Post by w***@worldnet.att.netOn Fri, 24 Oct 2003 20:21:29 -0500, Robbie and Laura Reynolds
Post by w***@worldnet.att.netIs there anyone else a crazy as I was?
big snip
Robbie, boy does this bring back memories. I'll bet I know why your
black powder would not explode. I mixed mine with water and cooked
it until it was dry. Let me tell you how I almost set our house on
fire.
I use to experiment with all sorts of formulas for gun powder. To
test the power of the batch, I would take a small pinch of the powder,
put it on the basement floor and set it alight with a match. I could
tell how powerful it was by the way it went off and the residue it
left. Any way, I had set the can of dry new powder on the basement
floor and took a pinch and (like a dummy) put it on the floor next to
the open can of new gun powder and set it off. As you know, it sparks
and smokes like crazy. As I set it off, a spark went into the open
can of powder and it went up like the biggest roman candle you have
ever seen. I am talking about a whole pound of black gun powder. The
powder flame went up to the ceiling and clear across the basement.
With in seconds the powder can was red hot so I couldn't take it
outside. (We had an outside door to the basement) I was terrified. I
knew it wouldn't explode because it wasn't contained but the whole
basement (it seemed to me) was full of flames and smoke. But thank
goodness it didn't catch anything on fire. I think it took only about
ten or fifteen seconds to burn the whole pound. (Good batch) To this
day I can still hear my Mom calling down to the basement and ask if I
was burning anything. The basement was so full of powder smoke I
could hardly see. Good thing she didn't come down to the basement or
I would have lost my driving rights for life.
The dumb things we do as kid. These are the things I did when I
wasn't flying my rubber powered planes.
Long story, sorry
Gene
I'll tell you one that I did about two years ago. I'm always looking
for ways to save money, so I taught myself how to rebuild saxophones. I
had taken my antique alto sax to a shop to be adjusted and put into
playing condition and it ended up costing me $200. I figured that I
would be better of on the receiving end of that amount of money, so I
decided to learn to do it myself. So I bought an antique baritone sax
on ebay and started my reconditioning project. One thing that saxophone
repairmen use a lot is an alcohol lamp. It's used for melting the
adhesive that holds the pads in the cups. An alcohol flame is not
extremely hot compared to other fuels, and it leaves no soot on the
keys. You will see home made alcohol lamps in any shop where there are
woodwind repairmen working, and they're usually made from old peanut
butter jars and such. You just make a hole in the lid, put a threaded
tube through it (from the lamp parts section of the hardware store, I
think it's called a ferrule), and then fasten it in place with a nut on
the inside of the lid and one on the outside. Then you roll a wide lamp
wick into a spiral and stuff it through the tube, leaving the end to
hang in the alcohol. Just the very tip of it will be at the top of the
tube. Fill the jar with alcohol and you get a nice little flame about a
half inch tall at the top.
I decided to make one of these, but I hadn't closely studied the ones
that I had seen. I simply cut a slot in the lid and pulled the wick
through. I put about two inches of alcohol in the jar, lit the wick and
it instantly exploded. The problem was that the wick was just loose
enough in the slot to allow the flame to travel into the jar. This was
a very bad thing. The jar exploded in my hand, causing glass to fly
everywhere, and flaming alcohol fell on my leg and ran out the bottom of
my pants where it burned off of my ankle.
Now here's the worst part. I remember the early brainwashing that I
received in school over 25 years ago. When you're on fire, you are
supposed to roll on the ground, right? So I ran up the half-stairs to
the door from the basement to the yard. But it was locked.
(Incidentally, my mother-in-law just a week before had told me not to
keep it locked, in case of fire. I actually laughed at her.) I spent a
moment or two thinking of what to do while my leg continued burning, and
then it suddenly occurred to me that the best thing to do would be to
get in the shower, which I did. That put the fire out instantly. Then
I went back to the basement and realized that the alcohol had set a box
of balsa scraps under the table on fire, and the flames had spread to my
stereo speakers. We were able to put the fire out very quickly, and the
only loss was a set of venetian blinds, a box of scraps, and the
speakers.
I suffered third degree burns on my ankle (in my own estimation. I
never went to a doctor.) It hurt a lot for about a month, but I took
really good care of it and it healed nicely. I learned something
important, though. Always be sure to try new things outdoors if they
involve flammable materials. I know that this story probably makes me
sound like a reckless maniac, but this is the only really risky thing I
have done. I'm actually a very careful person. You may recall that
whenever the discussion turns to propeller accidents, I'm always the
most outspoken advocate of simple safety measures. I know for sure that
6 ounces of flaming alcohol will make you really careful!
Epilogue:
I made a $400 profit on the baritone sax, and now I rebuild and repair
saxophones part time for a local store for some extra cash. I was able
to salvage one woofer from my stereo speakers, which I used in a tube
powered homebuilt Fender replica guitar amplifier. Last summer when I
bought all of Tom Runge's RC stuff, Donna Runge gave me a nice set of
speakers, which I now use. And I totally eliminated the outside door
from the basement and put a half bathroom on the main floor in place of
the stairway. Now if I catch on fire I'll go to the shower first!