Disposable gas canisters

Discussion in 'General foundry chat' started by Peedee, Sep 12, 2019.

  1. Peedee

    Peedee Silver

    I don't want to start an off topic debate but the following might be relevant to some here.

    Our local pub has a large kitchen and the chefs often use disposble blow torch setups (creme brulee and such) the cans of butane are around a litre in volume.

    Yesterday the main chef came running out of the litchen shouting gas and them boom. He'd apparantly turned the torch off but managed to leave gas escaping, went off the other section to do somethign else without realising.

    I saw the aftermath first hand (my daughter works there) and I would NEVER have believed the destruction one little can of butane could acheive.

    The windows including the frames were blown clean out of two wall the lath and plaster ceilings blown up and out. One ancient oak structural beam lifted out and the tile roof on the floor above completely destroyed, tiles everywhere. The living room at the upstairs front of the pub has a huge crack in the brick wall top to bottom. All the equipment in the lvery large kitchen totalled.

    I 've always treated those compact torches as toys but my view on them has now changed dramatically!
     
  2. Jason

    Jason Gold

    I'd love to see some photos of this one!

    Watch this video of what happens when a butane lighter goes in the soup! Obviously, the soup must have been heated below and caused the lighter to go apeshit.
     
  3. I wonder if you could fuel a furnace with cigarette lighters fed into the furnace magazine style?.

    Also I'll see your lighter in the soup and raise you one video of Batman versus a lighter:
     
  4. Jason

    Jason Gold

    I see your idiot batman and present you with the flaming ASS!
    This guy could melt iron for sure!

     
  5. That's one hell of a way to remove excess body hair. A town near where I live had a a 4WD rupture a gas line of a 210Kg cylinder at the rear of a cafe during lunchtime rush hour. Supermarkets here can have pallets of butane refills in the store room without any normal safety requirements that a commercial gas installation would have, imagine if a forklift ran into one?.




    Peedee: In this video at the 1:46 minute mark there's a discussion of the specific energy of various substances and liquified natural gas has about 12 times the specific energy of TNT, the only reason it's considered safer is that it needs to be mixed with oxygen to ignite.

     
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2019
  6. Petee716

    Petee716 Gold Banner Member

    We had a nasty one in buffalo back in '83. Someone knocked a valve off a 500 gallon propane tank with a fork lift in a 3 story warehouse. It leaked all the while the fire department was on its way. Once they got there it blew. Killed 5 firemen outright and injured a dozen others. Killed a mother and son in a nearby house. Injured 70 others. Completely leveled an entire city block and destroyed buildings in a 4 block radius. Buildings half a mile away had their window blown out.
    Truly a tragic day in Buffalo's history.

    Maybe the smaller canisters just aren't as susceptible to catastrophic damage as the larger heavier ones. Improper use or faulty valves are another matter I guess.

    Pete
     
  7. Peedee

    Peedee Silver

    Doesn't look much but each pan tile is nailed to a battern. 2 thirds of them have lifted in the air and landed still attached to the batterns. This was after the blast made its way through an old lath and plaster ceiling and a loft hatch....

    B&O.jpg

    The kitchen extends way into the main building so quite a large area. I've since read liquid butane expands to 23o times it's volume as gas so the potential to fill a large space with reasonable stochiometric mix is quite acheivable.....
     
  8. Peedee

    Peedee Silver

    The buiding is grade 2 listed .... no muppet local builders on this job all has to be Heritage approved including hand made replacement windows type specific to the era.
     
  9. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Incredible! There was some guy in the news yesterday that gassed his house while his daughter was at her wedding I think. Weird story, house blew up, burnt down. We dont build houses here like they do in the UK. We build for decades, you guys build for centuries.
     
    Petee716 likes this.
  10. Peedee

    Peedee Silver

    This place was built in the 1700s most of the walls are a single course of 4" brick. It is so close to the water edge (the foundations are submerged at high tide) they joke they can serve you a beer as you sail by. got to hand it to them they are doing a cold food menu in what is left available! Good old blighty spirit (or a boss that doesn't want a drop in profits!!)
     

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