In article
,
"Leo Lichtman" wrote:

Jeff Wisnia wrote: Uh, the OP did say those were gas tanks.....And there
was "old gas" in the other tank.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The heating idea is so good that I am trying to think how to make it safe.
Not only will heating break down some of the bond in the threads, making
them release more easily, it will also expand the hole in the plug, so that
on cooling, the Torx wrench will really the tightly held.

So, how about syphoning out the gas, and filling the tank with water. Or
old crank-case oil, which will be miscible with the gasoline. Gasoline
will float on water, and could still be dangerous, but diluted with oil, it
ought to be pretty hard to light. Another idea is to run the exhaust from
a small engine into the tank with a hose, and run it for 15-30 minutes. I
know of a welding shop that does this when they weld gas-tanks.

Maybe try throwing in a few lumps of dry ice, which will fill the space
with CO2.

I hate to belabor the point, but if you can't safely apply a torch to a
gas tank I question if you can safely operate power equipment.

There are lots of safe ways, and a small heat job far from the mouth of
the tank has an inherently low danger. Dry Ice sounds good, I often use
a CO2 tank for the same purpose. My father often welded diesel tanks
full to overflowing; often a fire (fireman standing by) but never an
explosion. Water works but is a bitch to clean out afterward. If the
diesel tank were empty, I would consider just adding a cup of 30W oil
and go at it for such a low heat job. A small amount of oil added to
gasoline so supresses the flash that the mix can be poured on open flame
without the disasterous flashback you get trying to pour gasoline on an
open fire.

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