Gallery, Projects and General > Oooops!
Avoided the house burning down!
-steves-:
OK, heart still beating, still have a house but I think I can safely say that adrenaline is definately brown!
I build a little steam engine over the last couple of months, my first one and it now runs like a dream and doesn't look all that bad either. I made the burner for it and was always aware the wicks were a touch too small for it and the flames were too bigand it always had a little "pop" when you lit it. I thought I would fix that tonight, so I added some more wick into each hole and shortened each wick to a better size. Added just half a container of meths as it was only for test, and the lit it...........
WOW!..........BIG POP, all 3 wicks shot out the burner within a few seconds and set light to my shoes and the carpet, fortunately no major damage done as we had sufficient things to hand to put it all out very quickly.
My question is, what the hell happened and why????????
Below is a picture of the burner....
John Rudd:
I'd hazard a guess and say that the meths started to boil from the heat....You know the rest...
-steves-:
--- Quote from: John Rudd on May 24, 2012, 04:36:55 PM ---I'd hazard a guess and say that the meths started to boil from the heat....You know the rest...
--- End quote ---
It had only been lit a couple of seconds? It has been run from a full pot, with thinner wicks and longer wicks, obviously something I changed made it happen. The problem I have is I don't know why it would do that as I have never seen or even heard of it happening before. It was most definately dengerous and until I can eliminate it happening again, I dare not run it or any other home made burner again. Is the air hole too big and the flames managed to get inside the burner and blew it all out, is the hole too small and it quickly built up pressure somehow, are the wicks too tight causing some sort of pressure build up? I just don't know, my personal best guess is the meths must have some how managed to get a flame from the breather hole in the middle and cause the explosion, but will a smaller hole stop this happening again??
John Swift:
Hi Steves ,
are the wicks fitted into tubes that nearly reach the bottom of the container ?
if the the fuel container is not all filled with a heat resistant wadding , filling all the space above the fuel,
fuel vapour escaping out of the central hole or past a loose fitting wick could ignite and burn back into the container
John
PS - could you fit a fine wire gaze over the breather hole
-steves-:
--- Quote from: John Swift on May 24, 2012, 04:50:42 PM ---Hi Steves ,
are the wicks fitted into tubes that nearly reach the bottom of the container ?
if the the fuel container is not all filled with a heat resistant wadding , filling all the space above the fuel,
fuel vapour escaping out of the central hole or past a loose fitting wick could ignite and burn back into the container
John
PS - could you fit a fine wire gaze over the breather hole
--- End quote ---
Hi John
The wick tubes are not all that long, they certainly dont reach anywhere near the botton of the burner, maybe half way down, could this be the issue and if so what is the reasons please?
The container is just neat meths, no wadding inside it, would this help and if so what should I use?
How fine would the gauze need to be as I don't have any at all so will need to purchase some if that will fix it.
Many thanks
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