Security cam screengrab:

gravebayne2: to be fair.... at least it isn't explosive anymore.

Mission accomplished?

The shell "accidentally" exploded while being torched?

Uh, I think that's what they are designed to do. I could be wrong . . .

dukwbutter: dittybopper: Personally, though, I would have just soaked the thing in WD-40 for a month instead.

WD-40 sucks. Use Kroil.

Use PB Blaster. You know it's good because the health warning takes up most of the label.

/Kroil is for cutting
//WD-40 is for water displacement
///and lard is for lube

dittybopper: What if, as appears to possibly be the case, the fuse was stuck hard enough (perhaps through corrosion) that you can't unscrew the fuse with a wrench, like they initially tried to do?
...
Personally, though, I would have just soaked the thing in WD-40 for a month instead.

I'd have gone with dry ice/liquid N₂ to shrink the whaddyacallit that was stuck rather than trying to heat a bomb.

/I'd have used kroil.
//boelube is for cutting

dukwbutter: OldManDownDRoad: /Kroil is for cutting

I'm not clear why you say Kroil is for cutting. It's an aircraft lubricant, if I'm not mistaken.

That was their original pitch, ages ago: Kroil is for Kutting! They sold it to machine shops for drills and lathes - good stuff, I still have an old drip-can on my ancient drill press with the original painted-on label that I refill from new stock.

The "PB vs Kroil" debate on auto restoration forums is as old as the hills. And if that's not tiresome enough, on the machinist forums you've got the "Kroil vs Marvel Mystery Oil" debate.

About the only difference I can see is that PB stinks a lot worse than Kroil does.

IBelieveYouHaveMyStapler: A person can be smart but people tend to be stupid, sometimes in the most extraordinary ways. Watch how stupid these guys are (new link) (new window)

$10 says that welder said "I'm not doing this unless you're standing over me when you do it, and you're checking the farking thing with a torch."

/has been in similar situations, with chlorine. My former employer hated me for refusing to deal with that crap.

croesius: As a welder, I use an acetylene torch on a daily basis. The heat diffused through any metal you work with is so ridiculously high, there's no way in hell I am applying a torch to any sealed container, much less a freaking bomb. Simply heating the interior material with a torch causes massive expansion. Even if the explosives didn't combust, a sealed container could definitely kill onlookers once the inner material hit enough pressure to boom. I doubt they went to an actual welding shop, more likely it was just some dude with an old inverter.

Years ago when I first started working in auto repair, that was one of the first safety things I learned. If someone had a rust hole in their gas tank, they had two options: get a tank from the junk yard or buy a new tank from the dealer. No way in hell were we going to try to braze or weld it. Occasionally you'd hear about guys who tried to weld a tank without first filling it with CO2 or water (the preferred redneck solution) - the explosion and deaths would be written up in the paper.

And I still hear about such explosions when guys try to cut old kerosene or heating-oil tanks in half to make BBQ cookers.

There's a metal shop near me that will cut a tank to make a cooker, but they use this nifty device that looks like a wicked piece of dental floss. Plus they fill the tank with water. Makes a mess, but no one's been hurt yet.

Voiceofreason01: it kills me(well not so much "me" as "them") that during the drive to the machine shop and subsequent discussion about the best way to deal with the thing somebody thought that "lets put the torch on it and see if that loosens it up" sounded like a good idea

I can see this happening in my head. You have one guy who's the boss's right hand man by virtue of sucking dick, one guy who knows what the fark he's doing, and the old Polish boss.

Goimir Fark Theatre presents...
Stupid Welder Tricks!

boss: and if we can't get it out we use it the torch to warm it up

w: it's a bomb, you're an idiot

boss: you do what I say if you want it job, otherwise I fire you tomorrow

cs: a little heat won't hurt

boss: yes, that is what I talk about. Just 'nough heat to get it loosen

w: enough heat to loosen will be enough to ignite

boss: nonsense, I used to do it Navy work like this all the time

w: for the Soviet Navy or the German Navy?

boss: shut up! You no want to do it I give it the torch to cocksucker over here.

cs lights torch, and blows everyone up.

FIN