Jebus... I shot myself in the chest.

[Big Dan]

So my son-in-law shows up a little while ago, with the caliper bracket off of the daughter's Explorer. One of the pins is rusted solid in the thing. Him and his step-dad fought the thing for quite a while before bringing it over. They'd been sprayin' it with PB Blaster (I love that suff) and tappin' it with a hammer for I dunno how long.

So, I chuck it up in the vise, spray it with PB, and try to get it to turn with a wrench on it. No dice. Okay. Fine. Hand me the "gas wrench." I'm heatin' it and heatin' it, keeping pressure on the aforementioned wrench, hopin' I can get it to break free. Finally it turns a little. I keep heatin' it, workin' it back and forth, when all of a sudden POW!!!! It fires the pin out like a gunshot, right at my chest. I stagger back a coupla steps, and the kid asks am I okay.... I says "I dunno, let's see is it in me" as I'm lifting up my shirt. Well, it didn't penetrate, but I've got a beauty of a welt and it hurts like hell all across my chest and back. Thank God for the big flat on the end of the thing. Had it not been there, who knows what woulda happened.

Apparently there was water behind it, or some of the PB got in there. Whatever it was, once it boiled, that was it. Instant projectile. Yeah, I know... I should had more sense than to stand directly in front of the thing, but I didn't. The thought of that thing comin' outta there like that never crossed my mind. Hopefully you guys are all smarter than me.

[rad3766]

Holy crap, no kidding. That coulda had a bad outcome.

[UltraManPaul]

Hey Dan, if ya do it again and it has a bad outcome, can I have Beula May? I'm just sayin'...Seriously, glad you're still around to talk about it!

UMP

[JamLazyAss]

Hey Dan,
Glad you're ok, but I have to tell ya, that story was funny as hell.
Sounds like something I would do.

[northbrun]

Dan glad your OK, seriously. But next time could you get some pix? 

[Grumpy : (]

Big Dan, glad it didn't get ya.  But if ya do something like that again, can I have Patti?

G  : (

[04fatty]

Glad you're alright but more importantly you got the damn pin out of there so you the man in your family's eyes. That's how I look at things anyways, the chest will heal up.

[CraigArizona85248]

Dan,

Glad you didn't do any permanent damage.  You know... these garage stories are always good to hear.  Anyone else who is thinking of doing the same thing you did might give it a second thought now.  They'll probably be standing off to the side so as not to repeat your pain.  On the other hand... speaking for myself, I can be sort of stubborn and dumb.  Sometimes I have to experience things myself.  Even though I knew I should always unplug my drill before chucking a bit I didn't start doing it religiously until I had almost ripped two fingers out of their socket when I bumped the trigger while I had my them wrapped around the chuck key.  

-Craig

[Rugby_fxdwg]

Damn glad your ok, and no, i would have tried the same as you...So I guess, i am not so smart.

[hawwk]

Geeezzzz Dan your lucky your ok,had to many things like that happen. Just to let you know locktite has this stuff out now called freeze and release and I got to tell you this chit works good, I use it almost everyday at work.It's freezes the part and sort of makes the rust and corrision  scater for you can get things apart.Hey you can't get hurt now I waitnig to see that bike of yours in June     

[jaw65]

Mate glad to hear your are ok, also sounds like somthing i would do, Sorry but i also think it is one of the funnist things i have read for a wile.

[RDKing07]

Sorry Man, but I can't stop laughing.  That is funny sh?t only because you're ok, and I can see that happening to me.

[crazy joe]

 "beauty of a welt and it hurts like hell all across my chest and back."
Holy crap wounder if you may have broke something?
Wish I could have seen the look on your face : )
Glad you alright.

[Evo160K]

Dan, glad you're ok.

From CraigArizona85248:
"You know... these garage stories are always good to hear."

Craig, are you or Big Dan able to start this as a topic?  Must be loads and loads of them.

[Dennis The Menace]

As long as it didnt hit that beautiful paint on the bike, all is good.  Right Dan?  lol

PICS!!!!!!!!!!  Cant be a big welt unless ya can prove it, lol

menace

[Ultrashovel]

A friend of mine lost an eye sort of like that. He was beating on a piece of tempered steel and some of it came off and got him dead center. I'm glad it wasn't any worse.

[Phu Cat]

Glad you're OK, I'll bet THAT smarts!!!  No pic?

I'm a cause and effect guy, like to know what makes things happen the way they do.  Have to wonder about water getting in between those two pieces.  Water expands 1600 times it's original volume when it flashes to steam, so it would put a LOT! of pressure on the projectile.  To have that type of pressure created, the seal would have had to have been perfect, yet you said the parts were rusted real bad.  Also, any water that had gotten between those two pieces would likely have evaporated before that "perfect" seal could have been created. C'mon physics experts, what do ya think made made 'Dan try to shoot himself?

PC

[Ultrashovel]

I don't know what PB Blaster is. If it's fllamable, perhaps some of it penetrated into the inside of the area where the pin was stuck and it reached flash temperature in some way. For the pin to come out like it did. there had to have been a pressure increase. Therefore, it was either steam pressure or an actual combustion process started by the torch. Friction makes heat in any case so that could have ignited things.

I'm of the opinion that we need to wear some form of safety procection when doing things like this. Gloves, heavy clothing and definitely eye protection.

