Using Paint Stirrer with Drill in High Gear

Couple months ago while I was off , one of our extruder's transition pipes went cold and polymer solidifed . The pressure inside is well over 2500 psi . One of our top mechanics of 30+ years took the call . He , as we all do , turn the band heaters up to 650 degrees from 550 and take a torch and map gas to heat the pipe up . He did , but unfortunately he was in the line of fire when the poly melted . He is black , but now has a white hand as it took all the skin off . EHS said we can't use this method any longer , but there is no other method . :rolleyes: He was most likely being rushed to get the line up and took his mind off of what he was doing .
Burns are horrible, I hope he is able to keep full use of his hand.
When you remelt the plastic are you able to start at the open end or do you have to get the entire slug hot enough to splat out?
 
Yesterday I used a tool for stirring paint. It's like a mixer beater you insert in a drill. I used it with the drill in low gear, and it was really controllable. I thought I might as well switch to high and get the job done.

Half of the contents jumped instantly out of the can. Some went on my chest. Some in my hair. Some on my shoes. A lot went on the floor.

There was absolutely no way to control it.

Don't do what I did.

In case anyone is interested, turpentine is what you use to clean Kilz 2 off things. I tried a bunch of solvents right after the accident. Don't waste your time with soapy water, regardless of what the label says.

Your experience reminded me: LOL

When I was a senior in HS, I worked in a family restaurant that had an in-house baker (I remember Yummy deep dish apple pie and chocolate fudge brownies). We had a big mixer (floor model) that had a gear shift lever for speed change and an electrical switch for On-Off. Part of my job was to prepare the fried chicken breading mix (30 or 40 pound of different flowers and spices). More than once or twice, I forgot to check the selected speed and virtually all would be expelled in an instant. What a mess.
 
Been there, I empathize.
The Kilz jumped straight up in a can-shaped mass and then dispersed itself laterally in all directions. It was almost a thing of beauty.
That would be a great visual to capture on a high speed camera, under controlled conditions, of course...
 
I thought the same thing, but it would also have caught me flailing and screaming with Kilz all over me.
 
I've made the same mistake, once. Lucky for me it was a 5 gallon bucket of sheet rock mud. It still made an awful mess, but the mud was thicker so it didn't get much on me. Since that experience, I always use a slow speed drill.

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Now I always put the gallon can in a 5 gallon bucket just in case...
 
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