What incident scared you the most?

[Ubehage]

I'm not necessarily asking for your gory stories about mishaps and explosions. Hopefully, we won't have too many of those

I'm just curious as to what incidents and minor mishaps you have experienced, that gave you a good scare. Either out of ignorance or knowledge of what could happen.

 

My scariest incident was when I was wetting crackle composition, and my gloves dissolved hands-deep in the liquified mix.

I have never washed and scraped my hands that thoroughly, as that day.

I think I lost a few layers of skin, but otherwise got away with it. One lesson richer.

[lloyd]

I encountered a 15lb bucket of old, (mistakenly-abandoned) crackle comp that had been set outside a work building, and had gotten rained on.

 

Within a few tens of minutes, it began steaming, and getting so hot it was about to melt the bucket. Carrying it away to a safe spot was scary.

 

Then, there was the time when an employee put a whole bucket of crackle already wetted with NC under a table, and forgot it.

 

When we uncovered the bucket ('turns out, months later), it had completely dried, with a funnel-like shrinkage cone in the middle.

 

And... in the middle of that depression.... a puddle of nitroglycerine expressed from the double-base powder we were using to bind it! AAAACK!!!

 

Lloyd

[OldMarine]

The first time I lit a mouse turd of crackle with a torch I had to check my britches. Never imagined it would be so loud! The next scariest was when I was burning off some crappy BP and the 18" piece of visco quick matched on me. I definitely felt the heat! Edited March 28, 2017 by OldMarine

[NeighborJ]

As a 20 year old kid, I accidently dropped a open 5 gallon jug of kerosene, it sloshed across the room and onto the hot wood burner stove. Spent 3 weeks in the ICU burn unit from the resulting fireball.

Also about ten years ago I had a heating element fail on a r candy skillet, it intensely heated one tiny spot resulting in ignition. 3# of fuel went up in my face, luckily I never stand directly over the skillet so I only lost some hair. It could have been much worse.

[PyroDanTheMan]

My pucker time came when I launched my first 3" lampare. It contained about a quart of old two stroke gasoline in a plastic bottle, with green mix spiked with benzolift for break, pasted & spiked. The launch went as it should, when it reached apex and started to make the return trip a chill ran down my spine, thinking of what would happen when it went off on the ground. What a relief it was when it erupted into a very large fireball that pleased all the spectators.

[lloyd]

My only bad injury came when trying to mix magnesium powder with Cab-O-Sil. I related the whole story in AFN and in my book, so I won't repeat it here.

 

It took a year to recover from the many and large burns, and I still have visible scars some 18 years later.

 

Burns are bad-enough medically, and they hurt enough to be scary by themselves. But I was also blinded completely for several minutes by the flash of magnesium fire, and THAT scared the crap out of me!

 

Lloyd

Edited March 28, 2017 by lloyd

[dave321]

Lloyd,

I am sorry to hear that.

 

is that combination a particular hazard that people are not aware of ?.......is it primarily a static issue?

 

I know some people might add cabosil to std 70/30, to aid flow,.........is that not recommended ?

[lloyd]

Dave,

I've had several folks who have more knowledge of the chemistry than I do say that there are several possible mechanisms.

 

First... I was blending pure sub-micron Mg powder and Cab-O-Sil, in about a 50/50 ratio by volume.

 

Some have speculated (as I do) that a static spark INSIDE the jar promoted the ignition. There's enough air in the jar to get it going well.

 

But then, the Cab-O-Sil itself may become an oxidizer for Magnesium. (never knew that, and I should have).

 

Some other authors have speculated that it might have been a moisture-induced "silane reaction" (same as above, but not by a spark).

 

In any case, it was not a 'true explosion'. Rather, it just gently blew the rubber cap off the jar, and expelled about 50% of the contents into the air.

 

Unfortunately, magnesium in air -finely dispersed- is pretty darned flammable. The whole cloud ignited, and THAT is what caused my radiation burns.

 

I was not contacted by the flame. In fact, I was several feet away from the closest flame, but suffered extensive 2nd-degree, and lots of very shallow 3rd-degree burns over all of my exposed skin.

 

I don't think it's dangerous to screen fumed silica into an aluminum-based flash. We did it all the time in the factory, and never had even a hint of a problem. I wouldn't recommend it when using sub-micron Mg.

 

Lloyd

Edited March 28, 2017 by lloyd

[dagabu]

Just the one, no other pops, burns, etc ever happened, just a single ball mill and an electrical spark.

