Flame Thrower > Real One

[zeigs spud]

Propane is not a good flamethrower gas - your fuel runs out, the propane gets squirted across the ignition flame - bad things can happen. Using an inflammable gas is a much safer option.


Water gun flamethrowers are generally illegal - and at the least they are dangerous.

They will NOT "explode" when used, except in a million to one chance. The air-fuel mix is totally wrong, and the flame can't trace back anyway.

ha ha tol you! -taks glory stride- lol jp but yea heres the vid why they USUALY wont explode, which is also how mayn lighters work,

nvm the vid i lost the page...sorry..but yeah i don't feel like arguing over it again...


propane on a home made flamethrower is generaly bad yes but high standered military can use propane safely. then again nothing is ever safe..
quoted from wikipidia
A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long, controllable stream of fire. The English word 'flamethrower' is a loan-translation of the German word Flammenwerfer, since the modern flamethrower was first invented in Germany.

Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high pressure propane and natural gas, which is considered safer. They are used by the military and by people needing controlled burning capacity, such as in agriculture (i.e. sugar cane plantations) or other such land management tasks.

[iknowmy3tables]

I dont see any video but I understand the concept that when most flameables that come in liquid form such as gasoline only burn after they evaporate and the gas you often see burning is the suface liquid that is chancing phase. its similar to combustion spud gun fuel ratios. so in most cases it won't explode but maybe on the last drops where there is more air bubbles in the nossle, but those kids are still R-tards they are using it in their non vented garage

edit: in the wiki quote they are not talking about military flamethrower. today the military hardly uses flamethrower ever, but when they do they use a mixture of gas and nalpam to spread powerful difficult to extingish because there is still a lot of gas and nalpam on the target, propane won't stick and presureized tank can easily explode from indirect hits, also it burns too fast and how can you direct a stream of gas(the air kind), its much easier to make a liquid stream. naplam isn't nesesary for agiculture I can asume that propane flamethrowers are about as cool as baking bread

[willarddaniels]

Since I live in a very rural part of the US, I get to use and see others use propane flamethrowers on a regular basis. Just as wikipedia states, they are for agricultural use: to burn weeds in ditches and on the edges of fields (controlled burns) These "flamethrowers" - nobody calls them that - are simply a propane tank most often towed on a small trailer behind an ATV or pickup and one person walks beside the trailer with a large torch, burning weeds. Great fun for the first 3 minutes of your first try at it, after that, it turns right back into work. The last time I did this was 2 days ago, shortly after I watched the video... I really didn't think I was using a "flamethrower" at the time.

This reminds me of a story: last spring/summer, a guy was burning weeds for the canal company 5-6 miles from my house. He was driving a motorcycle with a large propane tank being towed behind him. After he was finished burning, he started to head back to the shop. He was hit from behind by either a large Norco or Praxair truck. These trucks carry canisters filled with flammable/explosive goodies: acetylene, oxygen, propane, etc. as well as other compressed, non-flammable gasses. Luckily for all, the truck's contents were secure and nothing happened to them. ...not so for the large propane tank: it EXPLODED like no other. 200' mushroom cloud, goodby ditch-burner. Somehow, the truck driver was fine. It was a really sad and awakening experience in our area.

[Killjoy]

They will NOT "explode" when used, except in a million to one chance. The air-fuel mix is totally wrong, and the flame can't trace back anyway.

How the F*ck is it I can't win the god damn lottery, but I get that million to one chance of a water gun/flamethrower exploding on me. Thats Bullsh*t.
Willard, I checked with my local firemartial dude too, and he said that suprisingly there is no law banning them, but that people have been caught using them be for and been charged with all sorts of stupid weird sh*t, and been fined or sent to jail. He did say though that these individuals did it on private property or in a threatening manner, and said as long as i kept it out of sight and on my property there shouldn't be a problem.

[joannaardway]

I think we may be working on different definitions of "explode".

[zeigs spud]

They will NOT "explode" when used, except in a million to one chance. The air-fuel mix is totally wrong, and the flame can't trace back anyway.

How the F*ck is it I can't win the god damn lottery, but I get that million to one chance of a water gun/flamethrower exploding on me. Thats Bullsh*t.

more and more people are suporting the fact there is a small chance that it will explode. sorry but there IS a small chance, can happen and it sis dangerous becuase it can or people screw aroudn and do somthing stupid. but if you do everything right it most liekly wont explode.


P.S.- you have more chance of being killed by a wild pig 2 times than winning the lotto so yeah....(got that from news channel 10 thanku very much)

[Killjoy]

Hmm... i do believe we are "working on two different defintions of explode. The water gun i was usuing "burst" i guess, not violently in a giant flameball, but enough to cover the front of me with burning gasoline (which is still bad). Sorry i considered bursting with something dangerous like that as exploding. But as ive read through the rest of the posts i think you guys are talking about a rather large explosion, which like you said is almost 1 in a million.
Still the main point is that its a dumb idea to do anything along these lines.
And yes you and joannaardway are right zeigs, its a small chance that it would explode violently. But the chances of getting burned or burning someone else is moderate.
PS. The pigs thing is sadly probably true, ive also heard you have about the same chance to get struck twice by lightning then to when the lottery.

