Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 1:30 pm Post subject: Gas bottle woodburner
I started this more as a 'see if I can do it' than as a serious project. I've been teaching myself to weld, with lots of advice from a neighbour who builds nuclear subs for a living.
Ideally I wanted a source of heat to smoulder some woodchips on to run my old smoker with - not sure how I'll engineer that into this design.
It's far from finished and I'm now layed up with a herniated disc in my back for the time being - but there's a little video of my two and a half year old opening and closing the door, proving it's easy to use and difficult to break in one fell swoop.
I've still got the chimney to cut and a damn great fire to build in it to burn off all that powder coat - then I can get on with 'prettifying' it a bit so the Mrs doesn't mind it knocking about in the garden so much, then it's on to home smoked trout, mackeral, chicken, rabbit and anything else I can get my hands on ;) _________________ Adam
Found some pics of my crappy stick welding - before being too critical this is only the second time I've welded anything and I've not spent any time yet cleaning the welds up (filing/grinding)
Just to see the hinge mechanism for the full frontal door:
Tom being helpful again and holding the door for the pics
Pin side of the hinge:
Assembled door and hinge:
From a little firther back:
Door open:
Toys optional - unless you're two and a half, when they're essential.
That is a very neat cut was it done free hand with a grinder and did it take long, before you cut the top off did you have to do anything about the gas residue or is it simply a case of removing the valve leaving it a couple of hours then get to work making lovely sparks.
I know i may sound a bit daft but when we used to weld fuel tanks we had to fill them with a type of foam even when they were empty. and I have always been wary of cutting anything that has contained fuel.
Yes it was free hand with a grinder - took me about 20 minutes overall. I clamped some pieces of wood and a sharpie permanent marker into my workmate - the wood so the cylinder could be pushed up against it as a kind of reference point and then rotated by hand in a fixed, known position - the marker could then be clamped in so it just touched the cylinder as it rotated and it drew a lovely straight line around the cylinder.
Then I scored around the line with a cutting disc in a 120mm grinder which, once I was happy I'd followed the line properly, I did again making it deep enough that the grinder wouldn't skip out, then I got on with it properly going right through the skin of the cylinder.
That particular one is about 4.5 to 5mm thick, I'll measure it when I'm up and about properly.
As to making sure there's no gas residue, I took a bit of time and did a bit of a google safari on safety tips.
DISCLAIMER: I'm not going to claim this is the only way to do this, or that it's neccesarily safe to do as I've only done it the once - but it certainly made sense to me and didn't involve me getting an aerial view of my house! If anyone decides to cut up a gas bottle you do so at your own risk, do your own safety assessment first and above all if you're not happy that something is absolutely safe don't cut the cylinder - for legal puposes I will accept no responsibility for other peoples actions and what follows is only a description of what I did, not instructions on how to go about cutting cylinders.
Unlikely I'd need the disclaimer on this forum, but you never know, some muppet might might turn their house into a truly open plan affair and be looking for someone to sue ;) Enough bollocks, on with the good stuff.
First make absolutely sure the cylinder is empty - don't trust to weight as really small amounts of gas can be still be dangerous - open the tap and smear some washing up liquid on the exit port - if it bubbles at all, leave the tap open (in a safe place) over night to vent any residual pressure. Remove the valve next, keep it in a safe place as you're going to need it again and fill the tank with tap water then leave it to stand, full of water, overnight. Now stick the valve back in, hand tight to prevent any water leaking out and turn the cylinder upside down. Mark on it where the rear supporting leg is going to go (i.e. towards the other end of the cylinder from the valve) and drill, carefully, a 2mm pilot hole underneath where the leg will be. Now unscrew the valve again and let the water out - as it flows out of the valve it draws nice clean fresh air in at the top and makes doubly sure there's no gas left in the bottle which might have permeated the metal of the cylinder.
Cut it while it's still wet - but don't cut it while it's full of water if you're using an electric grinder. _________________ Adam
Sorry confused et al - it's going to be a wee while before it's finished now. The industrial catty is on hold too for the same reason.
I had emergency spinal surgery on Saturday morning, was rushed in after the MRI I had on Friday, to fix a prolapsed disc between a couple of my lower vertibrae.
Going to be either on my back (no, not that sort of on my back) or taking it very easy, I can lift a tea cup but not a lot more and certainly no twisting movements for the next six weeks or so.
Computer time is going to be seriously limited, can't sit for long and what I've got I'll be using for comms with immediate family.
Catch you when I can and I'll be back when I'm fixed ;) _________________ Adam
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