David Billington

I wish we got 3000 PSI in our industrial cylinders. DIN type SCUBA cylinders are filled to 3500 PSI and it seems to me that 3000 PSI would be no big deal for industrial stuff. It would add 50% more time between gas fills. That would save a lot of money in transport costs too. I find it hard to believe it is a safety issue considering how SCUBA cylinders are treated by the general SCUBA diver. Eric

Reply to
etpm

google oxygen lance if you think the steel would extinguish- maybe when the gas pressure went below 2 lbs... these are used to cut steel and concrete, *underwater.* very exothermic and as long as you have enough oxy the steel will stay burning until its gone. if you had lighted that steel the bottle would burn the hole bigger, faster, and would burn the steel until the oxy was nearly gone. in cryogenic and VSA oxy plants safety practices provide ALL the oxy piping is double blocked, bleed, and air or nitrogen- purged before ANY hot work.

Reply to
42 electrician

google oxygen lance if you think the steel would extinguish- maybe when the gas pressure went below 2 lbs... these are used to cut steel and concrete, *underwater.* very exothermic and as long as you have enough oxy the steel will stay burning until its gone. if you had lighted that steel the bottle would burn the hole bigger, faster, and would burn the steel until the oxy was nearly gone. in cryogenic and VSA oxy plants safety practices provide ALL the oxy piping is double blocked, bleed, and air or nitrogen- purged before ANY hot work.

Reply to
42 electrician

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