what's the safest way.......

[Wicked one]

Jef,
You're right of course. I won't argue with you over your advice/warning in the least...You are absolutely correct.

When I was the first one to reply I was giving a lesson I learned from my dad/Farmer John when I was a kid. Neighbor brought over a hot water tank to cut open with our O/A torch to use as a slop trough for his pigs. The only way my dad would let it happen was to have the tank filled with water beginning to end. Dad wasn't worried about propane or oil just unspent gas from the cutting torch flame accumulating in the tank during the cut. So I guess even a brand new tank from Wal-Mart just might be a problem.

These days with the Internet everyone is a potential expert and everyone wants a quick answer. Reasoned replies in the past to posters queries have been dismissed like water off a duck's back by the person posting because they weren't the 'right' answers, weren't easy, cost too much, etc. A simple "Don't!!!" won't stop the potential Darwin Award winner either. So what do you do?

I'm not blameing you at all and respect that you had the seeds to answer . But I weld for a living and I have done a lot of stuff that would make the average guy's toe's curl! So I'm just saying that if you don't know or have never done it sometimes your pride has to be put in your back pocket. Just because someone has done it and retained their life doesn't make them an expert. Most of the time people want to do stuff like this to make a planter or something like that. Go buy it it's safer. A hot water tank I would be more concerned with the fumes comming out of the tank from cutting it. Most of them are plastic lined or some kind of epoxy. I guess what I'm trying to say is be careful when you do things and make sure you have all your bases covered safety wise before you start and have a plan if something goes sideways. Jef

[WyoRoy]

Again, you're right.

BTW, this was before plastic and epoxy came to be used in water tanks. Nice rivited construction on the ends. Back then, my dad was far more worried about the unburned acetylene from the cutting flame accumulating in the old water tank. Probably the same as he would in a brand new Wal-Mart propane tank purchased in the garden aisle, as per your reference.

[Wicked one]

Again, you're right.

BTW, this was before plastic and epoxy came to be used in water tanks. Nice rivited construction on the ends. Back then, my dad was far more worried about the unburned acetylene from the cutting flame accumulating in the old water tank. Probably the same as he would in a brand new Wal-Mart propane tank purchased in the garden aisle, as per your reference.

I hear ya just making a point. You could use a zip disc if you were afraid of unburnt gasses. I noticed you have a 14x40 jet lathe. How big a piece of soilid bar can you turn on it?

[bert the welder]

I think after 30+ tanks, Murphy would have already struck. I'm just giving my personal experience. Not assumptions base on theory and urban legend.
Cut away, I say.

[forschoolonly559]

I seen a guy weld a gas tank with a mig welder. he added co2 but it still caught flame http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD4KiQEnxwQ
and heres ai video of someone cutting a propane tank with a plasma cutter and it caught flame too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l43u8ItnjUw

if you choose the water method, airtools will prevent shock.

[junkwelder]

tanks

I have did a lot of tanks over the years, but always remember what an oldtimer told me,if you do enough of them sooner or later you will make a mistake or conditions will get right and they will kill you or cripple you.
I do not allow anyone around me when welding or cutting on fuel tanks, dont want the distraction or the chance of some one else getting hurt

[WyoRoy]

I hear ya just making a point. You could use a zip disc if you were afraid of unburnt gasses. I noticed you have a 14x40 jet lathe. How big a piece of soilid bar can you turn on it?

Not really sure. The biggest so far were a couple of 6" X 12" steel slugs bored out for a guy's jib crane down in Texas. Didn't have the large camelback drill press back then and once I ran the holes up to 1 1/8" out came the boring bar to hog out the rest. Matched the holes to a couple of 1" plate pieces for the mounts and bored them with the faceplate with about a 4" offset...so they would have been around 10" X 8" X 1" each with the mounts hanging out from the faceplate a bit. I'm sure the lathe will handle larger than a 6" X 12" slug of solid steel, but I'm too cheap to pay for anything larger than that.

[Portable Welder]

Wicked one, Do you ever weld on live gas lines.
Its done every day.

How about crawling down in a hole to weld a pipe. Gotta worry about the trench falling in.

How about climbing a ladder to weld a pipe.

