larry g wrote:

One of the model engineering magazines, HSM I think, had an letter from a
boiler inspector about this very subject. He went on about pressure vessels
and heated pressure vessels being very different. In the end it was no way
in hell should anyone do this. I'm sorry I can't quote the article as I
have been going through a lot of the old magazines that I have just
acquired.

Hmm. Often when someone from an industry whose revenue source depends on
scarcity says "oh no you surely cannot do that" what it really means is
"oh my if everyone did that I'd be out of work". I vaguely remember the
letter, probably was HSM. I'd welcome it if anyone knows which -- since 1982
there have been over 135 issues, that's a LOT of reading.

I'll keep it in mind anyway.

I thought of yet another use, this one no one would complain about. Leave
the ring on the bottom, cut the top off so the walls are still vertical but
as tall as possible, clean it out. Then use it with lye, TSP or dishwashing
detergent and small-medium parts over outdoor burner for homemade "hot tank"
cleaning. This will remove paint from many difficult-to-clean items. The
toughest one I did was the carburetor from an outboard motor. I took the
carburetor in, cleaned, to buy some parts for it and the parts guy called
his buds over and they all said they'd never ever seen a Tecumseh carb
that clean.

GWE