Darwin award nominee right there. My condolences to those left behind but that was amazingly dumb.
mojo49,
Sep 6, 3:11am
I read the article. His mate kept saying, "no, no, no" and backed away fortunately. Very sad, a little knowledge. I have never in 50+ years heard of anyone attempting to mix oxy and acetylene in the same bottle. I see the pic of him is with a mig welder and it was muffler not a manifold. Author of the article could soon be up for an award as well.
skully13,
Sep 6, 4:00am
Umm Yeah nah.
reb53,
Sep 6, 4:56am
The picture is actually a TIG isn't it? I remember as a kid making acetylene bombs out of a plastic bag filled with oxygen and acetylene. As long as the mixture was a correct welding mixture you only needed to fill a bag to about the size of the average grapefruit, wrap some newspaper around it, light the paper and get well back. Helluva bang, using a lot more would give the outcome that occured.
mojo49,
Sep 6, 5:07am
Tig- Mig, quite right, but certainly not an oxy - acet rig. Maybe he was new to oxy-acet or had never been taught how to use it safely? Very nasty death from the article, Bits of him blown off, guts opened up. Thank goodness he died quickly. Bloody tough for his mate to witness that.
marte,
Sep 6, 7:20am
Acetylene self ignites at pressures over 15 PSI if there's Oxygen present.
What makes any of you think the pic was taken at the time or site of the explosion?
mojo49,
Sep 6, 7:42am
Nothing, just that the pic was not of an oxxy- acet kit and maybe he did not know much about that form of welding. Yiou do not weld modern exhaust steel with oxy acet anyway.
trogedon,
Sep 6, 7:46am
Terribly sad ;-( If he'd done a quick read in google about this it would've told him how dangerous it was. Even the fact that gas suppliers don't combine them would've been a clue.
thejazzpianoma,
Sep 6, 9:56am
For those curious, he was planning on using the oxy-acetylene to heat and bend the exhaust tubing not weld it. At least according to an article I read.
thejazzpianoma,
Sep 6, 9:57am
It wasn't, he was working on an exhaust for a Holden at the time of the accident.
marte,
Sep 6, 10:24am
Acetone or some other solvent, in a lint fibre or diatomaceous earth matrix. There's a pourus chunk of metal balls sintered together in the neck of the bottle, the acetylene bubbles out of the Acetone directly into this.
Running a near empty Acetylene bottle with a fresh Oxy bottle with the pressure turned up a bit high is dangerous too. The oxygen can backflow into the acetylene bottle.
A acetylene bottles got to be kept upright or some of the Acetone may flow out with the gas (long thin 'spits' of sparks in the flame) and leave a void where acetylene gas can form, or mix with back flowed Oxy. If they are moved, leave it still for 5+ minutes, if moved on a vehicle, 30 minutes.
emmerson1,
Sep 6, 10:28am
He might have been planning to use it as his shielding gas. He'd already done so many other things wrong.
1) mixed o2 with fuel 2) pressurised it into another cylinder 3) discarded regulator 4) modified connector / valves (how?)
That is tragic and now his mate's experience is about the worst non-wartime experience I have ever heard.
flack88,
Sep 6, 7:04pm
His mate had a bad feeling and bailed lucky for him,he would probably been a goner as well,3 kids poor buggers.
shakespeare6,
Sep 6, 7:06pm
They were working on extractors for an old Holden his mate was doing up - he was using the oxy set to heat and bent pipe
apollo11,
Sep 6, 7:39pm
A very tragic occurrence for all concerned. But yeah, sometimes people aren't smart enough to realise they aren't smart enough.
trogedon,
Oct 5, 5:47pm
The Dunning Kruger effect.
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