NeighborJ Posted February 13, 2017 Posted February 13, 2017 I heard a noise on Sunday night during a thunderstorm, I went outside in the morning to find a flattened pyro shed. I feel so disgusted and have lost any ambition for moving forward. It wasn't my magazine but all my ballmills, starrollers, rocket tooling, drying racks, press, and numerous other pyro stuff are in there.
lloyd Posted February 13, 2017 Posted February 13, 2017 Well, CRAP! But likely, most of it will be OK, and the rest will be repairable! Look on the bright side! It could've all blown away into another county! <sorry!> Lloyd
DavidF Posted February 13, 2017 Posted February 13, 2017 Damn! Well, at least it was a short investigation to find the cause of the accident. We pyros are a resilient bunch. I'm pretty sure a short period of mourning will be followed by renewed interest. I have 2 sheds like that as well. In a windstorm one of them lifted off and beat the crap out of the other one. You still have one left, lucky bugger. I hate those kind of sheds! The designer(s) should be sentenced to life, and made to assemble their sheds until they die. I had a third larger one in the box and sold it for 60% off. Looks like you have lots of available wood Cheer up, comrade, sunny days ahead.
memo Posted February 13, 2017 Posted February 13, 2017 that is a crappy deal, gives you a reason to build a bigger and better one just the way you want it. keep looking for that silver lining. memo
NeighborJ Posted February 13, 2017 Author Posted February 13, 2017 Thanks guys, I'm not giving up on pyro but this sure sets me back a lot. I can see my 4# and 6# motor spindles sticking up thru the roof, I had them sitting on the top shelf. I just don't have time for this and just had my hours increased to 70 per week. This whole deal will just need to wait until I have more time.
lloyd Posted February 13, 2017 Posted February 13, 2017 Throw a tarp over the holes, at least. Don't let water increase any losses you might have already suffered! Lloyd
uncrichie Posted February 13, 2017 Posted February 13, 2017 Like Lloyd I believe you'll salvage a large portion of your equipment, don't give up! In looking closely at the photo there are quite a few trees that appear they need to be taken down. They look in poor health? Kurt
otto Posted February 13, 2017 Posted February 13, 2017 Shoot... that's the way things always happen, just when you don't have the time. Still, get motivated and I'll bet you salvage at least 80% of what's inside. Not a total loss, just a major inconvenience. Wish I was closer to give you a hand....
mikeee Posted February 14, 2017 Posted February 14, 2017 Looks like you might have a large supply of charcoal in the near future. (Silver Lining)Be thankful it was only your shed that the tree landed on, it could have been your house, garage, car etc.I had several inches of water in my basement and work shop last year when we had a heavy downpour of rainthat would not stop and flooded the entire neighborhood. I am still trying to clean up the details from that mess.Take her one day at a time.
patsroom Posted February 14, 2017 Posted February 14, 2017 No injuries other than a shed. Thank goodness for that! best thing is to pull up your boot straps and get going again as soon as you can. I am just glad to hear of no one being hurt................Pat
NeighborJ Posted February 14, 2017 Author Posted February 14, 2017 I opened up what is left of my she'd today before going to work to recover some of the moisture sensitive things. I do have some concern about the solvent cans which have ruptured. The xylene and MEK both have crushed but I think I had some isopropyl and hydrogen peroxide on my workbench which is completely crushed. I'm not very familiar with H2O2 reactions but I do know it is used with solvents to make primary explosives. I left everything as it sits but I'm fairly certain they have mixed. I am wondering if there is any danger here or am I just paranoid? If it is mixed is there a way to neutralize it or make it safely inert? It would have mixed on the dirt floor.
Mumbles Posted February 15, 2017 Posted February 15, 2017 MEK and hydrogen peroxide can make an explosive if mixed together. These reactions are often acid catalyzed, but will go on their own. I would hose everything down first and foremost. Dilution is the solution here. You're not going to extract anything from the earth. If you're concerned about peroxides, you'll want some sort of reductant. We use aqueous acidified ferrous sulfate in lab, but a 3% solution of sodium metabisulfite is also supposed to be a good choice. Sodium metabisulfite will probably be easier to obtain OTC. It's commonly sold for homebrewing and photography. You may also try finding it as stump remover. It's in some of the "Not good for pyro" stump removers (aka non KNO3). Either of those options will probably kill a lot of the plant life in the area if the solvents or other contaminants haven't already done the trick.
