WD40 in a woodburner

Ever wondered what happens if you put a can of WD40 in a woodburner?

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or

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Not something to try at home!

Reply to
Part Timer
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Says a lot about the people who use Facebook?

Reply to
Chris Hogg

Yes, the moron can't even hold his phone the right way round.

Reply to
Graham.

I was surprised at how long it took before the can exploded. I would have expected the plastic valve near the nozzle to melt quicker than that, and maybe to cause an impressive jet of flame for a while before the whole can exploded.

Reply to
NY

Bloody hell, assuming it was a *full* can that must be more than a hand-grenade's worth of energy inside a not very strong cast iron box.

Reply to
newshound

... inside a building. What a maroon.

Reply to
Huge

OK to lob a can on a bonfire then?:-)

Reply to
ARW

Yep. BTDT. Rather disappointed.

Reply to
Huge

Perhaps he was trying to summon a lifeboat.

G.Harman

Reply to
damduck-egg

I've seen it done (with a can of spray paint) The can shot out of the fire like a rocket.

I think a can of easy start might be interesting. Or a propane cylinder.

Reply to
harry

If you watch videos of fires on the news, something normally "blows" on LPG cylinders and you get a jet of flame, insufficient to turn it into a rocket, and the cylinder itself doesn't explode. It *might* be that the same happened in this case and that it was the containment provided by the woodburner, probably the windows or the lid, which "blew".

Reply to
newshound

As the Glasgow airport "bombers" found out. Such cylinders are fitted with a fusible plug that is designed to melt and release the contents rapidly rather than explosively.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

Yes, that's what I'd expect to happen with an aerosol can: that the valve in the nozzle would melt and release the contents, rapidly rather than explosively, long before the pressure built to the point where the metal of the can sheared at its weakest point and dumped its contents explosively.

Even an inert propellant will increase in pressure enough to make the can rip open; if the propellant or payload is flammable, then that makes things even more dramatic - which is what you'd think they'd want to avoid with aerosol cans.

Reply to
NY

Not true. Many years ago I witnessed, at a distance of a bout a 1/2 mile, a fire at a Propane gas store. Numerous gas bottles at times were blown high into the air.

Reply to
fred

If that was the fire in Croydon in the 1970s, I saw it too but from Wimbledon perhaps six miles away. Spectacular.

Reply to
Stephen Mawson

See

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Truck carrying gas cylinders crashes and catches fire. From about 2:50 onwards gas cylinders are rocketing in all directions from the fire.

Mike

Reply to
Muddymike

Good thing they weren't acetylene cylinders. Apparently they are even more dangerous. When roads and railway lines are closed due to a fire and a several-hundred metre exclusion zone, it's usually acetylene (and associate oxygen) cylinders from oxy-acetylene welding kit.

There was a fire at a garage just down the road from me about 8 years ago and that started in welding equipment - and then spread to the underground petrol tanks.

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- luckily I lived just outside the exclusion zone so I wasn't evacuated, and I managed to work my way round to the other side (driving several miles to do what was about 1/4 mile) and took some of the photos in the article. The noise of the explosions was *very* loud. The fire brigade set up a "paddling pool" of water into which they could dump any hot acetylene cylinders that had not exploded, which is not a job you'd get me doing: transporting a cylinder that could explode at any moment. The garage site was a mess for several years until insurance and liability was finally sorted out and the place was rebuilt. A friend's car had a lucky escape: he was due to leave it there overnight to have a new tyre fitted but decided instead to call back with the car in the morning, so it escaped going up in flames.

Mind you, even inert compressed gas is dangerous. My A level chemistry teacher had taught "in industry" before becoming a teacher and he worked in a building near Heathrow. One of the young engineers (who should have known better) tried to unscrew the main valve-plus-gauge unit from a big 4-foot nitrogen cylinder, possibly when he should have been unscrewing a hose from it. The valve blew off, shot through the ceiling and was found several miles away just inside the perimeter fence of Heathrow by a routine security patrol. The cylinder was pushed through the floor and buried itself in the concrete floor below. No trace of the engineer was found. And that's due to pressure alone - nitrogen is not flammable.

Reply to
NY

Many years ago, about 1960, coming back from school of a winter evening I witnessed a fire in one of my fathers rented artisan workshops. A cylinder of dissolved acetylene went up, and I do mean up. As in a rocket. The cylinder went through the roof and continued skyward. DA cylinders are bl**dy heavy. It was found the next morning about 50 yards away. Gutted the workshop and those adjoining it. Nobody hurt fortunately. Fire brigade sorted the fire. Roof gone but structure sound. Re-roofed and refitted. Workshops still in use today

Reply to
Nick

Dissolved in what?

Reply to
Tim Streater

Acetone, usually.

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Reply to
Adrian

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