Welund Smith Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Well most of you know I was wanting to build a 55 forge well here is the bad news the snow storm made a big tree fall on them everyone got smash Now the only thing I got left is a big gas tank from a car with no gas in it would a gas tank work for a forge:confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Bummer about the drums. We lost two cars to one tree a couple years ago and it wasn't all that big of tree. I could build a forge out of an old gas tank safely but if you have to ask I highly recommend against it. You have to KNOW what you're doing. I suggest going on the hunt for another drum, they aren't hard to find even in remote places. I hope you know to treat any 55gl drum like it's full of something really explosive. Yes? Unless you know exactly what was in it you can find yourself in a world of hurt. Most are marked and you can look it up online. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welund Smith Posted March 13, 2009 Author Share Posted March 13, 2009 Well thanks for the info yeah I know how to treat them hehehe bad experience :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Keppler Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 They only two times i have known people that tried to cut/weld old gas tanks it went very badly. Both of them followed the "instructions" for removing all traces of gas. The first time was when I was a kid but I still remember the explosion and my uncle received a broken arm and there was some stitches to go around. The second time was just recently when a friend of a friend of the family did the same thing but he actually died from the accident. I suppose there is a way to work on old tanks but you wont catch me trying. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rstegman Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 I have no real idea of what I am talking about, but I heard you fill the tank with water and then cut it. The water displaces the gas, fumes and such. If you leave the water in it, it will prevent the gasses from reaching where you are cutting. As I said, I have no real knowledge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nett Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 I bet you could pound one of your 55's back into a usable condition, remember, it's not rocket surgery. Here is a cool set-up using drums for a bellow system photo 1 and photo 2 to feed a side-draft forge:Copyrighted photos removed and a link put into the text. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fe-Wood Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 I believe, if you can fashion a gas tank into a forge, you can fashion a smashed 55'er into a forge. If you do get into cutting the used gas tank, FILL IT WITH WATER TO JUST BELOW THE CUT LINE!!!! You will also need an air/fume escape hole above the water line. Be safe! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fe-Wood Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 Net- Nice drawing for the bellows... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 (edited) Please, just don't do it. Hammer the crushed drums to shape, wait and find another one or two, use something else, almost anything will work but you need to KNOW what you are doing to mess with fuel tanks. Not think, not guess, not figure it out, you have to KNOW. So far with all good intentions nobody's "ideas" about cutting, welding, etc. on a fuel tank are complete. Some have it partly right (for one method) but partly right doing something like this is NOT GOOD enough. Even if I gave out step by step directions there's too good a chance you'd miss a step or one just wouldn't work. Sometimes they don't work for whatever reason and if you don't recognize it you end up in a burn ward if you're lucky. I've cut on and or welded up somewhere more than 50 fuel tanks, gas and diesel both and the pucker factor is considerable every time. Diesel tanks especially are VERY dangerous. There's a good reason I don't tell people how to do these kinds of things. I know there are a umber of other guys on this forum who know how to cut and weld used fuel tanks and they're not telling either. For the SAME REASON. So please just don't. I don't have such a surplus of friends I can afford to lose one if I can help it. Okay? Frosty Edited March 14, 2009 by Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welund Smith Posted March 14, 2009 Author Share Posted March 14, 2009 Well I think i will not do it after hearing everyone :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferrous Beuler Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 Well I think i will not do it after hearing everyone Good, better left alone. A freind's dad drove an 18 wheel gasoline tanker and I asked him once if he was afraid of it ever exploding. He said nah, not when she's full but I'm always nervous on the trip back when she's empty and full of fumes. Don't assume a gas tank is "safe" because it has been laying around and you think those fumes have got to be gone by now. A man was killed for that assumption at a junkyard in Franklinville, N.Y. a few years back. He had a car up on a lift and was using a torch to cut the gas tank straps. The gas had been siphoned off weeks before. Well, he cut into the tank and got burning gas spilled on him. He died three days later. My wife is a nurse, when she was on an ambulance crew many years ago she had several burn cases, always horrific. Because of the great risk of infection those burns have to be cleaned, that means scrubbed out with a plastic bristled brush, no easy way about it. If you survive those first few days of agony you must still endure many months, if not years of skin grafts and all the down time, out of work, if you can work at all after that. Your life will never be the same. 55 gal. drums, or any vessel for that matter are suspect. What was in them or still is in them? Flammable? Toxic? Know what you are dealing with. There is a lot to be said for using what is at hand and being frugal, blacksmiths are the foremost recyclers but ask yourself is it worth it when there may be some risk involved. Be safe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saintjohnbarleycorn Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 If the drums are not opened yet, use compressed air I bet they would pop out maybe even a little torch work you could get them in very good shape. I have never done this but I have seen many different containers large and small misshaped by to much or too little pressure. kevin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyvern Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 a tire rim without the rubber is a good forge and plywood and vinyl are good bellows material and need not be expensive and neither are explosive just an idea I operate on a budget and still have to feed the need to smith the joy of being a smith there are so many options and ideas , and from the responses I've read I can say you have good friends on this site Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyvern Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 a tire rim without the rubber is a good forge and plywood and vinyl are good bellows material and need not be expensive and neither are explosive just an idea I operate on a budget and still have to feed the need to smith the joy of being a smith there are so many options and ideas , and from the responses I've read I can say you have good friends