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Metalworking (rec.crafts.metalworking) Discuss various aspects of working with metal, such as machining, welding, metal joining, screwing, casting, hardening/tempering, blacksmithing/forging, spinning and hammer work, sheet metal work. |
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Cutting open old LO2 tank.
I have been asked to cut open an old liquid oxygen tank with my plasma
cutter. The intention is to use it as a glory hole for glasswork. I have not actually looked at the tank myself. Are there any explosion hazards or anything I should watch out for in terms of safety. Are LO2 tanks double walled, contain a dewar or contain any hazardous insulating material I should be careful of? |
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On 10 Feb 2005 20:58:31 GMT, Ian Stirling wrote:
wrote: I have been asked to cut open an old liquid oxygen tank with my plasma cutter. The intention is to use it as a glory hole for glasswork. I have not actually looked at the tank myself. Are there any explosion hazards or anything I should watch out for in terms of safety. Are LO2 tanks double walled, contain a dewar or contain any hazardous insulating material I should be careful of? LO2 tanks are almost certainly double walled, with vacuum in the middle, and probably layers of foil or something. Could be mylar sheeting (think "space blanket"), or Perlite also. There is a very small chance that a fault would cause this to be pressurised. I'd drill a 10mm hole, to start, before starting the plasma. I'm not sure it'll fit the desired purpose very well, either. Just because it's good at keeping very cold things very cold, doesn't mean that the materials used for such will be good for high temperature insulation as well. Actually, I lie, I'd say "Cool a LO2 tank", and start investigating how to get it filled. I've got a cryogen tank for liquid nitrogen (2 liter dewer flask) that I got for a similar "hey cool, I want this" reason. It has, to date, never been used. Based on the materials in that one, I wouldn't consider getting it anywhere near something hot enough to melt glass. Dave Hinz |
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I'm not sure it'll fit the desired purpose very well, either.
Just because it's good at keeping very cold things very cold, doesn't mean that the materials used for such will be good for high temperature insulation as well. The heat from the glory hole flame never makes direct contact with the metal. You line the inside with an insulating material(frax). You can use a little as a metal trashcan. In this case, the glass work being done needs an opening larger than a trashcan can provide. |
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I will drill a few test holes as suggested earlier to get an idea of
what may be inside and relieve any possible differences in pressure if it is a double wall. If it turns out that there is some insulating material that can not be removed or has a temperature problem then it may not be possible to use the tank. Dave Hinz wrote: On 10 Feb 2005 13:18:11 -0800, wrote: I'm not sure it'll fit the desired purpose very well, either. Just because it's good at keeping very cold things very cold, doesn't mean that the materials used for such will be good for high temperature insulation as well. The heat from the glory hole flame never makes direct contact with the metal. You line the inside with an insulating material(frax). You can use a little as a metal trashcan. In this case, the glass work being done needs an opening larger than a trashcan can provide. Gotcha. I guess that makes sense, but I'm still not convinced that just because something is good for cold, it'll be good for heat. As an extreme example, styrofoam wouldn't make the transition real well. I don't know how perlite or mylar do at high temps, or what the temp there is. |
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