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I Forge Iron

Cutting Into a Propane Tank


jjoseph11

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I know that this has been asked before and I was overwhelmed by the response from the people.

BUT!!!

Is there anyone in Texas that would be willing to do this for me for a fee???

I am willing to travel and will prepare however you wish...

Please let me know...name and phone and price....

Edited by jjoseph11
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I assume you are worried about the boom factor? Just buy a brand new (i.e. never been fueled) tank from Sams club/Cost co etc. Then you can cut into one yourself once you remove the valve. A drill/jigsaw combo or a cutting angle grinder would do fine.
I think I got mine at Sams for < $20. You would spend that much in gas let alone the cutting job by someone else.

I also assume you are going to use this for a propane forge body? If so, you could also just use some sheetmetal rounded into a cylinder. The kaowool/firebrick is the insulation while the shell just holds it together. The metal for the shell doesn't get that hot (relatively speaking). Most people I know, over build the shell both in volume and in thickness.

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I am mearly asking if there is someone that specializes in this that is a part of this forum? I read the other posts and some guys are like "THATS EASY, I DO IT ALL THE TIME" or "I HAVE DONE HUNDRED OF THEM"...To me this would make them a specialist and they would be interested in doing this...maybe they do it now and I just don't know of them

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I have been invloved in treating hundreds of folks with life threatening or life taking injuries in my past carreer and have had folks that were dying tell me to my face that they had done the very same thing a lot of times and never had a problem. with folks that had lost their lives we found our from investigators that they had also done the same or similiar things on may occasions and never had a problem. There are other things you can use to get what you want that are safe. Why bother?

Edited by Rich Hale
..........
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jjoseph,
There are a lot of Balcones Forge members in the Austin area. Their next meeting will be mid-December and will be held just east of Austin. Our last meeting was Saturday in Marble Falls, Texas and Gordon Williams of Pieh Tools taught classes (free for members) Tues through Friday and Demonstrated on Saturday. There are many very talented smiths in the organization and I am constantly amazed at their willingness to share their experience and knowledge. Look us up at www.balconesforge.org - Balcones Forge

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jjoseph, assuming your not just trolling heres my thoughts on it...

do your own risk assesment, I do on a daily basis for dozens of tasks, all of which if performed incorrectly can, and would kill me. DEAD, no second chances. Risk assesments are common sense alot of the time, IF you understand the materials you work with.

I have chopped up a couple of propane tanks to make forge casings.

This is how I approached it.

Is the tank empty?? assuming tank not under pressure leave valve open and tank inverted in well ventilated area to remove as much of the heavy gas as possible.

Remove valve from top of tank.

Tank now seems empty..... can residual gas and air mix still combust????? - yes.

Purge gas / air mixture from tank by filling tank with water. Empty water from tank.

Tank can now only be full of air., can it combust ???? - no.

Select correct PPE for angle grinder - (full face visor / gloves / ears) - chop tank.

If at any point of the risk assesment you ask yourself a question you are not sure of the answer to stop and seek advice.


Familiarity can also breed comtempt , mentally run through a checklist for every " risky " task you perform, every time. ( is the key in the chuck, no, switch on lathe etc! :)

In my honest opinion lighting and running a propane forge is a higher risk task than making one from a propane cylinder.

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DON'T fill the tank with car exhaust fumes unless you want an address with 17 different zip codes! Exhaust contains Carbon Monoxide, a flammable gas, among other combustables. Have you ever heard a car backfire. that is the exhause exploding in the muffler and tail pipe.

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Read up on gas accumulation and understand explosive limits, upper and lower. Your intention is or should be to purge the tank of any combustible fumes or gas. Remove the valve and vent the tank. If you are not comfortable with the fresh air purge rinse the tank with a soap and water solution and purge again. This procedure works on distilate fuel containers as well as gas containers. Be careful and good luck.
Peter

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my welding teachers father from back in the day did the exhaust fumes in a tank they had to weld and any way my welding teacher lost his car (that was the exhaust sorce)and his father that day so there for i would never do that i walked of a job once when an old boss said weld that tank by puting exhaust fumes and told me i couldn't put any water in it to perg it

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hey man my dad told me a story once when i was younger about a friend he had who made thing in the process you are talking about. he was cuting a LP tank that he had gone threw with his normal procedure of washing it out 200 times, yes 200 time he was that carfull. as my dad was walking to his shop to deliver some welding rods or something along that line he heard an explossen and ran to the shop. what my dad found was not much, the largest piece of his friend left was hanging from the rafters. so this is very dangorus, so unless you want to die or have some one else die for you find another never filed tank of find a non flamabel way to do it. ( some one i know made a large pipe cutter from an old lathe took a week and a half but im glad he did, the tank still had a ounce of gas in it and he was going to tourch cut it.)

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So far I've read some informed opinions, the straight dope and some outright . . . Nevermind.

From what I've heard I have to say don't do it! You'll kill yourself doing something that's reasonably safe if you follow procedure but you aren't going to. What you're going to do instead is follow the advice of some internet wahoo that doesn't know diddly but has an opinion about everything. Why? because not knowing anything you'll THINK a pants load of mock and ineffective gobbledy gook precautions SOUNDS good to you so that's the way you'll go.

Go find another clean tank to use for whatever it is you want to cut a propane tank for. You don't know enough to do this safely and you don't know enough to pick the good advice from the really BAD advice thus far posted.

Be safe, find another alternative.

Frosty

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