[starxplor]

Since I only recently got into the building side of things, my closest call is still with consumer fireworks. As a teenager, a friend and I lit a pair of the bigger true consumer class rockets. The two going up from the same support tube caused them to branch away from each other. One of them still went relatively up, the other went completely horizontal... into the neighbour's garage. I still have no idea how nothing caught fire in that garage, but it was the last time we did anything on the street with our little show moving to a nearby school yard the following year.

Edited March 29, 2017 by starxplor

[MrB]

Never had a pyro related "scare".

Had an accident with a few grams of primary explosive on a drying rack for the utensils used to make the stuff, i guess that helps. Still carry around plastic bits in my body to help remind me to be careful.

Ignition source is thought to be a catastrophic failure of the light-rig over the workbench, T-8 fluorescent lights. But there wasn't enough left of the work environment to be sure about anything.

B!

[BlueComet24]

I once refilled a spent model rocket motor, I think it was 18mm ID, with rocket candy and fused it through the nozzle. I pinned it under a small rock and lit the thing. Now, I thought it would burn slower and simply produce a nice jet of flame and smoke, but a rocket motor filled with rocket fuel is, in fact, a rocket. It shed its stone anchor and took off upward and then sideways above the relatively dry nearby forest. I held my breath as I watched that thing leave a smoke trail through the air, then breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the smoke trail die out shortly after the apex. I think I learned a valuable lesson, and I hope anyone who reads this can, too. Well, two lessons, I suppose: Any nozzled pyro device is likely to attempt to fly (plan and prepare for this!), and rocket motors can be refilled with rocket candy.

[pyroman2498]

When I was about 7 or 8 years old we went out early In the morning to start a bonfire without my mom's permission. After we had the bonfire going well we threw plastic bottles full of gas into the fire. Surprisingly it didn't do much so I took a brick and threw it at the bottle (don't know what The hell I was thinking it would do ) The bottle spewed the gas And flames, I got sprayed with a bit out it and lost my hair on my head but didn't suffer many more burns than that.

I also had a bic lighter blow up in my hand and gave me severe 2nd degree burns from where my fingers were wrapped .

 

But the scariest pyro accident I have witnessed was a 6"mine detonating and tearing apart the racks around it and obliterating the rack the mortar and mine were in. No one was hurt but that was very scary too see.

[mikeee]

My mother-in-law came to visit and I was not sure if she was ever going to leave.

After several days I was ready to mix a large batch of flash powder in the ball mill.

[NeighborJ]

Wow, that was one close call mikeee. That would have killed a lesser man. Just give thanks that she had a place to go back too.

[mikeee]

My close call several years ago was a rack of 4" steel guns getting shredded by a hammer shell

going off in the rack and destroying 3 of the guns. Lost hearing in one ear and amazingly no-one

was hit by flying metal debris.

[OldMarine]

I just bought some 4" guns and I'm sweating before I even start making stars. My brain knows the poly guns added to the distance aren't horribly dangerous but my "Spidey Sense" say's it is so I'll go forth with much thought and trepidation. It's amazing how watching fails on the web can temper one's enthusiasm.

[mikeee]

Patrick,

 

Barricades between the spectators and mortars is always a safe option.

Another approach is putting the mortar in the ground.

You can always have spectators a distance away from the mortars, but when a failure

occurs there is no way to determine how far and what direction the debris will travel.

[braddsn]

I have had 2 scares, the first one caused injury.

 

1) I had scraped the dried comp out of my star roller from a few star rolling and priming sessions. I scraped it all into a bowl, and took it out into the driveway to light. I poured it into a pile and put a 6" piece of visco into it, and lit it with a torch. The torch was a map torch, (very hot), and the flame somehow made it to the pile of comp while I was lighting the fuse. It all happened in a half-second, and I felt like I was on fire. It burned my right hand, arm, and face. It took me about 3 weeks to heal from it, I had blisters everywhere and my eye was almost swelled shut. I learned a big lesson. I had been doing pyro for 3 years with no accidents when it happened.

 

2) I was making salutes for last year's 4th of July display. I made 20 3" salutes, and when I was all finished, I had a few grams of flash left in my bowl. I don't know how much was left, my guess would be 3 or 4 grams maybe, but it had rice hulls mixed in with it so that makes guessing the exact weight more tricky. I wanted to get rid of that little bit of flash, and have some fun doing so.. so I took it out into the driveway, poured it in a small pile, and put a long piece of visco in it. I lit the visco, then ran back into the barn and left the door open so I could still see the bright flash. My assumption was that it was going to make a super-bright flash but not really have much report. About 30 seconds later, BOOOM..... im talking a boom like an M-80!!!! Rocks peppered the polebarn, and I about pissed myself. I went out to look and there was a small crater in the rocks. I didn't expect a report from an unconfined, tiny amount, especially one that loud. I am always very careful with flash... but this was certainly a reminder and an eye opener as to how little it takes to lose a hand.

