Can a propane tank be repurposed?

[Istillcare]

Mentioning again, probably for the last time. Your initial concept of a small pressure vessel is good but choice of vessel would be vastly improved by using a 2 liter plastic pop bottle, light, durable, safe, free and would last forever at 60 or 70 psi and could be refilled many times to 100 psi and after a couple cycles, unscrew the cap and put a new bottle on in a few seconds.

Scrhader valve or other port of choice would be installed through the cap. Hot glue works great on the cap also.

 

[Raul-02]

Won't the heat weaken the steel?

no. Steel is made with heat; a very great deal more heat than a simple bonfire can generate.

As an aside, you know about young's modulus of elasticity - - yes? It's a mathematical way to represent the tendency of certain materials (esp steels) to accept nondeforming stress and then deforming stresses and nonrecoverable deformation; E.G. Bend it a little it springs back, bend it more it springs back some but can be straightened, Bend it a lot and it can't spring back and it is structurally compromised and cannot be re straightened without compromising the strength of the material further still.

If you heat the damaged steel (damaged from having bent it too much) to the critical temperature and soak it for a little at temp the crystalline structure can realign and be as good as new. And while at that temp you can reform it to any shape desired and it will be as good as new. If these things were not so blacksmithing could have never existed.

 

[Raul-02]

l would be vastly improved by using a 2 liter plastic pop bottle, light, durable, safe, free and would last forever at 60 or 70 psi

I've blown them up. Tough little buggers, but I've wrecked 'em with compressed air; more than 80psi.

 

[ultrarunner]

Witnessed deformed steel at two plant fires.

One at a machine shop where the mezzanine engineering office caught fire on a weekend and spread to the roof structure…

The fire melted all the aluminum covers including the aluminum on the Bridgeport’s and the steel gantry crane looked like spaghetti.

The second was at the Pacific Oxygen Plant where a leaking acetylene cylinder caught fire in the open yard…

The cylinders were launching like rockets and peeled like bananas…

I guess a third was at a ink plant where large drums on pallets shot hundreds of feet into the sky…

I needed to put a new ring gear on my car flywheel and heated it in the fireplace…

Years later the gear is going bad exactly where I heated it… all I can think of is the heating altered the steel?

 

[Istillcare]

02 ... close but no cigar.

Heat and temperature are related but different. Remember TTT tables? It is temperature, not heat that is critical in tempering steel.

 

[M59]

I guess its time to wade back into this thread since Istillcare has made a point that I was going to but chose not to since I thought this thread had beaten the topic of turning used propane tanks into potential bombs long ago.

Besides the point Istillcare makes, the manufacture of steel is under strictly controlled conditions of time at temp, uniformity of temp, ramp up and ramp down time, and atmosphere ( gases, inert and others ).

Throwing a propane bottle into wood fire has the potential to non uniformly case harden some portions of the shell and weld seam due to contact with the charcoal in the fire and make those areas more brittle.
I imagine there is a seal or seals within the valve that would be heat damaged.

Empty propane propane bottles make good range targets and flotation devices for homemade rafts or can be upcycled into homemade scraper blades like Mazzbob's work.

 

[MossRoad]

 

[M59]

View attachment 753740

My new range target. Thanks. I will add a few of these on propane bottles interleaved with the recalled fire extinguishers with the plastic exploding screw in valve.

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

I have made between a dozen and maybe 20 HOBO stoves out of 20# tanks.. I give them away to friends and family...

I got the tanks from the local propane dealer with the valve taken out.. The valves recycle metal for good money.. The steel, not so much.. Once the valve is out if they sit upside down in the sun for a day or 2, no problems with gas fumes... I cut the tops off with a saws all as I don't have a torch or cut off grinder set up...

 

[Stomper]

Appreciate the idea......would be fine but this is not for spraying hundreds of feet of fence lines or tree lines etc.....way too much close in spraying that must be done on foot.

Why reinvent the wheel. This is just one option and there are many sizes, brands and designs to choose from and if needed you can install a longer hose. If you don.t want to install it on an atv or tractor you can use lawn cart for it or even a kids wagon. If you did manage to find a way to make the 1lb propane tank work, you wouldn't get much spraying done before losing pressure and would be constantly changing out cylinders. You would be better off staying with a handheld pump up sprayer

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Or you could try one of these and install some sort of spray nozzle on it. They are simple to refill and are pressureised with a simple air chuck you would use for a tire

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