[zeigs spud]

Hmm... i do believe we are "working on two different defintions of explode. The water gun i was usuing "burst" i guess, not violently in a giant flameball, but enough to cover the front of me with burning gasoline (which is still bad). Sorry i considered bursting with something dangerous like that as exploding. But as ive read through the rest of the posts i think you guys are talking about a rather large explosion, which like you said is almost 1 in a million.
Still the main point is that its a dumb idea to do anything along these lines.
And yes you and joannaardway are right zeigs, its a small chance that it would explode violently. But the chances of getting burned or burning someone else is moderate.
PS. The pigs thing is sadly probably true, ive also heard you have about the same chance to get struck twice by lightning then to when the lottery.

lol yea..

lol so if you get killed 2 times by pigs while being struck by lightning ur gonna win teh lotto fo sho! but i'm not trying that.

back to the main flame thrower topic, i'll post another vid soon.

heres to kill all the axe,wd40 and other can exploding myths..

qutoed--1. The flames does not enter the nozzle because of the pressure of the gas.
2. To make the canister explode you would need approximately 2-5% gas and 95-98% air. That means the canister would have to be almost empty and filled with air. And when a gas canister "empty" it is actually filled with decompressed propellant gas, the gas used to push the other flammable gas out of the canister. So the odds of a can of spray paint exploding in your hand is incredibly slim.

[BC Pneumatics]

Using propane to pressurize a flamethrower is perfectly acceptable. When the fuel runs out you just get a less impressive, less smoky flame. I have made a gaseous propane flamethrower, two LP flamethrowers, and diesel flamethrower pressurized with propane. They all work fine, no explosions, and using propane to pressurize the reservoir has the added advantage of eliminating one of the tanks, since the propane canister can be used for pressurization and the pilot flame. Military flamethrowers use butane.

Edit. For all the people that think I am talking out of my ass:

The backpack contains three cylinder tanks. The two outside tanks hold a flammable, oil-based liquid fuel, similar to the material used to make Greek fire. The tanks have screw-on caps, so they can be refilled easily. The middle tank holds a flammable, compressed gas (such as butane). This tank feeds gas through a pressure regulator to two connected tubes.

One tube leads to the ignition system in the gun, which we'll discuss later on. The other tube leads to the two side fuel tanks, letting the compressed gas into the open area above the flammable liquid. The compressed gas applies a great deal of downward pressure on the fuel, driving it out of the tanks, through a connected hose, into a reservoir in the gun.

[joannaardway]

@BCPneumatics: Ok then, fair enough - but that's a military grade flamethrower. Using it for a homemade flamethrower could be risky. Anyone who does that should be very wary.

On the random lottery facts: There are two lottery draws a week in the UK. If you enter for both, you are actually twice as likely to be murdered in that week as win the jackpot.

[BC Pneumatics]

Risky? No more than it is for military throwers. 'Military Grade' isn't exactly the highest of standards, and I don't think it would be a stretch to say that anyone that cared could build a flamethrower of equal or greater quality than that of military issue units.

As for all the lottery things floating around about murdering hogs and what not, just remember: There is no better lier in our modern world than statistics.

[willarddaniels]

Interactive diagram: How Flamethrowers Work
This is the site that BC was quoting. Check out the diagram, it is pretty cool and gives you a better understanding of how it works. Hopefully it does not give you any crazy ideas, like it did for me.

[zeigs spud]

Risky? No more than it is for military throwers. 'Military Grade' isn't exactly the highest of standards, and I don't think it would be a stretch to say that anyone that cared could build a flamethrower of equal or greater quality than that of military issue units.

As for all the lottery things floating around about murdering hogs and what not, just remember: There is no better lier in our modern world than statistics.

acualy military grade is quite nice for the U.S. army...idk bought urs lol no clue where ur from. but the compressed gas that pushes the fuel out is made nonflammable so no oxygen what so ever will be in the fuel supply / storage tank.

[joannaardway]

Risky? No more than it is for military throwers. 'Military Grade' isn't exactly the highest of standards, and I don't think it would be a stretch to say that anyone that cared could build a flamethrower of equal or greater quality than that of military issue units.

Anyone that cared, was sensible, and experienced with that kind of construction.

There are a lot of idiots out there who could easily slaughter themselves with this sort of thing.

[BC Pneumatics]

Zeigs- I am made in the USA thank you very much, and, if you would have bothered to read.... the compressed gas is in fact flammable. Bleed the tanks if it worries you.
I never said the US made shoddy products, be they are NOT precision grade instruments. (Not the flamethrowers I mean) An army of experience and sense will follow the KISS rule... Go T-34's!

Joanna- I would be FAR more concerned of the people you describe working with 800+psi inside PVC chambers than I would with them getting a close enough mix in the tanks to ignite. It is the lesser of two evils.