exploding vacuum cleaner

[Lenny]

I found this on another ng and thought it sounded interesting......
Lenny Stein, Barlen Electronics

A friend of ours accidentally did this exploding vacuum cleaner stunt at
home several years ago. He was using the family's canister vacuum in the
trunk area of one of his antique cars, and did not know that the rubber
tubing that vented the gas tank was rotted and allowing gas fumes to
collect in the low areas of the quarter panels. When he placed the end of
the vacuum cleaner hose down into one of those areas to clean some dirt
out, he heard a horrible explosion and looked out of the trunk (which he
was luckily sitting inside at the time) to see a huge fireball and pieces
of the vacuum cleaner falling out of the sky... the canister motor actually
went through the window of his back porch about 50 feet away from where he
was working. The only thing left was part of the hose and some of the power
cord. Luckily no one was hurt but after he changed his clothes he had to
buy his wife a new vacuum cleaner.

 

[Tom MacIntyre]

On 3 Aug 2003 07:45:05 -0700, captainvideo462002@yahoo.com (Lenny)
wrote:

I found this on another ng and thought it sounded interesting......
Lenny Stein, Barlen Electronics

A friend of ours accidentally did this exploding vacuum cleaner stunt at
home several years ago. He was using the family's canister vacuum in the
trunk area of one of his antique cars, and did not know that the rubber
tubing that vented the gas tank was rotted and allowing gas fumes to
collect in the low areas of the quarter panels. When he placed the end of
the vacuum cleaner hose down into one of those areas to clean some dirt
out, he heard a horrible explosion and looked out of the trunk (which he
was luckily sitting inside at the time) to see a huge fireball and pieces
of the vacuum cleaner falling out of the sky... the canister motor actually
went through the window of his back porch about 50 feet away from where he
was working. The only thing left was part of the hose and some of the power
cord. Luckily no one was hurt but after he changed his clothes he had to
buy his wife a new vacuum cleaner.

That sucks!

LOL

Tom

 

[Ron]

I know this is going to sound like 'Can you top this', but this really
happened:

A friend of mine and his helper were cleaning up the mess from
demolishing some walls in an office building. The elevator floor
needed vacuuming because of all of the drywall dust. They had
the car in manual mode and the door held open. Without thinking,
the helper pushed the button for the basement. The next thing
they saw was the shopvac that they were using levitate up towards
the ceiling of the elevator (it was still plugged into an outlet on the
1st floor).

When the shopvac hit the ceiling, the lid came off and the canister
crashed down, billowing a cloud of drywall dust which covered my
friend and his helper. When the elevator door finally opened, the dust
pouring out of the car set off the smoke alarm in the basement. The
2 hapless guys, white as ghosts, tried to sneak away and hide.
-Ron
(email: replace 'abuse' with 'cyberguy3k')

"Lenny" <captainvideo462002@yahoo.com> wrote:
I found this on another ng and thought it sounded interesting......
Lenny Stein, Barlen Electronics

A friend of ours accidentally did this exploding vacuum cleaner stunt at
home several years ago. He was using the family's canister vacuum in the
trunk area of one of his antique cars, and did not know that the rubber
tubing that vented the gas tank was rotted and allowing gas fumes to
collect in the low areas of the quarter panels. When he placed the end of
the vacuum cleaner hose down into one of those areas to clean some dirt
out, he heard a horrible explosion and looked out of the trunk (which he
was luckily sitting inside at the time) to see a huge fireball and pieces
of the vacuum cleaner falling out of the sky... the canister motor
actually
went through the window of his back porch about 50 feet away from where he
was working. The only thing left was part of the hose and some of the
power
cord. Luckily no one was hurt but after he changed his clothes he had to
buy his wife a new vacuum cleaner.

 

[Charles Schuler]

"Ron" <abuse@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:LjeXa.4285$8N.403698@twister.socal.rr.com...

I know this is going to sound like 'Can you top this', but this really
happened:

I can't top it but it does remind me of long gone days in a gas station in
PA in the 50's. One night a customer asked me to check his antifreeze and I
popped the hood and opened the cap and could see nothing. I asked him to
wait a moment because I needed a flashlight and turned around and was
walking back to the office when I heard a sound that you get when you blow
across a bottle top (but a lot louder). Turning around, I viewed the
customer beating his face and hair. He was impatient and had lit a match
over the radiator opening. This was back in the days of alcohol antifreeze.
He was pissed, but luckily only lost his eyebrows and the front part of his
Elvis hairdo.

 

[James Sweet]

I believe it, it doesn't take much volume, ever used a potato gun? I built
one a few years ago, it easily blasts a hole in a piece of 1/4" plywood from
a few feet away, it's amazing the power that's in a quick squirt of starting
fluid.

"Sam Goldwasser" <sam@saul.cis.upenn.edu> wrote in message
news:6whe4ygxnx.fsf@saul.cis.upenn.edu...

captainvideo462002@yahoo.com (Lenny) writes:

I found this on another ng and thought it sounded interesting......
Lenny Stein, Barlen Electronics

A friend of ours accidentally did this exploding vacuum cleaner stunt at
home several years ago. He was using the family's canister vacuum in the
trunk area of one of his antique cars, and did not know that the rubber
tubing that vented the gas tank was rotted and allowing gas fumes to
collect in the low areas of the quarter panels. When he placed the end
of
the vacuum cleaner hose down into one of those areas to clean some dirt
out, he heard a horrible explosion and looked out of the trunk (which he
was luckily sitting inside at the time) to see a huge fireball and
pieces
of the vacuum cleaner falling out of the sky... the canister motor
actually
went through the window of his back porch about 50 feet away from where
he
was working. The only thing left was part of the hose and some of the
power
cord. Luckily no one was hurt but after he changed his clothes he had to
buy his wife a new vacuum cleaner.

I wonder about this story. Even if the fuel:air mixture were optimal,
there isn't that much volume between the source and the vacuum motor
at atmospheric pressure.

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