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View Full Version : Got a use for old Propane Cylinders ?



cabezaverde
11-06-2005, 03:00 PM
I have a few hanging around that the places won't fill anymore. Anyone have any uses ? I was wondering about a portable air tank possibly to fill a tire or run an airbrush with.

Gotta look at how to do it ? Other ideas ?

wills
11-06-2005, 05:18 PM
Years ago I got a kit to use a freon tank as an air tank, presta valve to fill it, and about a foot of air hose.

Could probably get something like that for a propane tank. Try an auto supply

powderburnerr
11-06-2005, 08:15 PM
cut the top off and use them to melt WW...... Dean

versifier
11-07-2005, 04:19 PM
I bet if you removed the valve, filled the tank with cement, and hung it with a chain it would make a great gong target at 200-300 yds. [smilie=s:

StarMetal
11-07-2005, 05:03 PM
versifier,

That wouldn't work well. Those tanks are very thin steel and even with cement inside even a rifle with cast bullets woulld chew it up in short order. Do you know you can crack a concrete block with a 22mag hollowpoint?

Joe

KCSO
11-07-2005, 05:35 PM
I got one I shot a bunch of holes in, I put it in the melt bucket full of Wheel weights and start the fire. When the lead melts I lift up the holey tank and the lead goes in the melt and the clips are in the propane tank. Just remember to shoot lots of holes in the bottom.

Steelbanger
11-08-2005, 06:55 AM
I exchanged all my old style 20 lb. tanks for new ones at Loews. For about $12.95 I got the new style valved tanks filled with 17 lbs. of propane.

cabezaverde
11-08-2005, 09:14 AM
What are these tanks pressure rated for ? I now have the fittings handy to make up a nice little portable air tank.

Willbird
11-08-2005, 10:04 AM
I agree with Steelbanger, the place where I get mine filled gave me a dozen of the old ones when the valve changeover was mandated, I let them lay around, then the Lowes and menards deal came up, there wa salso a 10.00 rebate at the time, so now I have plenty of LP tanks for cooking lead.

Bill

grumble
11-08-2005, 12:16 PM
What are these tanks pressure rated for ? I now have the fittings handy to make up a nice little portable air tank.

A propane tank will have a head pressure below 250 PSI on warm days. In normal weather, it will range from about 180 to 220 PSI. I'd guess the safety fqactor built into the design of the bottles would be at least twice that. So, your bottle should be safe enough for most air pressures from common compressors, up to, say, 125 PSI.

45 2.1
11-08-2005, 12:39 PM
I agree with Steelbanger, the place where I get mine filled gave me a dozen of the old ones when the valve changeover was mandated, I let them lay around, then the Lowes and menards deal came up, there wa salso a 10.00 rebate at the time, so now I have plenty of LP tanks for cooking lead.

Bill

Is that Lowes deal still going?

Bigscot
11-08-2005, 10:03 PM
They make fine table top charcoal grills. I have an old freon tank I use for melting wheel weights down.
Bigscot

Linstrum
11-09-2005, 02:20 AM
Wow! You guys have come up with some pretty interesting uses!

Here's my two semolians worth:

The 20 pound/5 gallon type propane tanks hold somewhere around six actual gallons because of the expansion head space added for bulk modulus of expansion to keep from rupturing the tanks on hot days.

When the propane company refused to fill my tanks with the old-style valves I brazed in a 2" female pipe thread collar on the shoulder and now use them for transporting gasoline and diesel fuel. They work a darn sight better than the new flimsy 5-gallon plastic pieces of garbage that replaced the old U.S. military Jeep cans. The old U.S. military Jeep can screw lids and "horse dong" spout are made to fit the 2" female pipe collar, which is also the standard 55-gallon barrel bung thread. I use the original valve as an air vent to allow rapid pouring of the contents and the hand grip on the tank top works okay for holding while pouring.

