I've aquired a used 30lb soda machine steel CO2 tank, and plan on
cutting the bottom off and making a bell out the casing. YES, I have
checked and removed the pressure relief valve and it is definately
empty! In fact, checked by the people who normaly torch cut them up.
The problem is removing the main valve assembly from the tank. Getting
holding purchase on the tank while I try to remove the valve has been a
problem. Any easy way to do this? TIA
-Mike

If you have a solid bench with a solid vise you could run a strap
around the tank and through the vise (tank propped up horizontal over
the vise), if you pull down on the straps running through the vise and
tighten the vise, it might grab tight enough depending on the strap
material.

Some variant of this will work- if you can strap onto part of the
casing you don't care about, you can use a chain for this. Wrap chain
around tank, run a bolt through the chain so that when you tighten the
bolt you pull the chain tight around the tank. Then put the chain into
the vise.

I have a bunch of old motorcycle chain, so I'd prob. use this as an
excuse to make myself a large chain wrench.

Dave

If you're not going to need the flat bottom part you cut off,
(assuming your bell includes the "top" of the tank) then
drill holes in the end and make up a "spanner" to hold it still,
or just drill across the diameter and stick the end of a stout
rod (rebar?) through it, and into something bigger than you.
Like the trailer hitch on your car, or pound it into the ground.
Apply big honkin' wrench to opposite end. Ensure that you
know whether the valve is right-hand or left-hand thread.

You could also cut the valve off, (leaving 1/4" or so) then use
a hacksaw blade to saw a couple of slots internal to the remaining stub.
Saw from inside towards the threads, in a couple of places.
If the tank threads are important, stop before you hit 'em.
Then some gentle tapping with a cold chisel should let
you peel the segments back and remove. Only works
if there's enough room to get a saw in there, and if the valve
is relatively soft.

You also might consult the source of the tank, and ask them
if they'd like the valve back. All they gotta do is take it off...

"Chip"


"mlcorson" wrote in message
oups.com...
I've aquired a used 30lb soda machine steel CO2 tank, and plan on
cutting the bottom off and making a bell out the casing. YES, I have
checked and removed the pressure relief valve and it is definately
empty! In fact, checked by the people who normaly torch cut them up.
The problem is removing the main valve assembly from the tank. Getting
holding purchase on the tank while I try to remove the valve has been a
problem. Any easy way to do this? TIA
-Mike

Maybe just weld a lever onto the end you aren't going to use.

Pete Stanaitis
---------------------

mlcorson wrote:
I've aquired a used 30lb soda machine steel CO2 tank, and plan on
cutting the bottom off and making a bell out the casing. YES, I have
checked and removed the pressure relief valve and it is definately
empty! In fact, checked by the people who normaly torch cut them up.
The problem is removing the main valve assembly from the tank. Getting
holding purchase on the tank while I try to remove the valve has been a
problem. Any easy way to do this? TIA
-Mike

"mlcorson" wrote in message
oups.com...
I've aquired a used 30lb soda machine steel CO2 tank, and plan on
cutting the bottom off and making a bell out the casing. YES, I have
checked and removed the pressure relief valve and it is definately
empty! In fact, checked by the people who normaly torch cut them up.
The problem is removing the main valve assembly from the tank. Getting
holding purchase on the tank while I try to remove the valve has been a
problem. Any easy way to do this? TIA
-Mike


I once had this problem trying to remove the valve from a scuba tank. I
tried ratchet straps, strap wrenches and anything else you could think of.
What finally worked was putting the wrench on the valve, and laying the tank
on the floor. I rolled the tank sharply until the wrench hit the floor. The
momentum of the tank acted like an impact wrench.

If that doesn't work, just weld the bottom to a steel plate.

"mlcorson" wrote in message
oups.com...
I've aquired a used 30lb soda machine steel CO2 tank, and plan on
cutting the bottom off and making a bell out the casing. YES, I have
checked and removed the pressure relief valve and it is definately
empty! In fact, checked by the people who normaly torch cut them up.
The problem is removing the main valve assembly from the tank. Getting
holding purchase on the tank while I try to remove the valve has been a
problem. Any easy way to do this? TIA
-Mike


I once pinned a tank between a parking lot tire stop and the rear tire of my
van.

On 14 Apr 2006 06:57:34 -0700, wrote:

If you have a solid bench with a solid vise you could run a strap
around the tank and through the vise (tank propped up horizontal over
the vise), if you pull down on the straps running through the vise and
tighten the vise, it might grab tight enough depending on the strap
material.

Some variant of this will work- if you can strap onto part of the
casing you don't care about, you can use a chain for this. Wrap chain
around tank, run a bolt through the chain so that when you tighten the
bolt you pull the chain tight around the tank. Then put the chain into
the vise.

I have a bunch of old motorcycle chain, so I'd prob. use this as an
excuse to make myself a large chain wrench.

Dave
And heat the valve with a torch - they use a sealer on them that
behaves like locktite - ALMOST impossible to break loose cold, but
significantly easer at 600F.

*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***

On 14 Apr 2006 06:31:59 -0700, "mlcorson"
wrote:

I've aquired a used 30lb soda machine steel CO2 tank, and plan on
cutting the bottom off and making a bell out the casing. YES, I have
checked and removed the pressure relief valve and it is definately
empty! In fact, checked by the people who normaly torch cut them up.
The problem is removing the main valve assembly from the tank. Getting
holding purchase on the tank while I try to remove the valve has been a
problem. Any easy way to do this? TIA


Do nothing to it, if it's still a good tank!

You can trade it in for cash money (they have a deposit value) and
they'll probably give you a few free tanks that can be cut up, too!