lloyd Posted February 15, 2017 Posted February 15, 2017 If the peroxide is not concentrated, I wouldn't worry much about its contribution. The 3% stuff they sell at the drug store for a skin disinfectant isn't all that reactive. You didn't say if the MEK leaked, or if only the can was crushed without leaking... nor how much of anything you 'thought you remembered'. If it was there, then the container would still be there, too! I know that's a big tree trunk, but figure out a way to pull or cut it off the wreck, and so some detailed investigation. Whatever, don't panic! Preserve your stuff. It's far from the end of the world. At least it wasn't a 'real Pyro Accident'. I have a friend in Mobile, AL who's ENTIRE lake-front pyro shop (and he had a lot) was under 7' of water for most of three weeks. That was a real mess. Lloyd
NeighborJ Posted February 15, 2017 Author Posted February 15, 2017 Lloyd, Mumbles, I believe it is a safe bet the peroxide and MEK were mixed the solvent cans are ruptured and drained down the work bench towards the peroxide. I cannot see the peroxide bottle but it was sitting exactly where the tree crushed the bench and it was only 3%. I'm treating it as if I know it mixed. So the plan is to make a 3% solution of sodium matabisulfide and spray down the bench and surrounding floor? And it should pose no hazard of ignition after that? I am unfamiliar with its sensitivity, I just don't want a woops.
Arthur Posted February 15, 2017 Posted February 15, 2017 JIt's an unfortunate incident but fortunately you are unhurt, which keeps the law off your back and the hospital bills down. Best wishes trying to save what you can, most expensive first. Then get a friend with a chainsaw to carefully drop the next most likely trees -someone gets lumber or firewood.
MrB Posted February 15, 2017 Posted February 15, 2017 IF you managed to make anything from the 3% peroxide, and MEK, it's going to be very sensitive. (It always is) Water it down, if you think there is an ongoing reaction, instead of adding more chemicals to the accident.From my experience, the 3% stuff simply isn't reactive enough to cause worry.B!
NeighborJ Posted February 15, 2017 Author Posted February 15, 2017 Thanks B it's getting cold again and everything is frozen again so I'll tackle this problem once it thaws again. Everything is covered up under a big tarp for now. I am looking at options for my next workshop, a job site trailer seems to be the most attractive option and I'm kinda getting excited to start on this idea. It may take a little bit of convincing for my wife but it doesn't hurt to start shopping around.
dynomike1 Posted February 15, 2017 Posted February 15, 2017 Find you a tractor with a bucket. You should be able to pick the tree up off of it. Then you could probably pick the shed up, then there is no confinement. Just dont get under the tree LOL. No need to get hurt now.
Sulphurstan Posted February 18, 2017 Posted February 18, 2017 (edited) Ohhhh, sorry to see this picture :-(Like davidF wrote, the right word is resilience. Sure we all look forward to see a picture of the future new workplace. Edited February 18, 2017 by Sulphurstan
OldMarine Posted February 18, 2017 Posted February 18, 2017 My brother's 40x60 barn with loft was laid almost flat by a bad storm. I've pulled it back upright and strengthened the frame plus replaced rafters at zero cost using construction site cast-offs. I still need to re-roof it and rewire it but I'll get there by the end of summer. My advice would be to not concentrate on repairing your existing structure but to instead use it as a building block to the next better thing. In exchange for my repairing the barn my brother has given me a full third of the floorspace and all of the loft to dedicate to my dream pyro shop!
chuckufarley Posted February 18, 2017 Posted February 18, 2017 Awesome Patrick! You know moving into a new, bigger shop means your gonna need more stuff to keep that extra space company.
lloyd Posted February 18, 2017 Posted February 18, 2017 That's cool, Patrick! NOW you'll have a place to ply your new-found skills! Lloyd
OldMarine Posted February 18, 2017 Posted February 18, 2017 That's cool, Patrick! NOW you'll have a place to ply your new-found skills! LloydI'm crammed in a 12x12 shed right now with shelving on every available piece of wall and little table space. It'll be sweet to have more than 3 ft to turn around in for sure! The service wire is what's holding me back right now as the power company requires dedicated poles and the previous line was strung with insulators from trees. I'll have to add 100' to the line to avoid some giant Oaks and Hickory trees and that is some expensive wire. I've solved the water problem with a cistern although I'm working on a larger 500 gallon tank as opposed to the 200 gallon one I have now. My brother wants to put chicken and quail up there again and they need a lot of water. I bought the raggedy lot next door just to be sure I'd have offset for a magazine if I get that far and it's eat up with nice hardwood trees that I can log off if I need cash.The only thing I'm short of is time to do anything. I'm saving vacation so I'll have 3 weeks straight to dedicate to it soon!
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