Oops I really messed up

[ojh]

HolySmokes! I'm glad that you got it resolved, that looked like something I'd do.

[Irrational Metalworks]

I had the same thing happen on a chopper tank I built when I went to pressure test it. Brand new one off tank for a bike going in a big show 6 days from then! It opened up just like that with very little pressure. Lucky for me, I had a pipe fence on my property that I could put it under with a jack, boards and a thick blanket. With the good Lord looking over me, I got it all bent back in shape, and it even bolted up again! Now I use a regulator to pressure check tanks, instead of a blow gun!

[jhnarial]

Yea no more air gun for me either

[Oldnek]

Don't feel to bad, I tried the similar thing on an expansion chamber on a YZF. I couldn't bolt it back onto to the engine it swelled that much.
That was a costly exercise. No more air for me when it comes to pulling dings.

[VetteMemphis]

Originally Posted by jhnarial

I have done some reading on it now. I might have done some research first.
it says no more then 5 lbs of pressure. I thought i did not add that much pressure but i know it was a heck of a lot more presure then 5lbs.

John, I'm laughing as I've been there, too.

Long story longer...

I met the wife of a VERY prominent Nashville attorney at Sun-N-Fun in 1986 while we lived in Sarasota and I was Director of Maintenance at the Jet Center.

This lady was about my Mom's age, I being in my early thirties and as we sat in the lee of a 'geedunk' tent taking shelter from a very chill wind, she shared that she was taking flying lessons and soon would be airplane shopping.

As we began to get to know one another, she seemed impressed by my credentials and asked would I mind doing a pre-buy on whatever she wanted looked at, expenses on her.

Certainly - why not?

A year later, she called me at my new place of employment in Tennessee, asked if I would accompany her to Florida to pre-buy an airplane, and if purchased, would I fly it back for her?

Certainly - why not? So we did. That was in late Feb.

Over the ensuing spring and summer, she and her 172 Cessna became a bit of a burden as she was an overbearing customer who was convinced that EVERYONE, including me, was out to get her money.

Sometime that summer, she brought the airplane to me complaining of a fuel leak on the right side (she just KNEW she could smell raw fuel) so I flew the airplane and believe me, there was no leak.

Week later she's back, so I say "Okay, we'll pull the tanks and leak check them on the bench."

Imagine my chagrin the next morning when one of my young A&P's walks into my office, says "You gotta come see this." He precedes me to the hangar where an inflated aluminum tank lies there on the bench (RH tank), and he says,"Dang thing just blew up like a balloon."

By his best guess, he put "20 or 25 pounds on it" and there she lay.

Needless to say, we spent the rest of the morning wrassling that doggone tank into some kind of shape before stuffing it back in the wing and putting the cover over it.

Never did find a leak but in those cases I always described to the customer, in agonizing detail, all the steps we took to troubleshoot the problem and if that didn't fix it, just bring it back and we'll replace the entire fuel system.

Come to find out, she was sticking her fuel sample cup in the seat back before flight and was simply very sensitive to the residual odor left in the cup.