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Old 05-17-2017, 07:44 PM   #61
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Name: Dave
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Accidents

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Originally Posted by Johnny M View Post
Yes it was not my intent to scare people but to make them aware of the reasons as to why these tanks are regulated the way they are. As a retired firefighter I have seen first hand what happens to these type cylinders in uncontrolled environments - seen a 1/4 thick wall welding tank that blew apart, at the rupture point the side rolled back like a sardine can...
We have a propane dealer in a nearby city who will exchange any tank. He will find you a tank with several years left on it so when it's empty you can get it refilled anywhere. He charges a couple dollars more than the exchange places but fills the tank full, you can watch him do it on the scale. Then you pay and get a punch card. After he fills 5 tanks for you, the sixth fill is free. As to where old tanks go, jerks dump them in city parks in remote areas all the time.
My father in law worked in an auto body shop. There was an unsecured oxygen cylinder away from the wall. Someone bumped it and it tipped over. Just the top cap hit a piece of steel on the floor knocking the head off the tank. It slithered out the overhead door and went 700 feet down the road before it expired. Close call for sure. Gas in cylinders of any kind is not to be taken lightly.
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Old 05-17-2017, 10:04 PM   #62
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I went into the big propane dealer, in the center of town, near where I used live. They were re-certifying propane tanks of all sizes and ages. Lots of them there with a full time guy doing the work. So I wandered over to see the process. Very simple really, just a low wage, unskilled worker with a wire wheel on a hand grinder. He'd simply remove all the paint with the wire wheel, re-stamp the cylinders, paint them and out they'd go for another life cycle. That's it. No hydro test or careful inspection.

Then one day I was at a local RV dealer. A guy came in with a full 20 lb cylinder that he wanted to re-cycle. He asked if they could help him. "Sure, no problem".

The worker simply set the bottle down where he was working, right in the middle of everything, cars, equipment and a busy street just a few feet away, and opened the valve wide open to drain it. Whoosh! A huge vapor cloud enveloped the place! Yikes!, let me outta here, was my reaction. Sheesh.

It's not really fair to compare propane tanks with oxygen cylinders. Oxygen might have close to 5,000 PSI whereas propane is only about 70. Propane bottles have a very good guard around the valves too.

I blew up an oxygen bottle one time just for fun and to see how it failed. I raised the internal pressure until it ruptured. It was spectacular. It split it's entire length and most of the way around each end, flattened out and left both ends hanging on by about a 1" strip of metal. Plus it flew a long way in the process. Very impressive!
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Old 05-18-2017, 07:43 AM   #63
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny M View Post
Yes it was not my intent to scare people but to make them aware of the reasons as to why these tanks are regulated the way they are. As a retired firefighter I have seen first hand what happens to these type cylinders in uncontrolled environments - seen a 1/4 thick wall welding tank that blew apart, at the rupture point the side rolled back like a sardine can...
You introduced the video in a well balanced and informative way.

As we go on about this topic the words "healthy respect" come to mind. The LP cylinders, car batteries and other energy storage devices need to be treated correctly. I still remember the broken steel parts displays in the Materials Laboratory at the Engineering school many years ago. They left a lasting impression which, I believe, was the intent.
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