How do you get the valve off

[peter nap]

I'm finally starting to build my bowling ball cannon. I have an O2 tank.

I can't get the stupid valve off. It won't budge. I called Arcet today to see if they would pull it and got the "You'll shoot your eye out" routine.

Any Ideas?

[buyobuyo]

Try heating the bottle where the valve screws in with a torch while someone else wrenches on the valve.

[Stockcarver]

Will this show up on Myth Busters?

[Longwood]

Welding supply stores often have the vise and tool to take them out.

[waksupi]

Give it a squirt of Kroil, put a bunch of half hitches around it with rope, and take a pipe wrench to it. Or set it near a few teenagers, and tell them don't take that valve off of there!

[Longwood]

People can always find a 8 foot wrench but the vise to hold the tank is the problem.
Taking a valve out of a propane bottle is way easier in comparison
They are bottles, not tanks.
Another thing, if it is an empty oxygen bottle there is little danger. Oxygen will not burn. It is an accelerant (spelling?) not a fuel.

[peter nap]

Will this show up on Myth Busters?

Unless today goes better, it may show up on Jack *** the cannon builder.:groner:

[kbstenberg]

Two days ago I was trying to get a valve off of a 25lb propane tank. No luck. So I just cut the valve off near the tank with a hack saw. I am letting it air out for a couple of days before I cut the top of the tank off for a smelting pot.

[peter nap]

Two days ago I was trying to get a valve off of a 25lb propane tank. No luck. So I just cut the valve off near the tank with a hack saw. I am letting it air out for a couple of days before I cut the top of the tank off for a smelting pot.

That would get the valve off, but I need the threads to screw a breech plug into.

[John Taylor]

A trick I learned from an old plumber , try tightening the valve first. Seems strange but if it don't want to come loose it will some times break loose going the opposite direction, then unscrew.

[peter nap]

Thanks Guys!
Problem solved, Two heavy duty Ratchet straps and the steel frame off of an old snow plow made the vise.

An end of the world size pipe wrench and a 5 pound hand sledge made the muscle!

On to the Cannon making. It looks like the valve has the same thread as a trailer hitch ball, so I have my Breech Plug.

[waksupi]

Ratchet straps! That is high tech! That is why I suggested the half hitches of rope. Put a half dozen half hitches on, and you can pull the very devil out of his hole!

[scrapcan]

Now you need to document you build with pictures. I had seen others that used the hitch ball shank for the breech plug and the ball for a pintle type elevation adjuster.