Sounds simlilar to gun shots

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neviander

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I took my step-son's new bike up to the gas station to fill up his 2 flat tires (can't find the bike pump). Well, the front tire fills up fine, but apparently the tire on the back wasn't seated properly on the rim because as I'm squatting filling this tire up, POW! the tube blew up right in my face. I was deaf for about 10 seconds, saying to myself the whole time, "man, that sounded like a gun shot".

Anybody else ever have a similar experience?
 
My brother's friend who is a paramedic now has limited hearing because a tire on the ambulance he was working with exploded close to his ear.
 
I haven't, but my cousin was once playing piano in his house and heard what sounded like a shotgun go off outside. He went out to see what was going on, and found nothing. He then went back to play the piano to discover that one of the strings broke internally, and that's what sounded like a gunshot.
 
My older son once figured out how to dissolve aluminum foil in NaOH, which generates hydrogen.

I guess he was about fifteen at the time.

He'd do this in a large pop bottle and by snapping the necks of rubber balloons over the bottle, be able to fill the balloons with H2. He'd then tie them off by putting a knot on the neck of the balloon.

He'd then light 'em off with a loud bang.

As it happens, I worked about a 1/4 mile away and would hear these bangs all the way to the plant.

Get home: "Was that you setting off pop bottle rockets or firecrackers?"

"Nope," he answered truthfully.

"Could swear I heard something from this direction from the plant today. Sounded like shooting. Anyone shooting in the neighborhood this afternoon?"

"Nope," he answered truthfully.

I guessed it was one of those Mysteries Of Life (MOL) that would never be solved.

Wasn't until years later, when he grew bigger, heavier, and more muscular than me that the truth came out.

"You remember when... well, that was me setting off balloons full of hydrogen."

Well, I taught him not to lie.

And he wasn't lying.

Since he outweighed me about fifty pounds at that point, and was over 21, I decided to forgo a lecture about "The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth..."

He's also smarter than me, too, now. Come to think of it, he was smarter than me then, too, I guess.
 
The clamps slipping on the tire changing machine in the old shop, sending a steel rim off a Ford van and the attached--now full--tire flying and glancing off the ceiling.

Mechanics are the only people I've met that instinctively blast out the door like a cannon instead of looking up and going 'huh?' when someone yells "os***run!"
 
I plug my ears when bringing a bike tire up to pressure. A pinhole leak can seep forever at 25-30 lbs, but will fail completely at 55lbs if brought up too quick.
If you're determined to use a high-pressure pump like for a car tire, use one with an in-line guage and stop every 15 lbs for twenty seconds or so to allow the rubber to stretch.

And yes, a tire tube blowing out sounds like a shot. On a band trip in HS, the equipment truck blew out an inner-rear tire. Sounded like a freakin cannon from the bus 100yards+ in front.
 
One of the plays I did in college needed a gunshot on the stage. Blank-firing guns were not available, and none of the piped-in sound effects sounded right. I suggested whacking a 2x4 against a ventilation duct backstage, and proceeded to try it out. I hit the edge of the board against the duct, then slapped it with the broadside of the board, to replicate the double-report of a musket.

During the shows, people were jumping clear out of their seats.
 
A C02 cartridge from a pellet gun will make a boom like a handgun when tossed into a fire and heated until it bursts. (that was the last time i hung out with those guys. ducking the now peeled open and razor sharp cylinder as it fell back rapidly spinning to earth was not fun.)

18 wheeler tires sound like a shotgun when they explode at 70mph.

Also sometimes when you make a fire ring out in the woods and let the fire get roaring hot you discover that any rocks that have absorbed water will explode with a sound similar to a supersonic crack. (the little bits of flying rock feel like .22 ricochets as well)
 
Machina, sounds about right :D

When I worked on truck tires, I had a few experiences:
Some time during my first month, a customer brought a loose tire and wheel to be mounted. Everything looked fine, but at about 60psi(10-ply 9.50R16.5) the sidewall let go. The wheel was firmly clamped down, but the blast tore the top two buttons off my work shirt, emptied both of my shirt pockets, and blew my glasses off, which made me think I'd lost my vision. Minor disorientation there :)
Later, a coworker began to separate a forklift wheel(two discs bolted together), but forgot to let the air out of the tube. The wheel, of course, exploded after five of the eight bolts were loosened, and only sheer luck allowed him to escape potentially deadly injury from flying wheel discs, bolts, and nuts.
The last incident was during my last week at the truck shop. One of the guys was changing a tube and tire on an old-ass drill truck with 20" split-ring wheels(one-piece hoop, with a solid retaining ring and a split locking ring). He assembled it, then began to inflate in the cage. I noticed the ring hadn't seated quite right so had him(fairly new guy) tear it all down. I reassembled the wheel and gave it back to him to inflate, again in the cage. Everything looked alright. Some seconds later I heard the locking ring ping, and the retaining ring thump-CLANK against the cage, and I turned around soon enough to see the tube -still being inflated; the air chuck was clamped on - work its way out of the tire and stretch to its limit before exploding. That was the loudest sound I've EVER heard. Pretty cool to watch, too :D
We decided that the locking ring was at fault, and had a bear of a time locating "new" parts for wheels that haven't been legal to produce in years.