[Ubehage]

I have had 2 scares, the first one caused injury.

 

1) I had scraped the dried comp out of my star roller from a few star rolling and priming sessions. I scraped it all into a bowl, and took it out into the driveway to light. I poured it into a pile and put a 6" piece of visco into it, and lit it with a torch. The torch was a map torch, (very hot), and the flame somehow made it to the pile of comp while I was lighting the fuse. It all happened in a half-second, and I felt like I was on fire. It burned my right hand, arm, and face. It took me about 3 weeks to heal from it, I had blisters everywhere and my eye was almost swelled shut. I learned a big lesson. I had been doing pyro for 3 years with no accidents when it happened.

 

2) I was making salutes for last year's 4th of July display. I made 20 3" salutes, and when I was all finished, I had a few grams of flash left in my bowl. I don't know how much was left, my guess would be 3 or 4 grams maybe, but it had rice hulls mixed in with it so that makes guessing the exact weight more tricky. I wanted to get rid of that little bit of flash, and have some fun doing so.. so I took it out into the driveway, poured it in a small pile, and put a long piece of visco in it. I lit the visco, then ran back into the barn and left the door open so I could still see the bright flash. My assumption was that it was going to make a super-bright flash but not really have much report. About 30 seconds later, BOOOM..... im talking a boom like an M-80!!!! Rocks peppered the polebarn, and I about pissed myself. I went out to look and there was a small crater in the rocks. I didn't expect a report from an unconfined, tiny amount, especially one that loud. I am always very careful with flash... but this was certainly a reminder and an eye opener as to how little it takes to lose a hand.

That first lesson is a classic. What I mean is, I think it's one we all have to learn one way or another: Fire is alive, and it's harder to control than a pack of rats in a corn-silo.

I'm sorry to hear about you getting hurt, but also happy that it wasn't more than it was.

 

The second incident sounds to me like you had more than a few grams of flash. Anyway, that's beside the point

I have read somewhere that KClO4 is very sensitive to pressure once ignitied, which is why flash-reports doesn't need that much confinement.

I also read that even the weight of the pile plus the "pressure" given by the combustion, may be enough to trigger an explosion. Even in relative small amounts.

[MudDuckPyro79]

Now sit back guys and gals this is gonna be one of them hummdingers. I went to the Internet and was ordering some MORE pyro stuff AGAIN and the bank said I was out of funds, (scared the hell out of me). But all was good in the end thank god for paypal. ;-P

[OldMarine]

Now that right there is downright terrifying!

[rogeryermaw]

i can attest to Brad's incident with the flash. i had a similar brain fart thinking a small pile of unconfined flash would go off with less than spectacular results...wow...the lesson i learned was to never underestimate any pyrotechnic composition. EVER!

 

i had probaly 9 or 10 grams of flash mixed on a piece of waxed paper, scooted the pile to the center, bunched it up and stuck in probably 10 inches of visco. i placed it in the yard about 50 or 60 feet from the house, lit it and booked. the shock wave knocked pictures off the wall in the house!!

[Somali]

Haven't had any incidents yet because I'm still new at the hobby, but copper thermite scared me when a small amount exploded with barely any confinement. I had something like 1-3 grams in a loose aluminium foil ball, heated it with a butane torch and it exploded with a sharp bang. Sounded like a gunshot. Normally it just burns slowly when ignited.

 

Maybe it was because the torch heated it all at once

[Ubehage]

Haven't had any incidents yet because I'm still new at the hobby, but copper thermite scared me when a small amount exploded with barely any confinement. I had something like 1-3 grams in a loose aluminium foil ball, heated it with a butane torch and it exploded with a sharp bang. Sounded like a gunshot. Normally it just burns slowly when ignited.

 

Maybe it was because the torch heated it all at once

Copper thermite burns a lot more violently than normal thermite, and can easily be set to explode. Kinda like flash.

 

Fun fact: The less reactive your oxidizer is (the more energy needed to get it going), the more energetic it will be once it gets going.

I'm talking about copper here

 

And yea, thermite of all types are known to burn rapidly when the whole thing is heated up.