Help i am on fire

[RonA]

I learnt to weld at my local college of knowledge in the 70’s, just Arc & Oxy/Acetylene, the college had just got their first Mig set, still expensive.
My father (a joiner by profession) decided he would like to do the course with me.
One night we had to weld very heavy plate using Oxy/Acetylene, which generated a lot of heat.
I happened to be meeting my girlfriend that night & asked to leave early, leaving my father to continue welding.
When I eventually returned home, my mother was waiting & began haranguing me for leaving my father.
My father always wore his bib & brace overalls for the classes & seemingly the radiated heat from the welding had set his overalls on fire, requiring the lecturer to extinguish him!!
He did suffer some minor burns but they healed quicker than my damaged hearing.
RonA

 

[slim_boy_fat]

No Parm they don't offer value for money.

Ahhh, you've clearly made the mistake of feeding them.

who knew... Rab C Nesbitt was a welder......so many holes in his T shirt it ended up looking like a string vest

Don't dis The Rab...

 

[T5 TDI]

Back in the early eighties I set fire to myself by testing for a fuel supply on a car by briefly cranking the engine with the fuel pipe off the pump. I was young and silly back then. Anyway, the fuel shot out over the distributor cap and ignited, spraying the top of the wing in burning petrol. In my panic not to let any paint get blistered, I quickly wiped the burning wing with my overall sleeve. This was a mistake because the wing blew out on its own but my arm caught fire. Feeling the burning I tried to beat it out with the other arm but (you've guessed it) two arms on fire! From here I did manage to beat out the flames and suffered no more than singed overalls and a glowing arm. Even the car was fine. Looking back is was quite comical as it turned out but it could have been very different.

 

[Barking Mat]

Yep, set overalls on fire when I was younger, angle grinding.

D'oh.

 

[500e]

Some of us never learn

 

[Morris]

That's why I bought fire retardant overalls.

 

[Robotstar5]

Back in the early eighties I set fire to myself by testing for a fuel supply on a car by briefly cranking the engine with the fuel pipe off the pump. I was young and silly back then. Anyway, the fuel shot out over the distributor cap and ignited, spraying the top of the wing in burning petrol. In my panic not to let any paint get blistered, I quickly wiped the burning wing with my overall sleeve. This was a mistake because the wing blew out on its own but my arm caught fire. Feeling the burning I tried to beat it out with the other arm but (you've guessed it) two arms on fire! From here I did manage to beat out the flames and suffered no more than singed overalls and a glowing arm. Even the car was fine. Looking back is was quite comical as it turned out but it could have been very different.

In the foundry one of the labourers Saturday morning jobs was to was to clean and regrease the tracks the casting hoppers ran on, they would use paraffin to wash the old grease off and wrap some rag round their wrists to stop it running down their arms. One guy threw a used rag onto a burning pile (no concerns about pollution/global warming in the 70's) and set fire the rag wrapped round his wrist, he tried to put it out with his other hand which lit the rag on that hand too. We were heading to a job and saw this guy running round waving two burning hands around, my mate tackled him to the ground near a sand pile and I scooped sand onto his hands to put the fire out.

 

[T5 TDI]

I'm very glad that I 'went out' on my own! I think it was all caused by a single spurt of petrol and that burnt out. In the end I was waving my flaming arms in the street like some fire juggling act! The car was a breakdown I was attending in a quiet street and I had the keys already so nobody ever saw my 'act'. It was a pretty standard quick test for fuel supply from a mechanical fuel pump in those days but since I couldn't easily get at the carburettor end of the pipe I just pulled off the outlet from the pump. Looking back, a simple spare bit of pipe directed at the ground would have saved me from the fright and the smouldering overalls!

If it isn't too far off topic, would anyone else like to confess any daft/funny/dangerous things they have done or seen done in the past?

 

[qwakers]

How about yesterday, and a good example of why I ONLY use metal waste bins.

i cleaned my spray gun out a week or so ago and threw the rags in the bin my the bench. Last night I was welding at the bench (you see where this is going!) and I hear this loud “wumph” which made me jump a bit....

mask off, turn around and the bin is going merrily.

went out on its own a few mins later. Wasn’t worth putting out lol

 

[Bullet2012]

If it isn't too far off topic, would anyone else like to confess any daft/funny/dangerous things they have done or seen

https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/silly-things-youve-done.111024/

 

[Stueeee]

Some time ago, I was doing some MIG welding under the rear one of my cars. It was up on tall axle stands, so I could crouch rather than lay down to weld. Whilst welding, I was suddenly aware of intense heat around my lower body. Flipping up my mask I found that I'd knocked over an airline wash gun which still had some petrol in it, and I was crouched in a lake of fire. I got out from under the car PDQ and grabbed the nearest fire extinguisher of the wall. This turned out to be a pressurised water extinguisher rather than one of CO2 or AFFF foam ones which were also in the garage.

Anyone who has used a water extinguisher on a liquid fire will be able to relate how suddenly the fire goes everywhere, driven by the extinguisher's water jet. Trying not to be 'a rabbit in the headlights' with my now larger fire, I put my thumb over the hose end and managed to get something like a mist going, this and the fact the fire hadn't spread to other stuff allowed me to get it put out. Following this bum clenching episode, I made sure to only have Co2 and AFFF foam extinguishers in the garage and workshop.

 

[T5 TDI]

https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/silly-things-youve-done.111024/

Thanks for that Bullet. If there is anyone else who hasn't seen that thread I recommend it! I've just had tears rolling down my cheeks! I especially liked the one about man who sat on a bottle while drunk (and its aftermath) and the man who fell off his motorcycle at the lights because he had taken the sidecar off the day before! And I've only got to page 8 out of 25..

 

[AlexBrown_1]

Sorry to reignite an old thread, but I've just put some holes in my roots firebuster overalls which I'm pretty peed off about. I was grinding and I guess the sparks were going straight at my overalls. Can anyone recommend a good leather apron which might deflect sparks?