When welding or brazing on large volume enclosed tanks, BE VERY CAREFUL about the tank exploding like a fragmentation bomb from trapped welding exhaust gases that accumulate. Oxy-acetylene and LP gas torches produce copious amounts of carbon monoxide and other secondary gases in the exhaust that are still capable of burning and exploding, and decomposing paint produces flammable gases as well that will explode when confined in a tank. I fill tanks with water or sand depending on the application when arc and gas welding to prevent secondary gas explosions.

PatMarlin
11-09-2005, 08:51 AM
That is clever!

Can you post a pic of one of your converted gas cans?

RayinNH
11-09-2005, 10:45 PM
Linstrum, I wonder how long you'll get away with hauling gas in this tank. Last summer I was as the local gas station convenience mart pumping gas for my father to use in his lawn tractor. The two five gallon cans were indentical except for color. One was red and white marked gasoline the other was repainted white at some point in its life. Well the state fire marshal happened to be there and saw me pumping gas in the cans and said he would let me pump this time but to get an approved gas can. I asked him what the difference was between the two cans. He wouldn't answer the question and just walked away...Ray

floodgate
11-10-2005, 02:02 AM
Ray:

It's even worse out here on the Left Coast. The old red plastic cans with the yellow flex spouts are now verboten in CA. The new ones have a fitting you have to press tight against the filler opening against a strong spring to let the gas flow out. Trouble is, the spring is so strong, it collapses the top of the standard Briggs & Stratton plastic gas tanks. Needless to say, there's a brisk black market in the old-style cans and nozzles, and I'm hoarding the ones I've got.

BTW, those steel 20-liter (approx. 5 gallon) Jerrycans from Europe in the surplus catalogs have a much better and easier to use spout with a cam-lock attachment that latches quickly, seals tight and flows free. The French ones I got from Sportsman's Guide even have a reversible tag that tells whether you've got Diesel or Gas in them. I donated a couple to the local VFD for the fire truck they keep in in a nearby barn; the Chief doesn't hassle me about my plastic cans.

Floodgate

HTRN
11-11-2005, 01:19 AM
Some thoughts about "modifying" propane tanks... Propane literally seeps into the metal so even if you purge the tank, you're still at risk for an explosion... Make sure you fill the tank with water when doing ANYTHING to the tank..

I've seen them turned into small casting furnaces, mini forges (http://www.reil1.net/minifor1.shtml), filled with cement and used for mooring anchors, portable air tanks(not the greatest- they only hold 4+ gallons of air) - I'm sure there are even more uses that I haven't come across...


HTRN

snowtigger
11-21-2005, 09:05 AM
Grumble, the pop-off valves on propane tanks are set to blevy at 370-420 psi.
I have thought about(haven't tried it yet) removing the valve and setting the tank on the turkey cooker to drive out the left over propane. Shouldn't hurt the tank if all you are going to use it for is a melting pot. Can anyone find a down side to this?
The odor added to propane seems to concentrate in tanks. Really stinks.
For an air tank, I just remove the valve, screw in a 3/4" nipple, add a gate valve with a female air fitting. Use a double male fitting to fill it from your compressor. For boon-docking, I use a 100# cylinder. I got one that was dented, they wouldn't fill it any more. Still safe at air compressor pressures.

cabezaverde
11-21-2005, 09:33 AM
What is boondocking ?

Willbird
11-21-2005, 10:06 AM
452.1 I'm not sure if the 10 rebate is still on, but the exhange of old style for new at menards is going on forever, and I got the impression it was an Amerigas program. Take in an old tank and pay like 10 bucks to upgrade to new style. I think they retest them and install new valves, and re-stamp.

Bill

grumble
11-21-2005, 01:15 PM
"...removing the valve and setting the tank on the turkey cooker to drive out the left over propane. Shouldn't hurt the tank if all you are going to use it for is a melting pot. Can anyone find a down side to this?..."

It might work. But then again, there MIGHT be enough propane fumes to make a combustable mixture. Would it be worth the chance? Water filling is the safest, and non-catalytic converter exhaust gas (or other non-oxygenated gas) would be next.

