Arkangel
December 29th, 2002, 08:00 PM
Well, I haven't had one for a while, but yesterday I had an accident, which in many ways I'm glad about - I'm not too badly hurt, and it was a useful reminder about safety.
I was ramming a rocket, using a sugar/charcoal/sodium chlorate fuel. I had rammed the entire length of the mandrel, plus 1/2", and was ramming the last bit of powder before my grog end-plug. With what would have been the last couple of mallet blows, there was an explosion, and I saw that there was a large flame coming out of the tube. I picked the mandrel base/flaming tube up, and pointed it at the floor of my workshop, initially trying to extinguish it, then remembering what I was working with, realised it might go on to explode, so I carried it outside and dumped it on some gravel until it burnt out.
There are quite a few glaring fuck ups I made, and quite a few lessons learned, so I might as well give you the background.
Over Xmas I've been doing some testing of various comps, and rockets, and seem to have found a fuel that works ok for the time being. My brother was visiting, and my nieces were keen to see one of my rockets go off. I was therefore rushing to make one, and foolishly cut a number of safety corners.
1. I'd been for a run earlier, and was still in my jogging gear - shorts and sweat top.
2. For pryo work, I have leather gauntlets, sleeves, apron and a full face mask, NONE of which I was wearing.
3. My workshop is not properly finished at the moment, and I don't have an external magazine, so in it I was storing, (among other things), flash, flash Al, various commercial pyro's, acetone, hexamine, H2O2, the list goes on.
4. I didn't have a bucket of water in there to dump stuff in, I'd forgotten about that, having just installed a couple of dry powder extinguishers. The bucket would have been a much more useful idea under the circumstances.
5. One of my nieces had just come in to see what I was doing, but I continued to ram the rocket. She was still in when the rocket blew, and I shouted at her to get out, but she was trying to push the door instead of pulling. In the confusion, she didn't work it out for a couple of seconds. Thank god nothing else caught, and there was no additional flame in the room, but had there been, those wasted seconds could have hurt us both.
On the plus side, most of my chems were out of flames reach of the process I was involved in. I had about a pound of rocket comp in a tub nearby, but since this was the last bit I was ramming, I'd replaced the top. Had I not, maybe the whole tub would have gone off. And I think that's about it on the plus side, I was LUCKY, despite my carelessness/recklessness.
As things stand, I have a 1st degree burn on the web of my left hand, and a couple of spot burns elsewhere on my hands, and that's it. It could have been a whole lot worse.
Things I will do differently are:
1. No unbriefed, unprotected spectators
2. A dry, external magazine for storing comps and hazardous chems not in-use (BEFORE my next experiments!!!!!)
3. I will use full protection, EACH time - assume the worst WILL happen (how many times have I said to other people?) This includes full trouser legs
4. I'm pressing, not ramming in future - it was a mallet blow (rubber mallet, aluminium tools) that caused the explosion. It will be worth the investment in time and effort to make a press. Plus of course my grains will be more consistent
5. I will always have a large container of water on hand to dump stuff in
6. I will try to think at each stage of the process "what happens if"? It all happened very fast, and for a couple of precious seconds I was thinking "what the fuck!!??!" instead of "do this, or do that".
I am now a bit caned (for the pain, you understand <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> ), and don't want to bother people much more with my tale of woe. However, I'm a bit embarrassed, not for the fact that this happened (shit does), but that the circumstances were so crap at the time. And of course if my lessons are of any use I'll be happy.
Commiserations and smart arsed advice welcome :)
I was ramming a rocket, using a sugar/charcoal/sodium chlorate fuel. I had rammed the entire length of the mandrel, plus 1/2", and was ramming the last bit of powder before my grog end-plug. With what would have been the last couple of mallet blows, there was an explosion, and I saw that there was a large flame coming out of the tube. I picked the mandrel base/flaming tube up, and pointed it at the floor of my workshop, initially trying to extinguish it, then remembering what I was working with, realised it might go on to explode, so I carried it outside and dumped it on some gravel until it burnt out.
There are quite a few glaring fuck ups I made, and quite a few lessons learned, so I might as well give you the background.
Over Xmas I've been doing some testing of various comps, and rockets, and seem to have found a fuel that works ok for the time being. My brother was visiting, and my nieces were keen to see one of my rockets go off. I was therefore rushing to make one, and foolishly cut a number of safety corners.
1. I'd been for a run earlier, and was still in my jogging gear - shorts and sweat top.
2. For pryo work, I have leather gauntlets, sleeves, apron and a full face mask, NONE of which I was wearing.
3. My workshop is not properly finished at the moment, and I don't have an external magazine, so in it I was storing, (among other things), flash, flash Al, various commercial pyro's, acetone, hexamine, H2O2, the list goes on.
4. I didn't have a bucket of water in there to dump stuff in, I'd forgotten about that, having just installed a couple of dry powder extinguishers. The bucket would have been a much more useful idea under the circumstances.
5. One of my nieces had just come in to see what I was doing, but I continued to ram the rocket. She was still in when the rocket blew, and I shouted at her to get out, but she was trying to push the door instead of pulling. In the confusion, she didn't work it out for a couple of seconds. Thank god nothing else caught, and there was no additional flame in the room, but had there been, those wasted seconds could have hurt us both.
On the plus side, most of my chems were out of flames reach of the process I was involved in. I had about a pound of rocket comp in a tub nearby, but since this was the last bit I was ramming, I'd replaced the top. Had I not, maybe the whole tub would have gone off. And I think that's about it on the plus side, I was LUCKY, despite my carelessness/recklessness.
As things stand, I have a 1st degree burn on the web of my left hand, and a couple of spot burns elsewhere on my hands, and that's it. It could have been a whole lot worse.
Things I will do differently are:
1. No unbriefed, unprotected spectators
2. A dry, external magazine for storing comps and hazardous chems not in-use (BEFORE my next experiments!!!!!)
3. I will use full protection, EACH time - assume the worst WILL happen (how many times have I said to other people?) This includes full trouser legs
4. I'm pressing, not ramming in future - it was a mallet blow (rubber mallet, aluminium tools) that caused the explosion. It will be worth the investment in time and effort to make a press. Plus of course my grains will be more consistent
5. I will always have a large container of water on hand to dump stuff in
6. I will try to think at each stage of the process "what happens if"? It all happened very fast, and for a couple of precious seconds I was thinking "what the fuck!!??!" instead of "do this, or do that".
I am now a bit caned (for the pain, you understand <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> ), and don't want to bother people much more with my tale of woe. However, I'm a bit embarrassed, not for the fact that this happened (shit does), but that the circumstances were so crap at the time. And of course if my lessons are of any use I'll be happy.
Commiserations and smart arsed advice welcome :)