Securing Oxy/Act Bottles

TBAR · May 23, 2004

I need to secure my oxy/act gas bottles to prevent theft. Do ya'll have any ideas on how to do this?

TBAR

OkeeDon · May 23, 2004

The only thing I can think of is to extend the frame of the cart, truck mount, or whatever you are using so it reaches the neck of each bottle individually. Then, add fingers to the frame so that the fingers pass on either side of the narrowest part of the neck -- smaller than the diameter of both the bottles and the valves above the neck. then, close the gap in front of the fingers with a strap, chain, or such that could be locked with a small padlock. The problem with that solution is that the safety caps could not be screwed on. The only other solution I can think of is a lockable cabinet or cage. This would also protect the regulators if they are left on. The cage door(s) would have to remain open while you are using the bottles in order to adjust pressures or quickly turn off the valves in an emergency.

wroughtn_harv · May 23, 2004

First question is where you are securing them. In the truck or in the shop?

I've found using my torch mostly for cutting I use two large bottles of oxygen for every large acetylene. So I carry two large oxygen bottles hidden under the Trailblazer on the truck.

If you have access to an old telephone truck you might find a couple of trays will roller bearings for carrying their nitrogen bottles. The nitrogen bottles are the same size as the large oxygen ones.

I have my oxygen bottles on a set of those trays. It means I don't have to wrestle those hundred and sixty pound puppies.

The acetylene bottle has to be kept vertical! Mine stands in front of the welder but below it. The three bottles follow the number one theory for security. Out of sight, out of mind. No one knows they're in the box unless they're around when I open it up.

If I was carrying the oxygen bottles exposed I would have a sliding lockable bar that when in place would capture the bottles. You might consider doing the lock in such a manner that that you can use a deadbolt instead of a padlock.

Most thieves are forced to be quick and not spend much time figuring things out. So just a couple of unexpected hiccups and they have to give up and go on to something easier.

TBAR · May 24, 2004

Bottles are in the shop and the shop was broken into. Regs, hoses and torch was taken along with a bunch of welding supplies.

I want to be able to secure the bottles so they cannot be removed. One is a large oxygen and one smaller acteleyne.

TBAR

Soundguy · May 24, 2004

Um... shotgun loaded with rocksalt? Guess the thief would have a hard time explaining that one to the ER doctor...

Too bad you can't hang people like that from the trees anymore..

Soundguy

slowrev · May 24, 2004

Soundguy,
Nope cant shoot or hang them unless you live in Texas.

On the origional problem... I would think I would take steps to secure the shop better, there must be other things in there to steal as well.

Maybe you could sit the Oxy bottle on a handgrenade with the pin pulled... of coures you might forget it was there and do yourself in.

TBAR · May 24, 2004

( Maybe you could sit the Oxy bottle on a handgrenade with the pin pulled... of coures you might forget it was there and do yourself in. )

LOL, Your cracking me up..............If only I could.

Metal buildings are not very secure. 3 minutes with a crow bar and your in. With a cordless drill and the right socket bit you can be in in 1 minute.

With that being said I want to try to secure what is in there.

TBAR

RonR · May 24, 2004

Wood buildings aren't muct better!

A couple of years ago, in the city, a thief took a cordless circular saw (probably stolen) and sawed a hole in the siding on a garage, between two studs, and crawled in. Gained access to the house, and stole stuff. PLUS the owner had to patch the hole left behind.

Neighbors heard the saw, but figured someone was doing some remodeling................

Ron

kevinj · May 24, 2004

I have a monitored security system on my house and shop. It only took one break in to convince me of it's value. In my area we get an insurance discount also. So mine is rigged for smoke/heat sensors, motion, and door sensors. I think the signs they give for the windows and doors are quite good at making the perp find an easier target.

wroughtn_harv · May 24, 2004

I used to have what I called the "safe". All it was a six by four by eight feet high steel walled room. The door was two by two tubing with a deadbolt lock. The sheeting was all eighth inch plate.

One of the things that always bothers me is how thieves are looking for the quick pawnable stuff, saws, drills, grinders, etc. Of course if it wasn't for so many short sighted idiots that don't care or want to know if their bargain is hot we wouldn't have so many thieves.

Of course the only justice is the thief now knows where there's some stuff if he--she is in a bind for bucks down the line, due to whom doo is due you might say.

The room doesn't have to welded up solid. Heck you could use a wood frame and carriage bolts to put it together. What you're after is getting in is going to take time and hopefully effort. Thieves are not much on hard work, remember that.

I've also had some pleasure not using conventional locks to slow down the thief. Stuff like push then pull catches etc.

I used to have a compartment on a truck that had a slide latch that looked like a twist type. For fun I'd point the compartment out to a newbie and then tell them it was an IQ test. I told them everyone started off with a hundred and fifty seconds to open it and I could usually be right on with their IQ with the actual seconds it took.

One time I had a job in my hand when the doctor was admiring the truck. I pointed out the compartment and gave him my spiel. He went for it.

