Try not to get chemical burns when you change your oven light.

[echris 1,425]

I finally replaced the broken lamp in my oven tonight. It's 1970's-ish Tappan wallmount. Small, old, but keeps chuggin'!

Well, as happens to all of us, while replacing the bulb I ended up removing the entire front panel, the door, all chrome strips, etc.

You guys know where this is going. I might as well clean it all up as new!

Now it's getting late, I gotta cook up this pizza for the kids soon! Crap.

I have the oven door out in the shop soaking the inside with oven cleaner. After an hour or two and a coupla resprays I go out to clean it up. 
I could have sworn in the past when cleaning the brass/glass doors in my fireplace I did it barehanded using oven cleaner. Welp, today, I found out that I didn't.
I was up to the knuckles on my left hand scrubbing with a foamy, soaked paper towel.
When I went in to wash my hands later, I have some pretty good chemical burns on most of my left fingers. Heh, oops.

So let this be the lesson kids, DO NOT, change the light bulb in your oven.

 

 

Edited November 3, 2021 by echris

[echris 1,425]

I forgot to post a pic of the finished oven. The glass panel at the top had decades of oven browning on it. inside and out. 
Handling the soapy glass panel in the sink was an experiment in dexterity. LMAO

All knobs and hardware went into the ultrasonic cleaner.

The crazy thing is, I think the clock is working again. All on it's own. Ha!

[roadapples 6,983]

Oven cleaner is acid. We use to clean our bikes, motorcycles, with it. But you could only leave it on a few minutes or it would eat the aluminum parts...

[8ntruck 7,021]

You gained some new knowledge.  

 

You also provided the rest of us with a piece of wisdom.

 

Thanks for sharing the story.

Edited November 3, 2021 by 8ntruck

[Stepney 2,325]

Used to use EZ Off oven cleaner to get the coke and residual oil out of the exhaust on my Motobecane 50v motor bike every year.. likewise with my old MotoSki. 

Yea.. watching how that stuff would work, I'd be wary of the gloves hahaha.

Had my WH Ranger drive belt nip open a battery and sprayed me with acid while out in the yard one day.. quite the experience. 

[wh500special 2,188]

37 minutes ago, roadapples said:

Oven cleaner is acid. We use to clean our bikes, motorcycles, with it. But you could only leave it on a few minutes or it would eat the aluminum parts...

Actually, oven cleaners have historically been very strong bases.  Usually sodium hydroxide.    Also known as caustics and, essentially, the opposite of acids. 
 

Chemical burns from bases tend to be significantly worse than those from acids as the caustic materials can defat and penetrate much further.   They often don’t trigger pain receptors as quickly either which can lead to more damage being done before the victim realizes.  
 

exceedingly nasty stuff. 
 

OP, you need to keep an eye on your hands and seriously consider having a professional look at the burns. 
 

You also mentioned the slippery soap…that’s another telltale characteristic of basic solutions.   Bitter too. 
 

steve. 

Edited November 3, 2021 by wh500special

[wh500special 2,188]

13 minutes ago, Stepney said:

 

Had my WH Ranger drive belt nip open a battery and sprayed me with acid while out in the yard one day.. quite the experience. 

similar happened on a C160 I had.  Drive belt sawed right through the battery case and sprayed the acid on everything.  Luckily, none on me. 
 

I thought it was a one-of-kind fluke occurrence…I guess not.  
 

Steve

[Stepney 2,325]

2 minutes ago, wh500special said:

similar happened on a C160 I had.  Drive belt sawed right through the battery case and sprayed the acid on everything.  Luckily, none on me. 
 

I thought it was a one-of-kind fluke occurrence…I guess not.  
 

Steve

No, this was a case of laziness. A 1967 Ranger that was a piecemeal special and had no battery box. The battery just kinda stayed in place and I never bothered looking closer at it. Was running at an angle on a hill and it finally slid over. 

[wh500special 2,188]

I’ll be darned.  Maybe mine was a fluke then!

My belt was probably loose or something. Sure was an unpleasant surprise.  
 

steve

[ri702bill 8,350]

Ah, yes - battery acid. Rates right up there with 12% liquid pool chlorine as a rapid "fabric softener".

[squonk 41,161]

[ZXT 2,401]

9 hours ago, wh500special said:

similar happened on a C160 I had.  Drive belt sawed right through the battery case and sprayed the acid on everything.  Luckily, none on me. 
 

I thought it was a one-of-kind fluke occurrence…I guess not.  
 

Steve

My C-160 tried to do the same thing - was mowing one day and found that the positive cable had chaffed and rubbed a bare spot, throwing some sparks at me while i was mowing. When i stopped to fix that issue, i noticed that the drive belt was about 1/2 way into the battery case. The battery tray on my C-120 has a stop on it to keep the battery from sliding over that far, but the C-160 did not. Welded a piece of scrap across the end so I shouldn't have a repeat in the future. 