The thing is, if you're wrong, there's no second chance.

snowtigger
11-25-2005, 07:09 AM
You may be right. Maybe I will try the water trick.

Linstrum
12-12-2005, 06:43 AM
What is boondocking ?

Hey, there, Cabezaverde, how ya doin'? "Boondocking" is from what Daniel Boone used to do. In 1767 he traveled through the Cumberland Gap to what is now Kentucky, exploring and blazing a trail. He came back from his first explorations and then returned to the region several times from 1769 to 1771. In 1775 he returned again to guide settlers to Kentucky and also erected his fort at Boonesboro. Daniel Boone was born in 1734 and passed away in 1820.

It is called "boondocking" because at that particular point in Colonial and early United States history, he went much farther than any other European settler ever had out into wilderness. He went way, way farther out than anyone else ever had, part of it by canoing up the tributaries of the Ohio River. When he went as far as he could by canoe he "docked" his boat where the water was too shallow to float it. At that point he was 100s of miles away from any other European folks. So, back then, when somebody went way far away out into the wilderness, it was said that they were out where: "Good ol' Dan'l Boone docks his canoe". That got shortened down to just: "Where Dan'l Boone docks", which got shortened even more to "Dan'l Boone docks, which got shortened again to just "Boondocks". Boondocking is going way far away from everybody, and the act of getting out there is called "boondocking".

;) Hope that helps! ;)

porkchop bob
12-12-2005, 08:46 AM
Some thoughts about "modifying" propane tanks... Propane literally seeps into the metal so even if you purge the tank, you're still at risk for an explosion... Make sure you fill the tank with water when doing ANYTHING to the tank..

I've seen them turned into small casting furnaces, mini forges (http://www.reil1.net/minifor1.shtml), filled with cement and used for mooring anchors, portable air tanks(not the greatest- they only hold 4+ gallons of air) - I'm sure there are even more uses that I haven't come across... HTRN
Good morning, HTRN. Please check the link to mini forges. Thanks, Bob

HTRN
12-12-2005, 10:49 AM
Hmm, the webpage is down... The link is correct though.

Mebbe he forgot to pay his service provider?


HTRN

floodgate
12-12-2005, 03:24 PM
Linstrum:

"Boondocks"

Hmmm.... I've always assumed (yeah, I know...), on no evidence whatever, that it came from the Philippine campaigns in the Span-Am war. If you look at a map of the northern island of Luzon, you will see the long, skinny BONDOC peninsula wandering a hundred miles or so out to the southeast - past the active volcano Mayon - into the Pacific. Few roads even now, just a few plantations and villages. If you were on station 'way out on the Bondoc Peninsula, you were well and truly "out in the boondocks".

Living a few miles from Boonville, CA, though, I like your story better.

floodgate

StarMetal
12-12-2005, 03:32 PM
When I was in the Navy we had two different sets of shoes. One was the typical military roundnose dress shoe. The other was a very low work boot that came just past the ankle or there abouts. We called those boondockers, now I wonder why.

Joe

grumble
12-12-2005, 03:47 PM
boon·docks (b›n“d¼ks”) pl.n. Slang. 1. Wild and dense brush; jungle. 2. Rural country; the backwoods. [From Tagalog bundok, mountain.]

I like the Dan'l Boone version better, too.

Johnch
12-12-2005, 07:00 PM
Take them 1 at a time to a place that has cylinder exchange .

I was given 4 old cylinders because I still could use them on the old gas grill I have .

I them took them in , exchanged them and now have 4 of the new type .
The 17 year old clerks don't know the differance or care. :bigsmyl2:
All I had to do was pay the exchange cost for the new full cylinder


Johnch

floodgate
12-13-2005, 12:21 AM
Grumble:

Look in a dicshunary! That's cheatin!!! I guess I did get it right after all, though I'd rather see ol' Dan'l get the credit.

floodgate

redneckdan
12-13-2005, 01:25 PM
boondocking is also riding a snowmobile off the beaten path. ie through untracked powder medows, through the woods, etc.