How should I blow up a motorbike?

I know of a Landrover tank that went boom when a rust hole was being
welded (1). The tank had been washed, but not well enought apparently.
So there was heat and sparks, but no pressure. The critical issue
would be having the right vapour/ air mix. A bit like one of the
Mythbuster experiments with methane, they finally got a dunny to
explode but only after much experiimentation with the fuel/ air mix.

cheers, Bill

(1) One of the guys working on the tank was quite lucky, a bit of
shrapnel grazed his neck, could have been a much worse outcome.

 

A stones bomb is an explosion in the same sense that pressing the nozzle
on an aerosol can and lighting it is an explosion.

Nev..
'07 XB12X

 

Coffee anyone?

Lets take the berries off that tree, soak them in water till they go rotten
then scrape the flesh off, dry the seeds and cook them over a fire till they
turn brown, then grind that into a fine powder and run water through the
powder and drink the water....

P

 

? Wasn't there at the time, but saw the aftermath of a Series III
Landrover tank that was being welded (at Weipa). I recall being told
of the tank going 'boom'. One of the guys working on the tank (a work
mate) was lucky not to be seriously injured.

Bill

 

Yeah, and it's multiplied. The place where they actually make
the pies is on the corner of Harris and <mumble> opposite the
entrance to the Powerhouse Museum, they have a store there, and
there's another CdW shoehorned in around the back of the Capitol
Theatre, right next to the tram tracks. I vaguely remember seeing
another pop up somewhere else recently, but I can't remember where.

On google maps/streetview:
<http://tinyurl.com/3jvua8>
<http://tinyurl.com/4cysxo> <-- that curved bit of roof behind the pub


GB

 

<involuntary pucker>! Yeah, and those bastards hurt like **** and
take a month to heal!


GB

 

There is a slight difference between a bang and a whoof,
explosives, electrical mishaps and lightning go bang, or crack,
petrol goes whoof or boom,
I guess that it would be hard for the normal person not to say
"the petrol tank went up with a bang", when it is a gradual explosion
unlike explosives set off with a detonator, which is instantaneous.

 

In such a case, there's a direct spark applied to a tank containing a
fuel vapour and air mix in a fairly volatile ratio. Hence the
oft-repeated advice to fill tanks with water prior to welding them.

Vehicle fires don't replicate these conditions. Fuel vapour to air
ratios in a tank containing liquid petrol are too rich to support
combustion.

 

Our local rag tends to incorrectly apply the term explosion to anything
that burns.

Once they even claimed a car exploded twice... al-Qaeda would love to be
able to do that trick...

It's a shame to see cars burnt out because a fire that could have been
put out with a hose in its early stages has been left to burn because
the onlookers are taking cover from the "inevitable" explosion that
they've seen so many times on TV.

 

I was near an expolsion caused by a bank of 12 volt batterys in the mid
1970's, a soldier in the back of a APC shorted out the teminal with a
wedding ring and the bank exploded killing him.

Boxer

 

And deposited him all over the walls ?

 

Weirdo...


Onya bike...

Gerry

 

Ingest enough eccies and all cane toads are sweet...


Onya bike...

Gerry

 

Yep.... Been there, done that...

///////

Back to the subject de jour...

And a bit of a war story...

1968 - Nui Dat, Vietnam. Our platoon sergeant, an absolutely despised
man, decided that the grass was growing too high in between the coils
of barbed wire forming our perimiter. He came up with the brilliant
idea of spraying the grass with petrol using a knapsack sprayer. So
far so good... But did he get well clear and get someone else to
throw the match? No, sir...

Being a bit safety conscious, he took the knapsack off and put it down
a few meters away and went back to light the grass...

The grass went WOOSH... and so did the sergeant... He forgot that
his clothes were saturated with petrol fumes...unfortunately some
quick-acting do-goodder put him out and called the medics...

Oh, and the knapsack? Well, the sergeant had put it down DOWNWIND
from the sprayed section... The fumes had spread... It became one with
the fireball, producing a VERY nice flare for a brief while...

I think it was probably about this time that the ever-present Viet
Cong got the idea that they could win this war...

Post Script: The sergeant's burns healed and he returend to duty.
There was a fragging later that year and a lieutenant got killed.
Rumour has it that the grenade was meant for the the sergeant.

War is hell.

Think twice before you start another one...


Onya bike...

Gerry

 

Had a troop Sergent like that in the Cav, he was my APC commander and he
used to hit me on the head with the barrel of the 50 when he wanted my
attention, he was an ex-grunt and none too bright as we had a good intercom
system. One day he forgot to duck as I drove under a low branch. A sad day
really!

Boxer

 

I can relate to that...

You've rminded me of the dreaded red ants...


Onya bike...

Gerry

 

Sounds fair.

 

Or worse ...

Lets forget about taking the berries off the tree. Why don't we wait
until that cat-looking animal eats them, then we will collect the
berries from the cat shit. Then we continue with the roasting, grinding etc.

Kim

 

Yep; that civet-coffee thing is way beyond any line I'd draw.
I don't consume things that other mammals have shit out!

 

Congratulations everybody. This is the only place in the world that I
can think of where a question about burning out a motorbike gets into
recipes for cooking cane toads. Fantastic.