Big propane tank

In a scrapyard who cares how nice the cut is - if it saves money. In the shop, who cares how cheap it is if it looks like CRAP when you are finished

I put the air in and take it out from the top, where the gas valve was. For the drain I brazed a nut (tube fitting, actually) on the bottom then drilled a small hole up the center. A chunk of soft copper line out the side to a ball valve does the drain duty.

Got my tank free - paid $20 for the compressor head from a guy who burned out the motor the second time he used it, a month out of warranty, and $100 for a new take-off 2HP dual capacitor motor. The bottom ring just fits inside the lip of a compact spare tire - tack-welded the lip to the rim - so it has an anti-vibration mount that also makes it difficult to tip.

Liquid bleach is sodium hypochlorite at about 6 percent solution in water. It also happens to contain a lot of lye as a stabilizer for the chlorine. Much of the lore about bleach applications is actually due to the action of the lye, not the chlorine. Proper lye as a household cleaner seems to have become extinct at retail, so it has to be disguised as bleach now, to appeal to the modern timid consumer.

Part of the problem of cleaning propane tanks is that the stinkum is stuck in gooey varnish deposits inside the tanks. Hot lye solution is a good way to clean such things out. It is what food processors use to sanitize the insides of things harboring organic crud that can't be reached for mechanical cleaning. Lye is also kind to steel, unlike chlorine.

Lye is sold as drain opener crystals. I have a couple of bottles just in case.

Well, I do not really need this tank for anything other than holding propane. If I cannot get it filled, I will just throw it out.

cut one end off it and hang it for a gong.

i once went to an artist's studio that had fencing all around his property at the property lines. he ran a pull rope to the fence gate. pulling that pounded a metal bar on a hanging propane tank gong, being his front doorbell.

It is definitely a propane tank, as it reeks of mercaptan.

I will call around, I guess I should look under "propane" in yellow pages.

Yes, I will pass on oxypropane. Maybe I will use the tank to make a bigger forge or foundry or something.

My grill is natural gas (it rules).

Call U-Haul . At least around here they're one of the cheaper options for propane refills . And AFAIK the only thing they check is that the small tanks (grill-size) have an OPD valve . Larger tanks are exempt from that requirement , I think 40 lbs is the break point - and you're well past that . Expect to pay around $3.50-4.00/gal , it was around that last time I filled .

Call U-Haul . At least around here they're one of the cheaper options for propane refills . And AFAIK the only thing they check is that the small tanks (grill-size) have an OPD valve . Larger tanks are exempt from that requirement , I think 40 lbs is the break point - and you're well past that . Expect to pay around $3.50-4.00/gal , it was around that last time I filled .

where the heck are you that you're paying that much, or when was that?

larger than bbq tanks get filled by any number of places, usually in place rather than bringing it in. there are national companies that have local distributors: amerigas, ferrelgas, and gas piping are the 3 biggest in my area. last week i just paid 2.29/gal to refill my 500g tank. it's ALWAYS beneficial to call around for qoutes before getting a fill. when i did that this last time, the range was 2.29-2.85 just for those 3.

I called Airgas 10 miles from me. They can exchange it for $72, though they said they need to inspect the tank first. (and, like Steve B has been saying, I called another company too who wants to charge $20 for all non-their cylinders. f*ck you)

I have not yet decided if it is worthwhile to even do it, though.

Lye is sold as lye, like the Red Devil brand, but lately I no longer find it at the grocery store. Readily available on eBay, though, thanks to the soap-making hobbyists and their back-to-nature (?) neurosis.

"Drain opener crystals" like Drano are not just lye, typically they are mixed with other things you don't want for this purpose but which impress the housewife who is ignorant of chemistry.

Richard J Kinch fired this volley in news:Xns9D9AB7F2BBE02someconundrum@216.196.97.131:

Not entirely true... Drano is a mixture of lye, aluminum shavings (to create efforvescence, mixing the brew), and dyed/perfumed particles of lye to make it look and smell "important". But Ace Hardware sells a pure sodium lye in fine-grained form (about the size of coarse sugar crystals) as "drain opener".

FWIW, Drano is a superior product. The aluminum shavings play an important part in agitating the goo in your drain, causing it to dissolve more quickly and thoroughly.

Old "Red Devil" is not available everywhere except on-line, but any product that is 100% sodium hydroxide is the same thing -- 'cept Red Devil is in large flakes which dissolve a bit more slowly than the smaller crystals.

Lye is so inexpensive that in 50lb bags, it's only about $0.30/lb.

LLoyd

Gotta ask, did you use the two piece tip made for propane/ natural gas? These gases will cut just as good as acetylene and far far cheaper! I've done a lot of oxy/natural gas cutting both by hand and by machine and won't consider going back to acetylene. I have a small bottle just for gas welding but tig is so much better it doesn't get used much. At a welding school back in the 80's we switched a line torch to propane and one 100 pound bottle lasted for 12 to 15 large bottles of oxygen! Here at home in my own shop I use propane for all cutting. Therefore I beg to differ from your experience.... phil

So, besides cost, is there anything that makes propane better? Can it be used for heating, like with a rosebud torch? Any safety difference?

Ignoramus24975 fired this volley in news:-fKdncFvUtRAOIfRnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

The guys who specialize in salvaging old truck bodies and shipping containers almost universally use oxy/propane instead of oxy/acetylene to do their cutting.

I don't know the equivalent energies of the two fuels, but I can attest from first-hand experience that the oxy/propane torch cuts steel (and melts aluminum) pretty damned effectively.

LLoyd

Memphis Tn. , and it was several months ago .

I agree with Phil. One of the other benefits is when you run out of propane after hours, all you have to do is steal the tank off the gas grill. With acetylene you have to wait until the welding shop is open.

Yes, in fact I have a large weed burner head that doesn't use oxygen and it is HOT! Burns a lot of gas but far cheaper than O/A. Where I used to work we had many large heating torches and everything used oxy/natural gas, even the large CNC cutting table cutting inches thick steel plate. So yes, you can fire up a decent oxy/propane rosebud. If you're using a rosebud with O/A you better have a large enough bottle to avoid drawing off the gas faster than it can feed. Propane will just freeze up on ya with a heavy draw. YMMV phil