Reloading Kaboom Yesterday - Please Learn From This

[the86d]

Sorry to heard of your loss of flesh, NOW I will wear everything.

Thank you for posting about it, as we can all learn something about how not to be careless with gear (I will not be from here on out).

What would be good is if Dillon put a second layer of "tube" around the aluminum one, even a impact resistant transparent material as a small a buffer for pressure if a boom happens, but this might help build more static.

I'm sometimes nervous around my Lee powder hopper. It's plastic & when changing powder I usually have to knock out the last little bits held in by "static cling."

I wonder if the plastic in powder & primer containers is conductive?

I don't know if it will help you, but I built up static in my plastic(composite) powder pan with wiping off finger prints with my t-shirt. I noticed that powder was sticking to the pan, and couldn't be tapped off. I flicked it until I got almost all of it, other than the clingers. I then thought "the used dryer sheets", and wiped the pan down with one, and powder has not "clung" to the pan since.

[grant22]

"The other theory I have is that one of the primer's charge was faulty and primer's material was sticking out of its brass cup and/or two primers were facing each other at the charged end, and as the pin was removed, they rubbed against each other and caused ignition"

Then there is the claim primers are not armed until seated, with the clevis pin removed the primers should have exited the tube out both ends of the tube, or one end, strong evidence suggest the primers went off in the middle of the tube.
F. Guffey

Go back and read the first couple of pages a little more thoroughly. You will then see the primers DID exit both ends. The primers going out the bottom exit are what got my fingers and the primers going out the top put holes in my ceiling. I have no evidence that any primers went out the side opening.

[fguffey]

[grant22]

They are not armed until pressed, yes. But there still IS a material that is ignitable and susceptible to ignition, whether from heat or static. Primers do not have to be armed to explode. Furthermore, I have NEVER reused a primer that was already pressed into a case. There's a thread here where I was the only guy saying that I don't believe it's safe. I'll bet you wouldn't put 50 'unarmed' primers in your hand with an ignition source.

I know what happened, you don't since you were not there. You can try to prove all you want that this incident was my fault, but it doesn't matter. What's done is done. I think your type of thinking is that of an old propeller head.....and when the propeller stops spinning, you might want to come back down to the basics.

TAKE CARE

[Bongos]

There are a lot of theories here, if you look at the Dillon primer tubes of old and current, the big difference is a big peice of plastic guides on both ends (the old tubes only have one or none), this is the solution for static electricity. When you buy used Dillon equipment (as a lot of use do) and they come with tubes (without the plastic guides) you can just call Dillon and they will send them to you for free...

just bump into this thread and sorry to hear about your accident

[SmokingSam]

Does Dillon claim that the plastic pieces on the primer tube is for ESD protection? If so, I need to understand what the logic is.

Do you, the OP, have any of those primers left? may be you can examine some of them under a magnifying glass to see if there is anything wrong, perhaps.

At this point, defective primer/primers point to the accident's cause in my mind. While ESD is a very possible scenario, it is not the first theory for me anyway.

[mnguyen84]

hmm. over the spring break, I will see if you can ignite a primer using static electricity. i reload in a small carpeted room. so it would be a fun project.

[tankerman]

Does Dillon claim that the plastic pieces on the primer tube is for ESD protection? If so, I need to understand what the logic is.

We use nylon buckets for certain applications because they're non-sparking.

Drum bung nuts are frequently made of nylon too, for it's non-sparking qualities.

[SmokingSam]

The problem with most plastic Polymers (some special plastics are anti ESD) is that they actually increase the risk of ESD build up because they are an insulator. ESD charges travels on the SURFACE of materials so if you have a piece of plastic at the end of a primer tube, the ESD will build up on that plastic till it has enough potential to "jump" to a grounded point such as a press that has lower potential.

[grant22]

Reloading Kaboom Yesterday - Please Learn From This

It's been two years since this pesky little incident occurred. Yes, I've taken a break from reloading, but not due to fear, just been doing all my other stuff instead. I haven't even picked up a gun until the other day.....the gf wanted to go shoot so we did, now I'm kinda interested again in firearms and reloading.

Here's some before and after pics. Unfortunately, no new news or answers from Dillon. Although I'm not going to sit here and bash them, I will say (as stated before) I think they handled this all wrong. But I guess guys like me get the brunt of the sue happy litigious society we're so aware of now.

Injury pics:




Today:



I have full movement, range of motion, and full motor. There is a little sensory deficit on the thumb tip, but conversely, the one annoyance that'll never go away is the thumb lost some meat at the 'pad' so it's forever going to be tender. Basically even hand tightening (thumb tightening) a screw is like nails on a chalk board, so I usually switch over to the right hand. That's really it, tho. So yes, I did get lucky.

I have bought some items to safeguard against this in the future. The Dillon RL-whatever (Enos gave me one at cost, a real class act), ear muffs, leather gloves, eye protection, a humidifier, and the machine is grounded and will only be used outside in the garage.

I strongly recommend anyone unaware of this thread to read the first couple pages to learn from this incident to help keep this from happening to you.

[grant22]

Reloading Kaboom Yesterday - Please Learn From This

Dupe

[waho]

Here's what I did after reading your post, 1/2 Ti tubing around the outside, should direct anything out the top.

[sofbak]

I just saw this thread for the first time, and am coming in late. But from the first post, I knew what had happened. This was a case of static discharge that was enhanced by the very low humidity on the day it occurred. Somehow a static charge was built up in the tube and even if it didn't come into contact with the press, it got close enough for a spark to jump across. There may have been lead styphenate dust in the tube or the spark was close enough to a primer to ignite.

Here is a brief explanation of why low humidity enhances the build-up of static charges:

Static electricity is caused by an imbalance of electrons on a surface. Atoms normally contain an equal number of protons (positively charged particles) and electrons (negatively charged packets of energy). When they don't, the result can be shocking. Why? Because when two materials in motion make contact, electrons jump from one to the other to fix the imbalance!

So what do temperature and humidity have to do with static electricity? Moisture makes the air more conductive, so it can absorb and more evenly distribute excess charges.

It was the lack of moisture in the air that allowed for a significant charge to build up. Being an engineer in the rocket biz, I have worked with rocket propellants for three decades-hydrogen and oxygen, and have seen this phenomena "in action". As a safety precaution, we won't transfer or use propellants when the RH goes below 30% even though we thoroughly ground every piece of equipment.

One way to avoid a recurrence would be to ground the tube to the press before loading primers with a length of copper wire and a pair of alligator clips. That way the charge would equalize between the two before the introduction of primers......... either that or check the weather before you get out the reloading gear.

hth

[grant22]

Good info. Where were both of you two years ago? (Just kiddin')

[johnny1290]

That before picture is sick. Where the heck are my gloves?!?!?

I rarely wear any safety gear at all to load, much less just adding primers. I will take this to heart.

Glad to hear the hands are doing well! They look great now.