fire extinguishers - Page 3

i would agree with that very few 100% american companies especially one big enough to produce so many products

The firefighter tanks are not oxygen tanks.They Are compressed breathing air tanks. 21% oxygen 78% nitrogen 1% other.

Originally Posted by corycouch

done the search and didnt see anything, we cut up a rolled oil tank a couple weeks ago and wanted to take some fire extinguishers just in case. i have a friend that owns a fire saftey store that services fire extinguisers and he give me a couple to take. anyway to the point our recycling came up and to shorten the story i got three 16 foot trailers full of fire extinguishers. now these are alot of work and have to be cut in half. some are aluminum and some are steel. some have brass fittings and some have aluminum, the little cylinder in the inside is sometimes plastic, but usually steel or aluminum. anyway lots of work separating and we do it in our spare time. we have started on a pile of aluminum oxygen tanks fire fighters wear and had 50 to 60 when we started and they weigh 17 lbs apiece at 58 cents a lb. it will take us months to process this in between cars and he said we could count on at least 200 or so a month so our dead time from now on shouldnt exist. anyway we usually pay for everything but he wanted it out of the way so we settled on lunch. some of you guys out there might make a call or even a visit its our favorite score yet just because of no down time plus a steady flow of cash

i got tired of cutting the tanks in half so i started working on the nozzles today
heres a pic with the handles stuck to the valves i forgot to take pic with the tubes still on



took some trial and error but i ended up grinding the rivets and hitting the handle with the hammer.

alum tubes


stainless steel handles


brass valves (heavy)


anyway worked a couple hours made a little over 70 dollars, ive got hundreds still to cut in half and even more nozzels to break down, suppose to get another load next week

All from the same person?

yep, we havnt even checked the other two companies yet, my friend that owns this company says at least one of the others will give them to us and he wasnt sure about the other one

Did you ever find a faster way to cut the tanks in half?

we have been using the 7/64 dewalt chopsaw blades, they work really well, you can get a contractors pack of 15 at lowes for a little over 80 bucks.

Originally Posted by ScrapYaHerd

You may want to look around or ask if you really have to cut them in half. I was told that was necessary by one yard but now all I ever do to any tank I bring in; fire ext, co2, oxygen, propane,etc is remove the valve the scrap yard just needs to be able to see a hole in the tank.

A Yard a little ways south of me has a couple contracts with the propane tanks for fork lifts... They require that there are 2 visible holes and the valve off and they'll take them.

also wanna say thank you picked up a few today. and the guy said he would call me weekly for more