Nearly burned down the shop today

[acidrain]

Well, it wasn't that close, but could have been...
My wife calls me at work today and leaves a message; are you anodizing something? Is it supposed to be boiling?
I call home in a panic.
Luckily, my son pulled the plug to my home-made heat exchanger.
Apparently, the hot-water tank thermostat I use on it stuck in the on position, boiled off about 30 gallons of water and nearly exposed the 220v heating element. Scarry!
All the EPS foam insulation is distorted, and the PVC pipe that carries the warmed acid looks like spagetti. The acid remained contained, and the only real damage was the foam.
Phew!

[sswee]

Re: Nearly burned down the shop today

Sorry to hear about your mishap but glad to hear it wasn't as bad as it could have been. There has been more than one time I worked fatigued, hit the shower and bed then had to get up, get dressed and go back to the shop to check to see if I had turned everything off because I couldn't remember for sure. With worrying about making sure there's not an operator error is a real kick in the backside when the automatic stuff fouls up. You know if you had a float valve to keep it topped off you probably would have had a sauna or the float valve would have stuck and flooded your shop. I hope your not down too long.
SS

[archimedes]

Re: Nearly burned down the shop today

Greetings Acidrain,
I have to feel relieved that your circumstances did not go the worse
as I have been there a few times myself.
It seems "regular job + serious hobby = really scary conundrums" at times.
Glad to know the house & family are good to go.
Sswee is right--- one anticipated flaw with another "solution" might have created another one of those "conundrums".
It just seems the chaos is always ready to snare.

Read your post about the CV anodizing and titration. Sounds
very interesting and would appreciate your efforts when all is back to
a comfort zone.
archi