AIR SYSTEM

[3b a runnin]

I was in my shop this evening after mowing the yard. I always use the air hose to blow the grass off my mower before I put it away. Just after I walked past the compressor, for some reason, the plug blew out of the air regulator.
Scared the crap out of me. I still haven’t found the plug. I closed the output valve on the tank to make sure the pressure switch was working properly and it cut off at the set pressure. It’s a Milton FRL unit approximately 12yr old.
Point being, Don’t trust nothing!

 

[Ol Fogie]

Wow, lucky, glad it did not hit you when it blew out.

 

[Jeepenstein]

Wow, lucky, glad it did not hit you when it blew out.

Yeah a 1" pipe plug with 125 psi behind it makes a pretty good projectile.. There area few dents inside what used to be the USS Philadelphia engine room forward space from just such a projectile while draining the water from the low pressure air compressor.. Thanks for the memory JJ..

JJ was my maintenance buddy.. He had everything tagged out, but the water resevoir still had pressure.. Scared the snot out of me..

 

[Ol Fogie]

Pressure will surprise you just how much force is really there.
I was talking to a guy who worked with fracking equipment crew for water wells. He told me a story where they were doing a fracking job on a city water well. I did not exactly understand how the process was set up but from what I under stood, there was a big steel pipe involved putting tremendous pressure into the well. There was a cutoff valve in the steel pipe. He went to open or close the valve, standing with one foot on each side of the valve. Just as he started to turn it things exploded, the steel pipe disappeared. He said I was just standing there unhurt with just the valve wheel still in my hands. He did not explain the process but apparently something went wrong and the pressure escaped from inside the well and came back up the piping. The pressure went into the near by water works building and blew part of the roof off the building! Talk about lucky,

 

[Jeepenstein]

F = P x A

Force = pressure x area, so if you consider a 1" pipe plug as truly 1" diameter, and 125 psi, that's 98 pounds of force..

I saw a guy get killed greasing a crane sheave using a pneumatic grease gun. Same guy, same crane, same gun for like a decade with no issue. During the previous crane inspection, the crane company replaced the sheave seals so they no longer leaked.. The guy doing the greasing had always pumped until he saw grease at the seal.. Not this time, and he didn't' catch on that the slowing "pucka pucka" sound probably meant something was wrong, he just cranks on the regulator.. and whack.. a 1/2" pipe plug blew out and went right through his head.

 

[3b a runnin]

I finally found the plug and spring. It broke the cap in the threads. Other words, the threaded portion is now half as tall.

 

[3b a runnin]

Plastic!

 

[PeteL]

Hard to tell in the picture - is that busted plug plastic or metal?

 

[3b a runnin]

Plastic

 

[PeteL]

Plastic

That's yore problem, right thar.