Cutting a small propane bottle

Hey all,

I've got quite a few small propane bottles used for plumbing soldering, that used to hold about a pound or so of propane each. I'd like to cut the tops off a couple to use as crucibles in my home foundry, but I'd rather not blow any fingers off.

I've read in other thread about filling a propane tank with water, but I'm not sure how that could be accomplished on these small bottles. Does anybody have any experience cutting these up?

I've cut open a few of the squat one lb size tanks to make into funnels. I just used them until they would not make any sort of flame with the torch head....actually they still will make a flame for quite a while after it is not worth using for soldering. Just leave that flame running until the thing won't light at all.

I then cut the tank with a metal cutting bandsaw. Its a slow moving blade so there isn't much chance of a spark. Never had so much as a pop with it. If you don't have one of these, I'd take a nice brand new (sharp) hand hacksaw blade and cut into the tank. Once you cut into it enough to let air into it, you should be home free to finish the cut with a sawzall or zipcut.

YMMV.

Jon.

I have also cut many of these small propane/mapp gas containers. I use them to make tool racks (shovels, rakes, picks etc.). I also use a band saw to cut them. I take a small (1/8th) drill bit and cordless drill motor, drill a hole in near top of cylinder and let it vent first. Just a added safety measure before I cut into the tank and I have never had a problem.

Just to add to this, most scrap yards wont take these cans unless you put a hole in the container first. We use a lot of these for pipe soldering and we now recycle them as shred steel.

BC - Just so I'm not getting confused, would this method of yours be a Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle or other use?

Sounds like it might fit in the recreational category.

On a side note (and I don't recommend this) throwing the empty one lb tanks into a 55 gallon burn barrel makes a helluva BOOM. If it's pointed correctly it shoots about 40 ft in the air also. Sometimes you end up with burning embers flying all over too.

Burning garbage + vodka = redneck fireworks. Again, I don't recommend trying this. Leave it to the stupid like myself.

Full article at Scrap Metal Forum: http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...#ixzz3P0Dp4BcT

This reminds me of a general contractor I used to do business with. He was burning some construction trash and didn't realize there was an aerosol can in the mix. It went off like a rocket, hitting him in the back and dropping him. He showed me his back. Half of it was a nasty bruise. The frigging thing could have killed him, had it hit him in the head.

If I was on my property in rural Arkansas, I would probably have some fun target practice with them TOO! So three R's and some fun are OK by me.

A little off topic here, other than fires and cans of burnable stuff:

I bought an old farm a few years back and as normal on old farms, there is lots of old shzt. We had about 8 old gallon cans of paint--most were so old that they didn't even have labels. But oil paint.

My boys and I were burning some construction waste from remodelling the house and had a brainstorm to place the cans of paint, one at a time, into the fire, carefully set upright, so they had time to heat before blowing the lid off in the hottest part of the fire.

It was great fun! We didn't know what we would get. Some were duds, kinda poof, cloud of smoke, and a burning can of old crap. But a couple blew open and created perfect fireballs about 10 feet around. One was some kind of aluminum paint and just made a nice circle of aluminum spray on the grass around the fire.

Jon. Off to try shooting propane bottles or something.