How about when you have to stand on the rail of your manlift to fit between the lower pipes to weld on the pipe above.

All of those things you do can get you hurt.

Cutting open a propane tank or welding on a trucks gas tank is no more dangerouse.

Its all about procedure.

I do agree, getting advise off the internet is probably not the best choice.

However, Tanks that are full of water will never blow up unless ther'es a baffle inside at a higher point than your water fill hole.

I'd rather tell someone how to do it, Thats going to do it any way, Than for him to do it with no advise.

As much as we want to save people Darwins going to get them sooner or later.

[FabTech]

He's got that car hanging from a chain,
Whats the ol saying about a chain?
As strong as the strongest link.
To see this guy get squished like a grape, ouch

[Wicked one]

Wicked one, Do you ever weld on live gas lines.
Its done every day.

How about crawling down in a hole to weld a pipe. Gotta worry about the trench falling in.

How about climbing a ladder to weld a pipe.

How about when you have to stand on the rail of your manlift to fit between the lower pipes to weld on the pipe above.

All of those things you do can get you hurt.

Cutting open a propane tank or welding on a trucks gas tank is no more dangerouse.

Its all about procedure.

I do agree, getting advise off the internet is probably not the best choice.

However, Tanks that are full of water will never blow up unless ther'es a baffle inside at a higher point than your water fill hole.

I'd rather tell someone how to do it, Thats going to do it any way, Than for him to do it with no advise.

As much as we want to save people Darwins going to get them sooner or later.

As a matter a fact I do hot tie ins with mud plugs all the time and I do work down hole's. But that is what I do for a living! You are right it's all about procedure. With that said the average guy doesn't care about procedure he just want's to cut a propane tank in half . If you can feel good about yourself telling a guy that has no experiance in that type of work to do that and he blow's himself up great. I won't. Jef

[mattbrissey]

procedure

This is just my 2 cents, if the guy didnt care about procedure, then why did he ask what is the safest way to do it?? it isnt like he is insisting that he do it, just asking the safest way, whether it be water, scrap it, or have someone else do it. i love reading these post and seeing how the guy that just wants to learn how to do something and it either turns into an argument or a bashfest on how stupid a guy is for having no experience and wanting to learn something!!! think about it we all started some where

[fjk]

I do agree, getting advise off the internet is probably not the best choice.

I'm a weekend/backyard welder and find that the Internet
is great for advice. Seeing threads like this is a constant
reminder that there can be more than meets the eye when
I do something - so I keep getting reinforced to give everything
the once-over a second time, take my time, and always ask "What
am I missing? Is there something I really should not be doing?
or should be doing differently?"
The attitude even spills over into the other home-shop things
I do...

So thanks for all the advice!

Frank

[jrscgsr]

However, Tanks that are full of water will never blow up unless ther'es a baffle inside at a higher point than your water fill hole.

Don't be so sure. My old boss once completely filled a diesel tank off a truck with water to weld it was welding along and was suddenly thrown back. After lifting up his helmet and getting up off the floor he realized the tank had suddenly ballooned from causing the diesel clinging to the inside of the tank to vaporize and ignite, luckily it only ballooned the tank and didn't kill him.

I'll only weld a fuel tank if it has been washed out with soapy water thoughly and than very well purged first and while welding on it with argon or another inert gas.

[stugots]

i think this whole thread would make a great mythbusters show!

[Daniel]

Welding a fuel "" not gas "" is safe if you do it right. You just have to make sure it is full of inert gas, plain and simple. If somebody wants to clean it with water and soap, by all means do it.
I have done many fuel tanks "" tidy tanks in the back of pickup trucks "", I dont wash them "" but that's me "". I put my air fitting on it and put in 10 psi of air in it, find my leak and mark it. Then I put the spot where my leak is as low as i can and fill slowly the tank from the top with CO2. Then I weld the leak or put a patch without a worry in the world.

I've cut a door in between a baffle in a loader fuel tank with a zipcut with 1/2 inch of fuel in it still, to fix a leak from the inside. The tank on that loader is part of the frame. I made sure it was full of CO2.

But this is not a project a inexperience hobbie welder should attempt that's for sure.