>Suggest you use a soldering iron to burn the
>holes
>BUT ONLY IF YOU HAVEN'T YET
>HAD FUEL IN IT OTHERWISE YOU WILL GET A BIG
>EXPLOSION
Bob - You are probably wise to counsel thus, but ...
The operating temperature of a soldering iron is not going to be high
enough to ignite the fuel under normal circumstances.
I understand that when erks were being introduced to 100-octane
petrol in the RAF (back when it was the latest fuel technology), the
sergeant-instructor would conduct the following 2 demonstrations
(among others designed to demonstrate how the vapour flowed long
distances downhill, etc).
(a) spill a very small quantity of petrol on the concrete floor, and
just slide his steel-shod boot past it, giving instant ignition.
(very little energy, but a high-temperature spark)
(b) plunge a big copper soldering iron, overheated so it was glowing,
into a large dish of petrol. Of course it boiled off very quickly but
did NOT ignite, much to the amazement of the students who were
usually trying to back away quickly by this time! Great care was
taken to insure that the soldering iron was very clean, with no sooty
particles adhering, as these could easily have been well above the
ignition temperature. (lots of energy, but a relatively low
temperature)
Despite that pedantic observation - your advice is worthwhile
following and certainly errs on the side of safety!
regards
Rowland
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