propane - butane tanks

Open valve and allow to vent overnight away from people. Use a wrench to remove the valve head and fill with water. Leav alone for a few days. The Percaptan will float up and stink to high heaven. After a few days you can do whatever you want with it.

A thin cut-off wheel on a right angle grinder is very quick and clean.

Good advice

I've never owned a butane tank, but for propane this is what I do:

Open the valve to eliminate any remaining gas, Cut a starting hole with a cut-off disc in an angle grinder, Finish the cut with a hacksaw blade in a sawzall.

There will no doubt be great protests of alarm: "NO NO NO, you'll blow yourself up". But I have never filled with water, or inert gas, or taken any other measure to eliminate every last microgram of gas. Generally there is no fire at all, but I once put a match to the starting hole and got a _very_ languid, soft flame like a pilot light.

As to the smell, I use bleach (Clorox) - very effective. Just slosh a little around.

Bob

I posted this a while back

I'm in the UK BTW - YMMV

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

Seems like people are interested in the barbecue grills which are made from old cylinders because one gets the impression that something valuable was made from something having little value.

I think that this is the main advantage of such a grill. It's also one of the ultimate jury-rigs which invokes a certain humorous je ne se qua, especially if it's well built.

Not round here. We just like them because they don't rust through within a year.

This one is nice

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

I like the stuff you've made - but - do you guys really make pancakes on the grill ? In Chicago that would be an act of cullinary treason. But then, the beer they make around here is really crap, so I probably should'nt object to "flapjacks on a barbie", which dosen't sound all that bad come to think of it -

What's a "pancake" ? It must be one of the world's commonest foodstuffs by name, with the most variation in what it actually is.

I make pancakes on a griddle - either a cast iron one on the stove, or this one (3/8" steel) over charcoal. On Shrove Tuesday, I use my pancake frying pan (kept for the purpose), so that I can toss them in the air.

How do you make them in Chicago ?

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

Well, most people only eat them for breakfast, so we cook them in a pan on the stove in the kitchen. Seeing someone grilling them outdoors seems very different to me - I dont think I've ever seen that before except on a camping trip.

Ordinarily, when you see an outdoor grill around here, you can bet it's either steak, ribs, chicken, burgers, or brats. Sometimes corn on the cob. Very rarely shishkabobs - I think that shishkabob or tandoori is more common in your area.

One of the problems with wire grille barbecues is that there's not much vegetarian barbecue food that isn't likely to fall apart on one. The first barbie we made with a griddle was a half-and-half, specifically to have somewhere to cook veggie stuff. That was a good barbie, but rather enormous, and so slow to light. Using the end of a cylinder rather than a lengthwise half gave something more suited to typical eal use.

Kebabs, in UK speak (Or keeeee-baaaarbbbbb in drunken Geordie)

Real tandoori is cooked in a tandoor, which is like a chimenea but with the hole at the top. You rarely see one of those outside a good restaurant though.