Call your local welding supply or beverage distributor, they'll be
glad to give you a 'condemned' tank or two that has failed the 12-year
hydro-test and has a suspected weak spot - they're scrap already. The
tank will already have the valve taken out of it so they could put it
in the testing tank.

The supply companies want the bad tanks cut up or otherwise
destroyed, so they don't get back into the system - some unscrupulous
dope might stamp a fake test date on it and get it filled again, and
tragic things can happen if a tank fails in service. And then the
heirs of the deceased/injured start looking for people to sue...

As to holding the tank if this one you have is already condemned:
Get a length of trucker's binder chain and a binder, chain the tank to
a convenient phone pole with several wraps, tighten with lever binder.
That ought to keep it in place long enough to get the valve out.

The shops that do this all day have a big chunk of C-Channel buried
like a fence-post, with a modified chain vise to hold the tank.

-- Bruce --

--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net.

clare wrote:
And heat the valve with a torch - they use a sealer on them that
behaves like locktite - ALMOST impossible to break loose cold, but
significantly easer at 600F.

*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***


Not to nit pick here, but is the valve threaded into the tank, or onto
the tank? If it's threaded into the tank, then you wanna heat the tank,
not the valve. Heating the valve only expands it tighter into the
threads in such a case. That's what I was told, and the way I've always
done it.

mlcorson wrote:

I've aquired a used 30lb soda machine steel CO2 tank, and plan on
cutting the bottom off and making a bell out the casing. YES, I have
checked and removed the pressure relief valve and it is definately
empty! In fact, checked by the people who normaly torch cut them up.
The problem is removing the main valve assembly from the tank. Getting
holding purchase on the tank while I try to remove the valve has been a
problem. Any easy way to do this? TIA
-Mike


I use a chain when removing valves from propane tanks:
http://www.tinyisland.com/LPvalveRemoval.html

GWE

I usually have to use a large vise and long pipe extension for the
wrench.


mlcorson wrote:
I've aquired a used 30lb soda machine steel CO2 tank, and plan on
cutting the bottom off and making a bell out the casing. YES, I have
checked and removed the pressure relief valve and it is definately
empty! In fact, checked by the people who normaly torch cut them up.
The problem is removing the main valve assembly from the tank. Getting
holding purchase on the tank while I try to remove the valve has been a
problem. Any easy way to do this? TIA
-Mike

Mike Berger wrote:
I usually have to use a large vise and long pipe extension for the
wrench.


mlcorson wrote:
I've aquired a used 30lb soda machine steel CO2 tank, and plan on
cutting the bottom off and making a bell out the casing. YES, I have
checked and removed the pressure relief valve and it is definately
empty! In fact, checked by the people who normaly torch cut them up.
The problem is removing the main valve assembly from the tank.
Getting holding purchase on the tank while I try to remove the valve
has been a problem. Any easy way to do this? TIA
-Mike

Stomp it into the ground with a backhoe bucket - this works - I know.

Ken.
--
Volunteer your idle computer time for cancer research
http//www.grid.org/download/gold/download.htm
Return address courtesy of Spammotel http://www.spammotel.com/

On Fri, 14 Apr 2006 14:54:49 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, "Tom
Gardner" quickly quoth:

I once pinned a tank between a parking lot tire stop and the rear tire of my
van.

What, it was trying to make a getaway?


--
"Given the low level of competence among politicians,
every American should become a Libertarian."
-- Charley Reese, Alameda Times-Star (California), June 17, 2003

I once pinned a tank between a parking lot tire stop and the rear tire of
my
van.

What, it was trying to make a getaway?

No, you silly, I could then knock off the valve of the O2 cylinder with a
hammer and the tank was held in position until max force developed before it
shot out like a watermelon seed and torpedoed a Honda.

No, you silly, I could then knock off the valve of the O2 cylinder with a
hammer and the tank was held in position until max force developed
before it
shot out like a watermelon seed and torpedoed a Honda.

I really hate when that happens.
-M

On 14 Apr 2006 08:23:52 -0700, wrote:


clare wrote:
And heat the valve with a torch - they use a sealer on them that
behaves like locktite - ALMOST impossible to break loose cold, but
significantly easer at 600F.

*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***


Not to nit pick here, but is the valve threaded into the tank, or onto
the tank? If it's threaded into the tank, then you wanna heat the tank,
not the valve. Heating the valve only expands it tighter into the
threads in such a case. That's what I was told, and the way I've always
done it.
It's not expansion I was talking about, but breaking the bond of the
sealer. Alsp, to remove a seized stud or whatever, I've found heating
the stud, not the block it goes into, then quick cooling the stud with
a blast of water works a whole lot better than heating the block of
material around the stud.
*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***

On Fri, 14 Apr 2006 14:39:14 -0400, clare at snyder.on.ca wrote:

sealer. Alsp, to remove a seized stud or whatever, I've found heating
the stud, not the block it goes into, then quick cooling the stud with

I read somewhere that the reason that heating a stud to remove it from
a block works is that when heated it is constrained and can only
expand axially. When it cools it contracts in all dimensions and
becomes 'thinner', thus loosening.

Mickey

In article .com,
"mlcorson" wrote:

I've aquired a used 30lb soda machine steel CO2 tank, and plan on
cutting the bottom off and making a bell out the casing. YES, I have
checked and removed the pressure relief valve and it is definately
empty! In fact, checked by the people who normaly torch cut them up.
The problem is removing the main valve assembly from the tank. Getting
holding purchase on the tank while I try to remove the valve has been a
problem. Any easy way to do this? TIA
-Mike

If you have a vise, you might be able to just grab the valve with the
vise and bear-hug and twist the tank off of the valve. I've tried this
twice, worked once. The other time took a chain, vise, pipe wrench, and
a hammer.

--
B.B. --I am not a goat! thegoat4 at airmail dot net