Thanks for the tanks!

[elt]

I've been hanging out on the "Free" page on Craig's list for a while mostly looking for water heater tanks to make a waste oil heater from. It took a while to find one but "when in rains, it pours." In one day I got two water heaters. One electric that I eventually did make a heater out of (still working on installing it in the shop) and one propane that I'm planning to fix to use in the house.

Before I even started the heater, though, I saw an offering for four 100 pound propane tanks. I was interested in one for an air tank but the lister wanted all four gone. I have finished the air tank and put it into service. Turns out that the one I picked had about 5 gallons of propane in and, stumped on how to use it, I eventually turned the bottle upside down and shot the liquid out. Here's something that I didn't know: Yes, the propane evaporates and blows away; apparently the "oderant" does not! It's been a week and even after a little rain it still smells like a propane leak back behind the shop.

One idea I had through was to cut one end of the four tanks and weld them together; that would be about 13 feet of heavy duty tube, the start of nice windmill tower... a couple more scores like those four and I could get some height!

But my point here is to recommend Craig's list

( http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites )

and to say thank you to all the folks that take the time re-home stuff that others can use.

I got one more tank.

Driving down the road I saw something that looked like a pretty fancy tank in the ditch. I regularly pick up stuff off the side of the road so I hit the brakes out of habit. Once I was out the car I could see it was a beer keg and when I picked it, it was heavy... I weighed it at home and if it was tapped I don't think it could have given up more than half a cup.

Would you drink it? I've kept the keg cold and I know it can't be old because I drive the road frequently. I hope that this keg fell off a truck (the top rim is dented) and that I didn't steal some hunters' beer. It's been a very long time since I tapped a keg... can the cap fall off or does it have to be torn off? Unfortunately, the cap is gone. I know it's an Anheuser-Busch keg (1/2 keg or 1/4 barrel) but I don't know what kind. What if I payed to rent a tap and it turned out to be Bud-Light?

I don't drink that much beer these days but I'm will to reform. How long will the beer keep if I keep it pressurize with CO2?

Thank you very much,

 - Ed.

[jonas302]

When welding propane tanks we have taken the valves off and tossed them in a brush fire to be sure they dont have residue explosive there are probly lots of other ways just what worked for me

Besides it will be nice to have a big fire for all that beer drinking (:

[wooferhound]

Beer in a Keg is not pasteurized. It should be kept cold and will not last more than a week at room temperature.

[tanner0441]

Hi

If you are going to do anything with a propane tank, even drilling holes in it, make sure it is full of water first. As for the reoderant, it is a wonderful substance called macapden sulphur and when you draw the gas off it also leaves bits called heavy ends of distilation, which holds the smelly stuff and does not evaporate as readily as the propane. Propane liquid expands 700 times at 20C to become a gas, a mix of 17% ish of gas in air makes a stoichometric mixture..... OPTIMUM BANG. Flame front to nearly the height of Everest in about a second.

In the UK the tanks have a test plate on them and the test pressure is normaly around 400PSI, working pressure at normal temperatures is around 150 PSI.

They do however make excelent air receivers....  Just be careful..

Brian

[bparks]

With a basic style air-pump tap I'd agree that a week would be max if kept cold.  With co2 in a fridge at least a month is fine, at least we never had any issue going that long in our old keg fridge.

It's probably bud light though...

Other options would be try and sell it back, I think the deposits on those are at least 15 or 20 bucks.  Could also cut it in half and make a nice savonis.

[elt]

Thanks for the info. With the turn in the weather, my problem right now is not keeping it cold but keeping it from freezing. I have it tucked into a poorly insulated corner of the shop so I think it'll be okay.

Is there any difference in the CO2 used for my MIG welder and that used for beer? A month of draft on tap sounds good!

- Ed.

[elt]

I have to admit that I was pretty scared when I saw that jet of propane shooting out! It was no more than 1C though; it was cold and that was one reason that I was impatient emptying out the tank.

I've had an outdoor air hose hooked to the compressor most of the Summer and I can see that the hose is weathering poorly. I had visions of the hose breaking and my air compressor running without end without me knowing about it. The 25 gallon tank holds a lot of tire topoffs... seems to be working very well. If/when the hose goes I'll just get a better hose.

Thank you,

- Ed.

[elt]

Hi all,

Turns out that the keg was Michelob, or at least that's my best guess. I tasted good and the color was right. I probably drank a gallon or so from it over the course of a week before it lost enough fizz that it wasn't that much fun...

More tanks!!!

Craigslist came through for me again. I picked up six CO2 tanks today, two 5 pound tanks and 4 twenty pound tanks. They've all in good shape but have expired but the welding place a half mile away does recertifications so I'm hopeful they'll exchange them for me. I'm excited because I've been welding (steel) with flux coated wire and have been told that using shielding gas makes much nicer looking welds. (I have a bottle of argon I use an aluminum and, for a beginner, I think they look pretty good.)

One of the 5 pound bottles has about 3 pounds of gas and one of the 20 pound bottles have about 15 pounds of gas so with what little welding I do I probably won't need to worry about refills for a while.

And if I weld together all the tanks I've picked up so far I'd get a 20 foot tower; I think I'm on a roll...

Now, of course, I'm wondering if that Michelob can be recarbonated in the keg... I read that the reason folks like to pressurize with "beer gas" is so that too much carbon dioxide doesn't dissolve in the beer. Maybe some pure CO2 will work in this case? I'm going to have to look into this!

Cheers,

 - Ed.