I was at a local recycling center yesterday. They had dozens of old oxygen bottles that had been cut in half. They are about 7" id and I bought one about waist high. Haven't used it yet but it wont take up much floor space and has a weighted bottom so it shouldn't tip over.

that would be really good for long sharp pointy things ...be nice to sink it into the floor with a foot operated lid

my slack tub came from a 16 gallon beer keg that was left in the shelterbelt at my friends farm after some kids' party was busted. i just cut out the center of the top leaving a 1'' ring & made a basket. works great has handles built in so its easy to move, empty & clean.

Just for your information. Steel cylinders with post world war 2 first retest dates are made from Chrome molly steel. The permitted alloy and heat treal in defined in 49 CFR ( DOT regs). Steel cylinder and Aluminum Cylinders are regulated by DOT.

The steel if very tough and resistant to crack propagation. I had very poor sucess forge welding the material but I only tried three times. Perhaps properly prepared, it could be can welded in a good dedicated gas forge.

The bottoms make great bowl formers and when stuck open end down in the floor excellent bases for for small anvils and equipment.

With carefull triming and a litte machining, heat treated, the tops can be wonderfull bells.

My oil quench tank is the bottom section of a gas bottle. Nice depth with enough oil to quench but not so much as to bankrupt me and I can quench vertically!.

I have a can that fits over the top to keep out pests and extinguish burning oil. I also have a steel block on a heavy wire that I can hook on the side for preheating the oil and made a wooden platform for the tank to sit in to keep it from being knocked over if things get exciting.

I now have a couple Galvanised buckets, I have quenching oil in 4lt olive oil tins with the top cut off. Top off for most jobs, side off for long blades.
But when I started I had a plastic 10lt bucket but I pt an inch of sand in the bottom so I could drop small items in without melting the bucket.
Carl

Putting sand in the bottom is a good idea!

All my slack tubs kept rusting through, no matter what I used. I finally found a large 5 gallon, heavy walled, aluminum cooking pot at the local discount store. I tossed a few stainless steel pot lids in the bottom for extra protection of the bottom. I figure this one should last at least a few years.

I was using a 5 gal galvanized bucket. One morning in December, the windchill was was around -45, and I thought forging sounded toasty. I found my slack tub sitting on its domed bottom, seams blown apart. I had never seen ice take any path but the easiest, yet even with an open top, the ice went down and pushed the bottom out of the bucket about a foot. I am now without a permanant solution, using watever plastic bucket is handy. I bought the last bucket, against my cheap ways, and am not paying for another. I will keep my eyes out for a good solution.
You all give such different perspectives on this and every topic, what a great forum!

Stainless steel beer kegs are good

i am thinking about getting a wide cement pipe and cement it to a base so it is water tight it will hold the heat and the base could be made with small wheels for it to move around
metal buckets rust away and wood is very hard to find it a god size

DC

That is a good ideal you could probably cast it yourself make your own forms from plastic cans/buckets put wire on the inside ...I like that, I think your own to something here! even cast in a brass spigot to drain it.

I just cut the curved part off the top of an old gas bottle (one of the 3' high one) and welded on two rings to take a bucket style handle, it works fine and cost nothing.

I got a old Milk Container at our local scrap yard, It works pretty good, it had a couple tiny rust holes in it, But alittle silicon fixed it right up..

G'day All
I use a stainless steel 18 gal Beer keg, It's just great no rust
Onya all John ;)

Do you have a welding torch?(or a recip. saw wth a metal cutting blade - heck even a hacksaw woudl work.) Go to your local junkyard and get a steel barrel that has no holes. Cut it in half(you can even grind off the shapt burred edges if you are so inclined) Then you have two more tubs. Or leave it full size for those long pieces or irregularly shaped pieces you need to quench. Total cost - $10-20 and it will be more heavy duty than a galvanized tin bucket.

Edit: It will take many years for it to rust out. That has been my experience.

I cut a plastic 55 gallon drum top to bottom, in half. This gives me a half moon cross section and I placed that into a steel frame. I little gravel in the bottom and fill. I have been using that since about 2002, and no issues. It has frozen solid several times a year, and the ice just rides up.
Still have the other half too.

John B,
How did you cut the top off the beer keg and once you depress the little ball at the hook up point is all the air pressure released???
Thanks in advance ...

Tim

John B,
How did you cut the top off the beer keg and once you depress the little ball at the hook up point is all the air pressure released???
Thanks in advance ...

Tim

I don't know how John B did it, but I have been looking into this as a brew pot. These links may help:
Brewery Keg Conversion Ronblog
YouTube - Keg to Kettle Conversion (part 1)

I use a old metal garbage bin which I painted (inside with a asphalt paint to stop it rusting out ) works well is certainly deep enough and for what I do.

My new slack tub is a heavy gauge stainless steel cooking pot - five gallon with two handles/no lid - found it in a dumpster last August ... :lol:

I use an old whiskey barrel half from the garden store. Needed to fill it with water and let it soak for a week for the wood to swell, and then cheated and caulked the inside. Works great and also it doubles as a weight for the bottom of my vice stand for demos.

Being in Baton Rouge, the home of Exxon and big oil , large pipe pieces are not hard to find. I have several in my shop none longer than 48", nearly all sch.40 (3/8" wall thickness). One piece of 36" dia pipe about 40" long, I turned into the " last" slack tub I will have to make. I welded a 1/2" plate bottom on it, welded good so it don't leak, with a thick enough bottom so that long bars thrown in will not punch through. cut in a drain valve, and welded two padeyes( lifting "ears") near the top, so it could be moved with the motor lifter (drained) . It wasnt long before I was torch cutting the thing to be no higher than 32" or however long my wet arm would be reaching for that something that fell into it. I got lazy and didn't reweld the lifting padeyes , just cut holes in the pipe near the top. It will work .

I use a 10 gallon aluminum cook pot that I found at the local discount store. Big enough to quench stuff but small enough to flush out the RV antifreeze each spring.

I drug my Bader up the hill to the Fine Arts Metals building were I could access power as one of the students was finally getting around to working on some longer blades he had forge. For a dip tank for long blades we use an old artillery shell casing...

John B, How did you cut the top off the beer keg and once you depress the little ball at the hook up point is all the air pressure released??? Thanks in advance ... Tim

Sorry Tim, Missed this question for some reason. I depressed the ball valve and then used a thin stainless steel cutting disc in an angle grinder to cut around the drum at the height I required, used a couple of screwdriver type blades to keep the cut from jamming on the blade (or You could use a jigsaw/sawzall) Or you could remove the valve completely and drain any dregs left in the drum before starting