cut open a propane tank

[muddstopper]

Probably been close to 50 years ago, I Had a 1959 chevy truck with a leaking gas tank. Of course those old trucks had the gas tank in the cab with you so if it leaked you knew it. I took the tank off the truck and not haveing any money decided I would acet/weld the pin holes. I washed that tank and rinsed several times, and was scared to death that wasnt enough. I finally took a long pole and wrapped a rag around it and set the rag on fire, Put the burning rag right up next to the filler neck and whoosh, the tank took off across the driveway like a jet engine. Once the fire burn out, I fired up the torch and welded up the holes.

 

[Dutch445]

No suggestions as to best way to cut a tank but this is a link to a company that makes some good looking pits and may give you some ideas.
Look here: Muskoka Fire Pits

Love their work!!! and IMHO very reasonably priced,,, getting me thinking of taking a road trip !

 

[Hilldale Harry]

Could also use a CO2 , class "C" fire extinguisher. Fill the tank and if you have a second person there, have them give an occasional secondary blast in the tank as you are cutting. The Carbon Dioxide displaces whatever the atmosphere is in the tank. I would do this as your last step, after purging with compressed air first. Also used this method to weld on a 3/4 full diesel fuel tank on a truck. Worked great.

 

[Al 2]

To Dutch 445 . Muskoka Fire Pits were at the Toronto Cottage Life Show near the Toronto Airport last Spring. If they are back there this year it would save some traveling time to get one there.
RW

 

[Dutch445]

Interesting, will look into that!
thanks RW

 

[firemanmike69]

Could also use a CO2 , class "C" fire extinguisher. Fill the tank and if you have a second person there, have them give an occasional secondary blast in the tank as you are cutting. The Carbon Dioxide displaces whatever the atmosphere is in the tank. I would do this as your last step, after purging with compressed air first. Also used this method to weld on a 3/4 full diesel fuel tank on a truck. Worked great.

Can also do this with some dry ice in the tank. Will likely not work on the 3/4 full tank but have done it in empty tanks.

 

[pmsmechanic]

I have a 500 gallon propane tank that I would like to make a wood stove out of. I have the use of a gas powered chop saw but I was always wondering how to do it safely. Thanks for all the ideas.

 

[Jim Timber]

With the 500 gallon one, I'd go with full of water. Score the cut line without breaking through, then plunge and it'll pee all over you for less duration.

 

[dfkrug]

You always have the best advice... and simple to do.

Much cheaper than flooding with Nitrogen...

Thanks, Curt

With volatile flammable liquids and fuel gases, forced-air venting works very well. I
have done it numerous times. When doing a gasoline tank, I hate to put water in
there.

With flammable oils (diesel, hyd fluid, etc.), it is already hard to get ignition because
oils do not vaporize readily. You need to make an aerosol of them to properly get
a stoichiometric mixture. Have you ever tried to light a bucket of diesel fuel on fire
with a match? Not so easy.

Sometimes, I cut hyd cyls with the plasma cutter, and they have residual oil in them.
Never started a fire that way.

One way you COULD get a fire is to cut into an oil tank that still has some liquid in it,
and run the torch flame INTO the liquid, which would aerate it. I have NOT tried that.

 

[Egon]

I was reading a post on moving a propane tank.
Got me to thinking. How could I cut it open and make a fire pit out of the end caps.

Some information.

[video]http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/information-guidance/all-guidance-items/hot-work-on-tanks-and-drums/hot-work-tanks-drums.pdf[/video]

Here's a video of welding on a C3 tank. Sorta a
"How Not To Do It".
Don't think the fellar can weld either. Don't think he's got the right type of 90 there either.

 

[Jim Timber]

^^^ Yikes!

 

[ch1ch2]

Ditto on the "YIKES"

 

[sixdogs]

YIKES as well. I'm surprised more people aren't vaporized by their errors and assumptions as to what is safe and what isn't.

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

I also have cut many 20-30-40# propane tanks.. I build Hobo stoves out of them..

Like said, with the fill valve out, turn upside down outside overnight, then cut as needed..

Take care..

 

[tcartwri]

After witnessing my boss getting propelled two stories high cutting an oil drum, I will pass on that experience.

( Amazingly he was unhurt )

 

[sixdogs]

Well, as bad of an idea as I think this is--and that is based on my lack of knowledge and experience on the process, I saw an article in Farm Show magazine yesterday that made me sit up and take notice. A guy built a snowplow out of an old propane cylinder and it looked really good. Very ingenious and creative.

This stuff is not for me because I'm too squeamish and have a bad track record with flammables but I guess if you know what you're doing...

By the way, I had a guy weld a drain bung in bulk gas tank years ago and I'm not sure that he cleaned it at all. He just hooked a Sears--I think-- shop vac to the hole and set it to blow air. I think he left it on for a day or two and then drilled and welded. That's what I remember but I didn't see everthing.

 

[sixdogs]

Well, as bad of an idea as I think this is--and that is based on my lack of knowledge and experience on the process, I saw an article in Farm Show magazine yesterday that made me sit up and take notice. A guy built a snowplow out of an old propane cylinder and it looked really good. Very ingenious and creative.

This stuff is not for me because I'm too squeamish and have a bad track record with flammables but I guess if you know what you're doing...

By the way, I had a guy weld a drain bung in bulk gas tank years ago and I'm not sure that he cleaned it at all. He just hooked a Sears--I think-- shop vac to the hole and set it to blow air. I think he left it on for a day or two and then drilled and welded. That's what I remember but I didn't see everthing.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

MANY years ago, I built my first sno plow out of a HUGE hot water tank... Same idea, cut out what you need and make a mount. Over the years, I've seen many of them...

Around here, several folks are taking old 300 and 500 gallon propane tanks, cutting the end off both and sliding the 300 into the 500, then welding a plate "flush" on the cut ends and putting a door into the plate.

They are making wood stoves out of the 300, with the 500 being the water jacket, around it.

A "poor mans" outdoor wood stove...

SR

 

[dmricke]

When I was a kid my family bought a bunch of scrap iron from the pipeline company that had a pump station in the area. The scrap included many lengths of 36 to 48 inch pipe that my granddad would cut into 8 foot lengths and then lengthwise into snowplow blades. Lots of farmers around my hometown probably still have these since it is hard to imagine that heavy pipe ever wearing out.
Dale

 

[jimmysisson]

My old boss 50 years ago soldered patches on car gas tanks with an OA torch. Those days we fixed stuff, rather than replace it. He'd run the garage flex exhaust pipe from another car into the fill neck and flame-on. I used to watch, assuming he knew what he was doing.
Died of lung cancer, not from being blown up. RIP Norm.
Jim