[ri702bill 8,350]

What was it Yosimite Sam to the Rabbit?

"Mah biscuits is burnin'"

[ri702bill 8,350]

Squonk:

You have to watch out for those big cuffs on those 1950's gloves - any nasty liquid that gets in there could run out at a very bad time - like when she goes to wipe the sweat off her brow with her mid arm .....

[Snoopy11 5,714]

I had kinda the same issue with muriatic acid...

 

In the eye...

 

Somehow no cornea damage... 

 

Thank God...

 

Don

[echris 1,425]

On 11/2/2021 at 9:03 PM, echris said:

The crazy thing is, I think the clock is working again. All on it's own. Ha!

 

It's about 47 hours later. The clock is still accurate.

All I did to the clock was remove the white second hands to clean off the grime.

Except, old school oven clocks are like old school car clocks. They never work. 

I guess jiggling it fixed it. 

 

[echris 1,425]

On 11/2/2021 at 11:18 PM, Stepney said:

Had my WH Ranger drive belt nip open a battery and sprayed me with acid while out in the yard one day.. quite the experience. 

You reminded me of a story I may have told here before. Back when I was a kid we worked on Yazoo Master Mowers. An odd, kick-ass mower with up to a 76" deck. 3 wheeled, driver sits over a rear caster with a vertical steering column between his legs.

Yeah, one of these --->   

Anyhow, see the lever on the left, on some models there was a steel z-gate on the left lever. This particular machine either wouldn't go into reverse, or the PTO wouldn't engage. Don't recall which lever the left one is,

Notice the battery right under the steering column.

Well, the head mechanic comes up with a brilliant quick fix for the machine. All we needed was another ~1" of play on the Z-gate and she'd be just fine. 
Do you see where this is going?
Head mechanic breaks out the oxy torch.

Skillfully opens up the gate.
In slow motion, I watch in horror as the 1" chunk of slag is about to fall on the battery.
And run.

BOOM.

Head mechanic was OK, but he was walking around scratching himself for the rest of the day. 

[Stepney 2,325]

47 minutes ago, echris said:

You reminded me of a story I may have told here before. Back when I was a kid we worked on Yazoo Master Mowers. An odd, kick-ass mower with up to a 76" deck. 3 wheeled, driver sits over a rear caster with a vertical steering column between his legs.

Yeah, one of these --->   

Anyhow, see the lever on the left, on some models there was a steel z-gate on the left lever. This particular machine either wouldn't go into reverse, or the PTO wouldn't engage. Don't recall which lever the left one is,

Notice the battery right under the steering column.

Well, the head mechanic comes up with a brilliant quick fix for the machine. All we needed was another ~1" of play on the Z-gate and she'd be just fine. 
Do you see where this is going?
Head mechanic breaks out the oxy torch.

Skillfully opens up the gate.
In slow motion, I watch in horror as the 1" chunk of slag is about to fall on the battery.
And run.

BOOM.

Head mechanic was OK, but he was walking around scratching himself for the rest of the day. 

"Spend your weekend resting, not out cutting grass,

Buy yourself a Yazoo and cut your lawn in half!"

Pretty sure that was the old jingle they used..

 

I had one and also an old Toro of similar design. Great rigs. 

 

[ZXT 2,401]

1 hour ago, echris said:

You reminded me of a story I may have told here before. Back when I was a kid we worked on Yazoo Master Mowers. An odd, kick-ass mower with up to a 76" deck. 3 wheeled, driver sits over a rear caster with a vertical steering column between his legs.

Yeah, one of these --->   

Anyhow, see the lever on the left, on some models there was a steel z-gate on the left lever. This particular machine either wouldn't go into reverse, or the PTO wouldn't engage. Don't recall which lever the left one is,

Notice the battery right under the steering column.

Well, the head mechanic comes up with a brilliant quick fix for the machine. All we needed was another ~1" of play on the Z-gate and she'd be just fine. 
Do you see where this is going?
Head mechanic breaks out the oxy torch.

Skillfully opens up the gate.
In slow motion, I watch in horror as the 1" chunk of slag is about to fall on the battery.
And run.

BOOM.

Head mechanic was OK, but he was walking around scratching himself for the rest of the day. 

I need to run mine - i haven't in about 6 months. Shredded both deck belts last time I used it.

 

Heck of a good mower.

[echris 1,425]

I think my favorite thing about Yazoo's was:

See in the pic above, there's no counter-weight behind the rear tire.
When I was a 150lb kid, if I opened her up and then jammed on the brakes, she'd launch me over the mower deck. 

"Yazoo - Please be 200lbs or more and have an appropriate counter-weight installed."