Cutting Oxygen Cylinders

[clinton]

There seems to be something wrong with the link BM454
Is that the one where the guy clamped it in the vise to remove the valve?

[macbruce]

Everyone needs to see this little video. Warning! It's very graphic in nature.
http://m.youtube.com...w_fhNAIQc&gl=US

???? your link doesn't make sense.

[MLMartin]

I think you're wrong as well. Oxygen does burn, it's one of the three elements rrequired for a fire, fuel, oxygen, ignition. Remove any one of those and you dont have a fire. Most people who die in fires dont burn ot death, they die of lack of oxygen first.

Yes Your wright, I guess I did not do a good job wording my answer. Oxygen is consumed in the fire, and it is necessary for a fire to take place. I was really trying to just get across that pure oxygen alone without any other material can not burn.

[ThomasPowers]

What the mean is that if you have a 100% O2 atmosphere and Nothing that will burn in it and introduce a spark---nothing happens, O2 itself does not burn. Fire is a three part item: O2, Fuel and ignition source. Where people run into trouble is when they *think* they are safe because they don't have all 3 present--but it turns out in a sneaky way they do and then all the yelling and screaming starts!

[Ten Hammers]

Open the valve. Leave it open. Remove the valve. cut.

As a former EMT, I lived with this " oxygen is a danger around smoking " thing a lot. I once asked a Paramedic if her husband had a torch at home (farmer). " yes " was the reply. I told her to go home and have her husband light the oxygen coming out instead of the acetylene. I won her heart.

The fact is, liquid oxygen is EXTREMELY dangerous around petroleum distillates. Explosive. One spark around a torch set with oxygen (gasseous) coming out will get you nothing. If you disagree, please show me the evidence (and i do not mean someones conjecture). Show me industrial evidence of the safety hazard and the resulting damage. Space shuttle is an entirely different issue.

Thomas makes the point as usual. Heat, fuel and oxygen. 3 parts needed for a fire (or explosion for that matter). Not realizing you have 2 of those parts when adding the third may kill you.

Oxygen and NOS gas cylinders are handy for many things (outdated or damaged cylinders). Please understand this. If you do not know if the cylinder is a fuel gas or 02 / NOS gas cylinder, leave it alone !

[millhoff]

The one thing to consider is you can easily sell these O2 cylinders, unless you really want a bell. Among other things, I dive commercially and recreationally and a lot of divers are interested in picking up oxygen cylinders for use in diving. The kind you have is not suited for the actual in water use, but as part of a diving first aid kit, it is invaluable. This is because many dive related injuries require raising the bodies’ partial pressure of oxygen and this is done by administering 100% oxygen to the patient. So to get to the point you can get some easy cash for these and in turn put that into more tools for blacksmithing like the rest of us :wacko: .

If you are still interested in making a bell the best way to wash out a cylinder is using a simple green solution. When I clean a cylinder for oxygen use this is what I use. It is the “standard” for cleaning a pressure vessel for high O2 use (above 36% O2). This makes sure any oxygen impregnated materials that could be fuel for a fire is cleaned out.

[Ten Hammers]

Will make a small addition. While in the military, I was in aviation. Among other things, I was trained in servicing liquid oxygen converters for use at higher altitudes. Suffice to say that the film " Mr LOX " put the fear of the Lord in me ( rightfully so ).

This thread was about GASEOUS oxygen cylinders I know. Some might not know the difference in the two. The devil is always in the details.

[poleframer]

Good explaination here.
Many people ask what is fire? Fire is a chemical reaction, often between different chemical compounds or elements, each which has stored energy. You must have the right kind of mixture in order for a fire to happen. For example, for a fire to occur these items have to come together: heat; fuel; and oxygen. Remove any of them and the fire will not happen.
All of this has to do with chemical reaction that involves electrons. Atoms want to have a complete set of electrons. If an atom doesn't have enough electrons, it can share electrons with another atom. For example, carbon has six electrons. Carbon is in the second row of the periodic table. All the elements in the second row of the period table want to have ten electrons. So where will the carbon atom get the other four electrons? Carbon can share electrons with other elements like hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Another way to think of this is that carbon is like a bus with ten seats, and the six electrons of carbon are sitting in six of the seats. Carbon needs to fill up the other four seats. Now oxygen has eight electrons. So it is like another bus with eight filled seats and two empty seats. Now if oxygen and carbon join together, like joining two buses, two electrons from both carbon and oxygen will sit on both buses. The oxygen is now very happy. It has its own eight electrons and two of carbons electrons that run back and forth between the two buses. Carbon, however, is still not happy. It has its six electrons and only two shared riders from the oxygen bus.
So carbon must now find another partner. A second oxygen will join with carbon. Now carbon is happy. It has its ten riders. Carbon has its own six electrons, sharing four electrons with the two oxygens. It gets in return a full bus. It gets four shared electrons from the two oxygens. By the way, this combination of one carbon and two oxygens is known as carbon dioxide.
Carbon dioxide is often given off in a fire. Many things that can burn contain carbon. All living things contain carbon. We say that living things are organic. Things like wood, paper, gasoline, kerosene, and many forms of clothing are made out of organic materials. When a fire occurs, the carbon in the material combines with oxygen in the air giving off heat. Remember that the carbon and oxygen atoms were very unhappy and agitated. Once they combine they are more calm, so they can release the extra energy that they have.
When any matter burns it undergoes a change. There is an energy transfer. According to Albert Einstein's Law of Conservation of Energy: Energy is neither created nor destroyed, it can only change in form. This is basically what happens when a fire occurs.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

If the tanks are good sell them,or trade for nonserviceable ones. If they are nonuseable you can cut them, I cut several at work on the horizontal band saw for a coworker, but they don't ring that well. A steel tank has a much nicer ring to it than the aluminum ones.

[gearhartironwerks]

I cut up an out of date 8" oxygen cylinder and use the bottom to dish candle cups for lighting, and the top was annealed and drilled out to 1.25" for a coal firepot. Both work great for what they were intended and the cost was minimal. Still working on some inspiration as to what to do with the center section...
John