He was a bald man with fair skin. As he fought the latch I watched the red come up from his collar, past his ears, until his pate was like the advertisement in front of a house of ill repute. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

I didn't get that job. But I'm not entirely stupid. I only pulled that on nonpaying types after that. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Bird · May 24, 2004

( Thieves are not much on hard work, remember that. )

You're right . . . 90+% of the time, but I've sure seen some interesting exceptions. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif Like 3 burglars I arrested one morning. They had driven the evening before from Dallas to Louisiana, burglarized a Budweiser distributorship, took a safe and loaded it into the trunk of a Pontiac, and returned to Dallas. Now I don't know how much work was involved in getting into the place, but the safe was heavy enough that 4 of us had a hard time lifting it later, and the trunk of the car had to be tied, still open about 3 inches. When they got back to Dallas, they took it up a set of stairs to a second floor apartment (looked impossible to me), then spent most of the morning chopping a hole in the bottom of it with a hatchet. The only thing in that safe was about $30 in loose change and the registration and titles for all the beer distributorship's fleet of trucks. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif It was one of the most hilarious cases I ever worked. The town in Louisiana sent 2 officers in a Ford sedan to get the safe and burglars. We got the safe into the trunk of the car, the 3 burglars in the back seat, and they left Dallas with absolutely no springs on the back of that car; the frame was down solid on the rear axle. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif I guess they made it back home since I never heard from them again.

Lazy · May 24, 2004

Hi
Maybe a mean junkyard dog (Rottweiler) or better yet a pair

Charlie

wroughtn_harv · May 24, 2004

If only we had thieves to deal with then things like bad dogs or trip wired traps would be kewl.

But we don't.

There are children out there too. Plus an occasional pet or two.

I once refused to fabricate and wire up a steel grid inside a garage to two twenty as a second line of defense for a window opening. The owner had been burglarized and wanted to make the perps pay the next time around.

Bigger than heck a month or so later he was hit again. They pulled apart his rebar window guard and got almost all of his wrenches out of the tool boxes.

They were caught when the six year old they'd stuffed through their opening to pass back the tools told his friends at school about his adventure.

I understand the anger at a thief after a break in. But there is a standard the rest of us must maintain or we become the same as them.

Bird, as for thieves working hard. Your story reminds me of my dad's saying about a friend of the family. "He'd climb a tree to tell a lie when he could tell the truth standing on the ground." /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

missourihick · May 24, 2004

Sure you can shoot them. You just can't hit them unless they shoot at you first.

In my case most of all the local folks know I 'm crazy and that I shoot first. I had kids stealing gas from tractors in the barn ,I heard something out there (300' away) 3 or 4 rounds of #7 bird shot across that tin roof and they were fearing for their lives. I think they burned more gas screaming down the road running away than they would have got from all the tractors. Now when they ride their 4 wheelers by here they speed up instead of slowing down and looking things over.

Oh yea,when you shoot over the barn you have to holler something like "I think I hit one " or " go ahead and shoot em ,we'll bury them out back with the others"
You gotta have a little fun.

( Um... shotgun loaded with rocksalt? Guess the thief would have a hard time explaining that one to the ER doctor...

Too bad you can't hang people like that from the trees anymore..

Soundguy )

Taylortractornut · May 24, 2004

I have a friend that makes caps/ guards that are hingedand threaded collars to go onthe tops of the clinders. He makes them for a few of the construcion ou fits and quarries. It keeps them from takein the regs the bottles and the only thing they get is the hose and the torch body. THey work pretty good plus provied gauge protection.
Chris I had a friend that farmed and had 2 old Gas burner JD's and a Farmall that he did chore work with to avoid tying up a newer tractor so they could do the heavy work. His gas tanker on a wagon was raided every night. He painted up his old tanker like the new one and put it out in the fireld but it had sugar,rust,molasses and other sticky treats added to it and some air pressure to push it. The next morning he found 2 old pickups that hadnt made it out of the fields. They were then promptly checked for sweet gas tank lids and then reported to the sheriff.

Ozarker · May 25, 2004

I am assuming this happened at night since most thieves like to work under the cover of darkness. You might try some flood lights attached to motion detectors. Suddenly being bathed in flood lights often makes them exit the area quickly.

dummy · May 25, 2004

Insurance guy told me that was a real bad idea here in my part of the world. No electric fences or concertina wire either. Said they would pull my coverage. I thought he was kidding til I checked with two other local companies. Seems they don't want the liability of paying a burglar to get his butt repaired/replaced. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Mecheng · May 25, 2004

I also like to have radio connected with the light and motion detector. Not only do you deprive a burgler of cover but he can't hear if someone is coming. The radio doesn't have to be loud either.

TBAR · May 25, 2004

( I also like to have radio connected with the light and motion detector. Not only do you deprive a burgler of cover but he can't hear if someone is coming. The radio doesn't have to be loud either. )

Hummm, interesting. I wonder if they make motion sensors that will work off 12Volt?

TBAR

uhmgawa · May 25, 2004

( Hummm, interesting. I wonder if they make motion sensors that will work off 12Volt?)

Nearly all are ~12V internally. They use the reactance of a fairly
large series capacitor to drop the line voltage down to something
manageable, half-wave rectify then regulate it by a simple shunt
zener diode. That said, all of these systems are hot as no isolation
(ie: transformer) exists. Rationale: It's cheap.

If you pop open a motion detector it should be quite simple
to dismiss the AC regulation and drive it directly from a 12V source.
The only potential issue would be upgrading the relay if the 12V
lighting load current is beyond its contact rating.