Oh, and on a lighter note, on slow days at various tire shops, I've amused(and frightened) coworkers by installing an Enkei-style chrome valve stem to various bottle caps, then using shop air to explode the bottle(2L bottles give a good report; 1Q oil bottles are pretty weak).

Edit: another coworker had his truck's rear suspension airbag explode last week. Pedestrians were on the ground immediately - bad neighborhood :D
 
I once dove for cover under a car when someone set off a pack of firecrackers as a prank. I was "primed" by being told a BS story about a drive by shooting that happened there the night before.
 
Yep with I was about 17 I worked in a gas station doing just about everything from pumping gas to major engine work. One day kid came in N wanted air in his bicycle tire N we used 100 psi on all the air lines, N this was one of those real skinny tires, yep POW N I was deaf for at least 30 seconds I learned to just hit the valve stem and not hold it there the hard way.
 
Small coleman liquid propane tank (about the size of a softball)
Into a fire
When you hear the releif valve, run!
From about 100 yards, it looked like a small atomic explosion,
not only was there an audible report but the ground shook!
 
Sheesh... If you can hear the relief valve...

I wonder two things... Why, in Bob's name, are you still standing there?

And why you let this happen in the first place?

I live within "distant hearing" of an interstate.

A tire blowing on a "big truck" sounds a LOT like a grenade... Except it's generally followed by "flap, flap, flap, flappity..." This is generally noted with aplomb by those of us standing in the front yards at dusk, holding beverages, and talking like Boomhauer...

Now, when the dumbbleep who lives behind me, and a few doors down, decided to pop off a magajean from some sorta 9mm one night... Well, we knew what that one was...

In the city, on several occasions, I heard pretty much everything from Mac 11/9s through AK-47s... And yeah, I'm pretty confident IDing them - you can tell from the cyclic rate and intensity...
 
Years ago, way back in the day, I had a '68 Chevelle SS396, with glasspacks and side exit exhausts. If you turned the key off while driving down the street and coasted a couple seconds, then turned it back on, the sidepipes backfired and sounded like cannons.

Going down a street, there was a guy standing at the back end of a pickup. It had a shell on it, the door was open, and he was putting something inside.

I couldn't resist. I did the exhaust popping thing as I went by him, looked in my mirror, and he was now INSIDE the truck bed, in the shell, with his head out and cursing mightily in my direction! He must have sprung flat-footed straight inside.

I was young and stupid, and laughed my ass off. Looking back later, of course, I realized the poor guy might have hurt himself. This was '74/'75 or so, he could have even been a 'Nam vet. Yes, I felt bad afterwards. But then I drank more beer and did other stupid things.
 
The pressure in the can increases in relation to the heat being absorbed by the contents of the can. The releif valve is the little plug on the can that looks out of place. Even if the bottle had almost no liquid fuel in it upon immersion into the flame, the releif valve might sound like a .22LR.

A bic lighter has no automatic releif valve, that's why a bic lighter just pops eventually in the fire.
 
Mechanics are the only people I've met that instinctively blast out the door like a cannon instead of looking up and going 'huh?' when someone yells "os***run!"
Click to expand...

you'd be wrong on that count amego. high school students foolin' with SCUBA tanks move just as fast. the nozzle on the top of those things put a nice sized hole in my friends windshield
 
I used to drive a 1976 Ford F-250 that had split rims. I probably lost six tires over the time I drove it. They sounded like a gun shot every time, and they always blew out the sidewall. Glad they don't put split rims on passenger vehicles anymore.

I also had a 1984 Buick that the catalytic converter plugged up on. The car was trying to stall as I drove it, so like a smart 16 year old I put the pedal to the floor. KABOOM It blew the exhaust pipe clear off the cat. I drove it around like that for a couple months. It sounded like a pack of Harleys but was only a beat to death Buick.
 
I used to do compressive strength testing on concrete cylinders for bridge deck and support pile construction...

The machine that does this test can hydraulically create over 8,000 PSI on a 6" diameter cylinder or about 225,000 pounds (112 tons) of pressure before it fails. A cylinder having a catastrophic failure at this point sounds and sometimes feels like a bomb going off. There are ten foot long cracks in the concrete floor to prove it.
 
You'd be surprised how much a heavy wooden door being slammed at 3am while you're fast asleep in a dorm will sound like a gun shot...especially when it happens a few times within a couple seconds... not long after the NIU shooting happened.
I swear I never jumped out of bed that fast in my life.
 
One time i took an entire roll of those red caps for the fake toy guns little kids love and smashed it with a hammer. Reaaaaaaaaaaly loud.
 
One time i took an entire roll of those red caps for the fake toy guns little kids love and smashed it with a hammer. Reaaaaaaaaaaly loud.
Click to expand...
Ha! I remember doing that!...loved the smell too.
 
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