Another fun day in the garage....

[Airjockie]

So, I just got back with the freshly aligned subby, and I got a bag of lightbulbs to install on it, Tristen, a kid thats helping me lately with my projects was wanting to paint his block. So he's scrubbing it in the parts washer, and I'm doing the bulbs. Beer ensues as always... and I've switched back to the old habit of washing and rinsing parts in the parts washer, and dipping them in avgas (110LL) because it cleans everything off and leave a clean part with no residue. I bought one of those close-able plastic containers that comes with a lid, and poured 5 gallons of avgas in it to rinse the parts off...the shit works wonders...used it for years with no problem.

Well, normally, after the parts washer gets all the grime off the parts, then the dip into the avgas to get the parts washer fluid off...so the block is washed, a VG30 something, 6 cylinder cast iron block, and we lift it out of the parts washer and place it in the plastic container and it doesn't fit...so we reposition it, and the block was too big and heavy for the container...so it ruptured the container...about 3 gallons of avgas goes all over the shop floor... so we open the door...and air out the garage..

I get back to playing with the subby, and more beer. about an hour goes by, and all the most of the gas puddles has evaporated...and I was playing around with my lighter...and lit one of the puddles in the center of the garage and watched it burn...it was cool....it was just getting bigger and bigger, and I guess the fuel soaked into the cracks that i had from separate pours when I made the floor, and that had a little more fuel in it..so the fire was getting bigger...tried to blow it out...and it jumped to the next puddle...and the next...and the next....


so needless to say...it worked it's way under the toolbox... and the parts washer is right next to it, so I asked Tristen for the fire extinguisher, and I popped it out...flame gone... sooted up the toolbox pretty good, and there was a milk container under the tool box filled with used oil, it didn't ignite, but it blistered out a cool bubble on the side...and then all the CO dust everywhere...now we got a little mess to clean up...ohh well. Dust off the beer and have another.

If I had a damn webcam hooked up in the garage...it would have made a funny youtube vid...


Lesson learned....

Don't buy cheap plastic containers from the Family Dollar stores...


Now I got to go buy another fire extinguisher, a better plastic container, and 5 more gallons of avgas. And I better double check the insurance on the garage...just incase this happens again....

 

[TurboMirage]

lesson learned: dont light puddles of gas on fire

 

[DarkHand]

I spilled about a half gallon of 2-year-old gas/varnish on my garage floor when I was draining my CRXs gas tank, and I refused to even move anything across the floor for 2 days in fear of sparks.

 

[phyregod]

Good thing you have an extinguisher on hand. You'd be surprised how many people dont.

 

[reckedracing]

we had someone weld over a garbage can with thinner in it one time
didn't end well, but nothing burned down and no one got hurt

and i dropped a bucket on speedy dry on top of an extinguisher without the pin one time
scared the shit out of myself, had no idea what all the powder flying everywhere was from

 

[Airjockie]

I aways have them...

I've blown up a VW that needed 6 of those little red bottles....

the house has a few, the Z has one, and the garage (had) one....

work habit I guess, I'm surrounded by them all day....but I work on heli's, thats in a hangar, and are fully loaded with JP-1.

an occasional fire is good...this time it was funny, but I've had a few where they were nothing to laugh at. I parked an F-15 that came back from a training mission, the brakes siezed, and when he parked they were pure white. Magnesium wheels, hot brakes, and a center drop tank next to them... After I got the pilot out, I went and got a tire change kit, took the wheel off, took the brakes off, and got them away from the aircraft. Everyone first called me stupid, but after they investigated it, from what I did, it saved the aircraft, and got me on the "has-balls or has-no-brain list". Considering there was live chaff and flare pods next to the drop tank, squibs all over the aircraft, the drop tank was possibly filling with fuel from the wings, and theres a 1600 degree smoldering brake stack 3 feet away from the tank...and the fire department wouldn't even get close to the aircraft. What else was there to do...just watch a plane burn to the ground? I'm nuts... but nothing phases me. It got me a dumb recommendation...