Another sad story that I heard last month happened a fellow where my daughter works. He was golfing and he teed off. The ball went astray and hit a tree. It then rebounded and came back and hit the poor man in one of his eyes. It ruptured the eye and fractured his orbital socket around the damaged eye. Unfortunately, the eye and the optic nerve were destroyed. They had to remove the eye and he is presently undergoing restorative and prosthetic surgery to give him an artificial eye that will track with the other eye.

If it can happen on a golf course, it can happen in a shop. It's a jungle out there.

[Princess Butt]

Things like this happen to remind us we're not as good as we think we are!

Glad you've survived. I'll keep this in mind just in case I try to do the same thing.

BnEUC

[Rags722]

Glad you are reasonably OK.  Reminds me of the time I had a 57 Plymouth with the torsion bar suspension.  One of the torsion bars broke, leaving about 8 inches of hardened steel bar stuck in the adjuster can.  We took the can to the shop and put it in the press.  The 5 ton jack wouldn't budge it, so we managed to slip a 10 ton jack in the press.  Still no go! So, with 10 tons of pressure on it and after adding a 6 foot steel bar to the pump lever , we added some heat from the hot wrench.  When that puppy broke loose, it fired itself (now keep in mind, this is about 8 inches long 3/4 in in diameter and it sheared off into a twisted point) out the top of the press, slammed into the steel rafters and bounced all around the shop.  Thankfully, it didn't hit anyone or any of the customer cars, but it really woke us up to the reality of the danger of big hunks of steel breaking loose under pressure! As a side note, 57 suspensions didn't have anything to keep water from getting into the can.  The replacement kit came with a packing to prevent it.
Rags

[Big Dan]

No pics, nothin' really to see. The welt has gone down, and there's just a "footprint" of the pin's top. About 1" x 1/2" rectangle on my chest. For whomever asked, PB Blaster is a penetrating oil, the best I've ever seen. Ya spray it on a bolt, and then it wicks it's way right into the threads. Really good stuff. I'm sure it's somewhat flammable.

There was definitely a "pop" that sounded like a small pistol, and there was smoke (possibly steam vapor). I'm a retired Steamfitter, and still know quite well the properties of steam. There may have been water in there that caused the thing to rust in the first place. If water is heated beyond boiling point, yet held under enough pressure, it will remain liquid. This water is "Superheated." I may have superheated the water in it, and when it broke loose that superheated water "flashed" (instantly became steam). as Phu pointed out, A cubic inch of water makes roughly a cubic foot of steam. Most power house deaths are due to leaks in boiler feedwater piping. Feedwater is extremely superheated water, and lots of it. If there's a rupture in a feedwater line, all hell breaks loose. Those that don't get flash-broiled die of suffocation. All that newly created (flashed) steam displaces the oxygen.

If you're in a powerhouse and hear a shrieker (high pressure steam leak), do not move a muscle. Grab a broom and wave it in front of you as you walk. The leak could be a hundred feet away, but if you walk through the jet, you could be cut in half. Steam is indeed that powerful and that dangerous.

I could go on for hours, but I'm probably boring you guys to tears already. Suffice it to say that true steam is not that little cloud of vapor on top of a pot of boiling water. Real steam is one of the most powerful forces on the planet. And as a force of physics, it must do what it must do. You cannot alter the laws of physics.

So anyways.... yeah, it's entirely possible that this was caused by water in there, or it could have been the penetrating oil. I simply cannot know. And yeah... it's pretty funny. The look on my son-in-law's face was beyond priceless. I can't even imagine mine.

[dakota224]

Holy crap,  Glad your ok..  live & learn he

[Big Dan]

Oh, and for the guys askin' about Beula Mae and Patti in the event of my demise, all I can say is: Keep circlin, ya buzzards. I ain't dead yet. 

[ricochet]

This same thing happened to my welder 2 weeks ago.  He was welding some cracks on an ironhead right side case I brought him and "pop" "what the ---- was that.  Turns out a dowel pin on the cam cover gasket surface shot off like a bullet straight up, ricocheyed off the ceiling and dropped onto the bench inches from the part.  It fired off just like a gun and a dowel pin looks like a bullet.  If his head had been exactly over the piece I don't think the welding helmet would have stopped it.  I spent so much time prepping the part, grinding and then cleaning with carb cleaner then alcohol.  I doubt that any of that was still present but it must have been a tight enough seal to build that kind of pressure.

ricochet, no kidding!

[hdjax2]

Glad your okay Dan. My similar story is one of my buddies brought me a rear main cap from a small block Chevy that he had stripped the threads out for the oil pump bolt. I thought I would braze a stud in it and he could go have it and the block align bored afterwards and just use a nut to fasten the oil pump. There I was just getting it hot enough for the brass rod to start flowing when all of a sudden KAPOW! like a 22 going off the dowel pin that aligns the pump shot out of that cap so friggen hard that it stuck in a 2x6 rafter in my garage about 1/4 inch deep. If I had been directly over the top of it I probably wouldnt be writing this . Just my little tidbit about garage safety. By the way I finished brazing the stud in and we dug the dowel pin out of the rafter and used it, he had the block align bored we built the thing and it's still running 20 years later. HDJAX