> RaceMixer!!t4BTRmATV2 19/07/16(Tue)22:48

>>112976
> How many people could that have killed?

Well probably the 3 of us who were down in the basement. Me, the operator, and some rando that worked there. The main issue I was concerned with was asphyxiation. You can't breathe steam. It essentially displaces air so a lack of oxygen could be fatal, which is why I didn't run out into the turbine room. At least in the control room we had a room full of air. The first thing they taught us about hazardous atmospheres and first-aid in general was to survey the situation. If your buddy is in a tank or pit, and suddenly drops, there could be something toxic or displacing the air. If you jump in, now there's two dead guys in the tank.

One interesting thing is that when you get steam hot enough it becomes "superheated steam", which you can't see. Should it leak from a pipe it turns into a jet and cuts like a laser. The standard way of finding superheated steam leaks is to talk around waving a straw broom in front of you. When the steam jet hits the broom, the broom explodes.

But the other thing, if a room is filled with superheated steam, you can't see it, or breathe.

  More superheated steam.

  Then there's steam explosions:

> Another consideration is safety. High pressure, superheated steam can be extremely dangerous if it unintentionally escapes. To give the reader some perspective, the steam plants used in many U.S. Navy destroyers built during World War II operated at 600 psi (4,100 kPa; 41 bar) pressure and 850 degrees Fahrenheit (454 degrees Celsius) superheat. In the event of a major rupture of the system, an ever-present hazard in a warship during combat, the enormous energy release of escaping superheated steam, expanding to more than 1600 times its confined volume, would be equivalent to a cataclysmic explosion, whose effects would be exacerbated by the steam release occurring in a confined space, such as a ship's engine room. Also, small leaks that are not visible at the point of leakage could be lethal if an individual were to step into the escaping steam's path.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiler#Superheated_steam_boiler

Which probably would have been bad for everyone in the building if basement 2 had exploded. Natural gas lines and all.

But the biggest danger is letting the boiler run dry, then adding water while it's hot. That's the explosions you see.

I got a couple of emails regarding it. One from our safety manager thanking me for helping the site personnel shut down the unit and asking if it was normal to have pressure relief valves mounted where they can rain on everyone. (It is, actually, though they should dump safely.) And one from our business unit VP giving a +1, and thanking me for being a safe employee.

>>112982
>Also, small leaks that are not visible at the point of leakage could be lethal if an individual were to step into the escaping steam's path.
I don't even want to know what that injury looks like.

>>112983
It's probably not as as bad as high pressure oil injection wounds.

Seems I'll soon be joining the machinists club. How time flies.

I was recently offered a pretty sweet deal on a rather large mill/lathe combo unit. It belonged to a retired gunsmith who basically gutted and rebuilt it for work in his shop, and used it for several years before retiring. He passed it to a friend of mine who has decided it's more than he wanted or needed and offered me a "come pick this 600lb thing up and get it out of my garage workshop" discount off the price. It needs some fairly serious TLC in terms of cleaning, minute inspecting, and re-lubing, but I learned the basics of dealing with a Grizzly 9729 some years ago and they're very similar. Upon basic inspection it seems to be in solid shape and runs like a top. Comes with a bunch of extras (live center, steady rests, riser plates, a selection of milling cutters, and a 4 jaw chuck to name a few) with better motors already installed, too.

Speaking of machinists, how do your shops handle carbide dust from grinding flats and relieving endmills etc.? Where I work it's just an open grinder with no coolant, vacuum system or anything and no one else even wears a dust mask. I imagine that shit isn't good to breathe, I'm curious how it's handled elsewhere.

>>113000
I wear a dust mask, that's about it. Since I'm always the one ordering tooling, I don't have to modify stuff that often so I don't think it's a huge deal.

To be honest I've heard it's bad but I've never seen medical papers or reports on exposure to tungsten carbide dust, no idea how bad it is or what it's like long term or what.

>>113000
Dust mask, Proper airflow, dust handlers.
Last shop I worked at had wet grinders for carbide.

I don't know my job status, if I'm even really employed right now, when I'm returning to NorCal or exactly what it is I'm doing when I get there; it's messy. The survey shit I was doing is a soon to be finished project. I am now a member of the IBEW... I think? I don't know, man. I was supposed to start work as a groundman (still not sure what they do), but it got delayed. My boss is constantly hitting me with shit last minute, there's some vague notion that my doing this shit will eventually translate to a career back here in Vegas, and being unable to tell my wife when I'm supposed to leave or return is irking.
All I know is I fucking love the Army. Completed my first two week annual training for the reserve a week ago. I love my platoon, got a lot out of our training (I ramped a 100 pound robot off a fucking sage bush!), and even sleeping restlessly in the back of a cramped blast resistant vehicle, grimy clothes still on, I felt at ease. My ceaseless worrying and self doubt and second guessing all just shut the fuck up for two glorious weeks. My wife keeps saying I should've went active duty, but I refuse to uproot her. She's started a good career, a master's program, her whole family is here, and she'll never have a better selection of medical specialists (it's gotten worse, by the way. She sustained heart damage). And yet, I feel like whatever I do on the civilian side is just to pay bills until the day I'm down range, in the shit. I want it bad. God help me, I really fucking do.
Highlights of AT:
During an exercise with a grader on site:
>"2-6, Talon. The robot may have inadvertently made contac-"
>"breakbreakbreakbreakshhhhhutthefuckup!"
>"This is 2-6, say again last?"
>"Disregard, hot mic."

A battalion wide party in the barracks where I witnessed my fucked up drunk LT tell off another company's 1st SGT, an impromptu B-boy dance battle, we all got smoked by the XO because even Top was fucked up, and at one point I shouted for a medic.

Smoking black & milds with several platoon members on the hood of an RG as the sun set, an Apache pilot doing some kind of drill in the distance.

My platoon sergeant awarding me high praise.
>"This motherfucker is either CID or a fucking serial killer."

Rolling in a convoy where every driver was hungover except for the LT's driver; he was still drunk.