on this site Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welund Smith Posted March 15, 2009 Author Share Posted March 15, 2009 Good, better left alone. A freind's dad drove an 18 wheel gasoline tanker and I asked him once if he was afraid of it ever exploding. He said nah, not when she's full but I'm always nervous on the trip back when she's empty and full of fumes. Don't assume a gas tank is "safe" because it has been laying around and you think those fumes have got to be gone by now. A man was killed for that assumption at a junkyard in Franklinville, N.Y. a few years back. He had a car up on a lift and was using a torch to cut the gas tank straps. The gas had been siphoned off weeks before. Well, he cut into the tank and got burning gas spilled on him. He died three days later. My wife is a nurse, when she was on an ambulance crew many years ago she had several burn cases, always horrific. Because of the great risk of infection those burns have to be cleaned, that means scrubbed out with a plastic bristled brush, no easy way about it. If you survive those first few days of agony you must still endure many months, if not years of skin grafts and all the down time, out of work, if you can work at all after that. Your life will never be the same. 55 gal. drums, or any vessel for that matter are suspect. What was in them or still is in them? Flammable? Toxic? Know what you are dealing with. There is a lot to be said for using what is at hand and being frugal, blacksmiths are the foremost recyclers but ask yourself is it worth it when there may be some risk involved. Be safe.They had motor oil in them the landlore told they was put down there in 78 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
courtiron Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 Please do not use compressed air to "inflate" a container unless you know what the dangers are. adding compressed air to any container raises the partial pressure of the oxygen in the container, and if the remaining gases inside are combustible you may cause and explosion. The barrel fragments will be traveling at high speed in all directions. I can only assume that one of those directions would be towards you. To paraphrase what Frosty has said "If you are unaware of the danger of what you are undertaking, please do not try it." If you fully understand the dangers you would not even consider the action that you are taking. My brother was seriously injured years ago from plastic shards of an exploding PVC pipe. He wasn't killed only because he was shielded by a concrete column. PURE DUMB LUCK... had he been standing about 12" to his left he would have been killed by the shrapnel. The conditions of his explosion were different from the inflation routine, but the end result might be different. He lived. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welund Smith Posted March 16, 2009 Author Share Posted March 16, 2009 Well I think as soon as get the money I will be getting me a Farrier no trouble with That:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty's Forge Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 (edited) i think i will share my bad experience with a fuel oil drum... i found a nice 44 gallon drum and rolled it around. assuming it was water sloshing about inside it i started cutting into it with an angle grinder while straddling the drum to hold it in place while i cut it. i was removing the top. when the fumes reached me i began to wonder what it was:confused: and if it was flammable... so being young and stupid i stood it up and threw a lit piece of wood at it... boy what a fire ball it was.. funnily enough the sticker on the drum said. "Racing fuel. Caution: highly Explosive!!" in a nice big red triangle. after it cooled down i finished the cutting but i would hate to think what would've happened had i been still straddling it when it was ignited. follow frostys advice. DON'T DO IT! Edited March 16, 2009 by Frosty's Forge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 Welcome aboard Frosty, glad to have ya. If you'll click "User CP" and edit your profile to show your location we won't have to guess. IFI is represented by more than 50 countries and good info is location sensitive. That and us old farts won't have to try remembering who's in the area when we travel and want a snack or nap. Lastly and I don't say this often, believe me, I don't know if there are many towns big enough for TWO Frosties! Frosty ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 Yes but *you're* Frosty the Snow Man! (being from AK and all)... (is it safe? NM is a goodly ways from AK...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 Yes I am but we have a mystery Frosty on board now, s/he may be from even farther north or maybe a mountain top or someplace even snowier. I don't know. Is NM safe? I might not want to visit if it isn't. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 No NM is very unsafe! Rattlesnakes, scorpions, black widow spiders, all the plants have thorns or spines, the sun can strike you dead, high altitudes are rough on the heart, dehydration is an ongoing problem; no not safe at all! Memo to self have EMRTC open all packages sent to me in the foreseeable future... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 Bummer, I'll cancel the reservations then. Guess I'll just have to drink this case of Alaskan Amber myself. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironrosefarms Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 I deal with barrels all day long at work... remember even things that seem harmless may not be. Any kind of oil, including food grade soy, corn or other oils are flammable and in the right situation explosive!!! Other things to keep in mind is that things like corn syrup, malt extract, and other high sugar items that are transported in 55 gallon drums are flammable as well when exposed to the right ignition source. The best bet would be to search out a barrel that has a clamp on lid. I personally have obtained several corn syrup barrels that have the lids held on with a clamp. These don't require cutting to get them open. You can then thoroughly wash the corn syrup away completely with some hot water and a bit of soap. Take the time to find a drum that isn't going to hurt you!!! think about what was in it!!! if you wasn't the one who emptied the ingredients be suspect of what may have been in it!!! One last idea... Years ago my grandfather had a barrel opener that he used in the gas station he owned. It was a giant version of a P-38 can opener that he had made. (P-38 can opener picture can be found here P-38 the handle was about 5 foot long and with a guy to hold the barrel and one to operate the can opener a barrel could be opened in a matter of minutes. Grandad, did not like the idea of wasting anything and would then be able to get every last drop of oil out of a barrel... and those who know me think I'm chintzy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 (edited) You can buy drum openers, both the old P38 style and the newer crank type. Both are approved for opening drums without causing unnecessary risk of fire or explosion. I use a saber saw with a bead of oil on the cut path to prevent sparks. I'm not saying it's a completely safe method but it's good for generally non-explosive residues like motor oil, antifreeze, etc. Frosty Edited March 18, 2009 by Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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