7014 vs 7018 on the farm

[mongobird]

What _is_ the statute of limitations on welding related blow-up stories?

At one airport we were seeing how far we could lob potatoes. This was somewhere in 1980 or so. If course, as a rocket scientist drop-out I knew that acetylene and oxygen have a rather high specific impulse.

The potatoes went pretty far, but remained sub-sonic.

[ryanjones2150]

7014 vs 7018 on the farm

Well when you use all then big scientific words and all...

[old jupiter]

Sure. Take your O/A torch set to an outboard hydroplane race, and have somebody give you a cracked 2-stroke expansion chamber to weld up, one that's been on an engine running in a methanol class for a good while, and has a substantial coating of castor oil and other gunk all over the insides . . . when the gunk vaporizes and ignites, well, it can get immediate attention all over the pits.

What was this thread about?

[ryanjones2150]

7014 vs 7018 on the farm

I think we should get back to talking about stuff blowing up.

[Meltedmetal]

Maybe you've discovered the secret process to turn DOT 3 into DOT 5. Modern alchemy.---Meltedmetal

[old jupiter]

Shoot, I share my little mystery and all I get is abuse! I guess I'll keep my Bigfoot sighting and the alien abduction story to myself . . .

Couldn't find a suitable empty glass jar and lid today or I'd have tried the experiment. (But maybe now I won't share that either . . . I'll tell 'em where to put their bags of dessicant, grumble, grumble!!).

[ryanjones2150]

7014 vs 7018 on the farm

Cyanotic would be more appropriate.

[mcostello]

Smurf Gas !

[ryanjones2150]

7014 vs 7018 on the farm

If you breathe a lot of argon, you will absolutely turn blue.

[mongobird]

So a late night interloper, dressed in black, stole your bleeder, and used it on his Batmobile, and topped off the bleeder with DOT-5, unbeknownst to you. Makes sense.

You might turn blue/purple if you keep breathing the Ar.

[old jupiter]

I buy the DOT-5 theory. Perhaps that is what you dredged out of the system you were bleeding. . . .

Nope. Why would I save old brake fluid, bled out of the car, when I had a brand new quart container of it? Old fluid might be okay for the initial cleaning of brake parts you're rebuilding, but I sure wouldn't put it back into my carefully-cleaned out pressure-bleeder. And anyway, I've must never have bled DOT 5 fluid out of any vehicle, because I have never seen purple fluid; some dark, nasty-looking stuff in a car that hadn't seen fresh fluid in way too long, but never purple fluid.

As I said, like you I can hardly believe that it was the argon that did this to what was supposed to be new DOT 4 fluid, but I have no good explanation. Anyway, don't talk to your family about this until AFTER Thanksgiving dinner, LOL.

[mongobird]

We are off topic, and it is fun. I buy the DOT-5 theory. Perhaps that is what you dredged out of the system you were bleeding.

In my somewhat large family, I have a reputation as the chemical guru, and love esoteric trivia, but it is a real stretch to see how the Ar introduction to brake fluid would cause a color shift consistent with DOT-5 standard coloring. However, if this group insists I beg my PhD chemist brothers for their opinions, but we run a serious risk of this thread going south extremely quickly, or of me getting laughed out of the next Thanksgiving dinner.

[old jupiter]

No, I never have used DOT 5 for anything. This was either 3 or 4, I think Pyroil brand DOT 4 from Schuck's (now O'Reilly's). And it was not any odd color when I poured it into the bleeder; as I say, this was such an intense color, I'm quite sure I'd have seen that right off (as if somehow the packing plant had mistakenly filled my DOT 4 bottle with DOT 5 fluid). The mystery continues. (I'm guessing I must have somehow introduced some impurity, I just don't see how the argon could have done it . . . ). I haven't thought about this weird incident in a long time, but now that you guys seem interested, I guess I better do a little test if one of you doesn't beat me to it. If time of exposure is a factor, I can't guide you because I don't recall how long it was between the back-filling of the bleeder with argon after the first brake-job and the next brake-job, when I saw the color change..

[ryanjones2150]

7014 vs 7018 on the farm

Dang, I was gonna run out and have a little science project going on. What a bummer.

[mcostello]

Just as it was getting interesting....................