[Vwdiesel] Was Broken Bleeder Valves - now acetylene lore

[Shirley, Mark R]

To give you the idea of the explosive power of acetylene,
and why it should be handled VERY carefully, I will relate
a story that was told on rec.arts.metalworking.  I don't know
where or when this happened, but it goes like this:

A fellow took his acetylene tank down to the gas supplier to
get a refill.  They exchanged his tank for a full one, and
he shoved it in the car trunk and brought it home.  He pulled
up in front of his house, where a friend was waiting.  They
decided to go off together and do something.  He left his car
parked in front of his house, and went with his friend.  He
forgot that his acetylene tank was still in the car trunk.
It was a hot day.  The acetylene tank finally heated up enough
in the hot trunk that the pressure of the dissolved acetylene
went above 15 psi.  The acetylene in the tank decomposed explosively.

The car it was in ceased to exist.

The house it was parked in front of ceased to exist.

The nieghboring houses were blown off their foundations by a foot or more.

Windows were blown out at a radius of up to 3 miles.

That is a *LOT* of energy folks.  Think carefully about what you're doing
with acetylene.  I don't want to hear about any list members as a statistic
or front page story.
Don't use an acetylene tank that's been laying down.
Don't use too large of a tip on small tanks.
Don't let the valves get knocked off.
Don't heat the tank in any way.
Don't EVER let the pressure in the tank get higher than 15 psi.
Keep the tank out of the sun.