Air Tank for cheepskates

I remember buying a small tank for about $20 a long time ago for the exactly what you describe. I had to go and let someone borrow it. I haven’t seen it since.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Yes, a handy tool like that is bound to grow legs. Nowadays, they’re $60 or better in my neck of the woods.
Gary, did the pic link work for you?

-- If stradivarius was alive today, he'd be using Gorilla Glue.

Wow. That is awesome. I’m sure there is some hazmat rule against this, but who cares?

My luck, I mix up the bottle with one I have for the grill and my tires would explode halfway to work one day.

-- Happy Ripping!!!

I don’t have a gas grill. How hard are the expired tanks to acquire?

-- Maplewood, MN

rikkor,

They are not hard to get at all. If you go to a propane supplier they will probably give you one since they have to charge a disposal fee for accepting them. What people generally do is wait until after hours and simply drop them off unannounced.

Poopiekat,

This is an interesting idea. It saves paying a disposal fee on one of these and it gets a second life as a useful tool. Nice post.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Thanks Scott.

-- Maplewood, MN

Oh, one more thing…the orifice at the valve is quite a bit smaller than the diameter of your hose, which is probably designed to not discharge propane too rapidly in case of a hose rupture. So filling the tank with air from your compressor takes a bit of time, maybe 5-10 minutes. This is probably why it won’t run high-consumption rotary air tools. You can tell at a glance how much pressure is in the tank simply by opening the valve and observing the gauge. Close the valve, and you have a handy tire-pressure gauge, (if your tire chuck is attached.)

Thanks, everyone for your positive reactions! I got more things I built for my shop from salvaged junque, will post some more things later.

-- If stradivarius was alive today, he'd be using Gorilla Glue.

Why not? Guys used to use old Freon tanks for the same thing. The thing about propane tanks is that they are thicker and might hold more PSI…I’m not gonna volunteer to find out how much! I do know from refilling Fire Dept. SCBA tanks (2200 psi) that when they do explode, people die. Home compressors usually don’t go beyond 125psi so you should be quite safe with that. Well, safer than using one of those cheap Walmart tanks anyhow! A suggestion would be to relabel the tank too. People wouldn’t freak out seeing you inflating your tires, or powering an air tool. And you wouldn’t see Homeland Security comin down on you with the beliefs that you’ve created some new kind of suicide vehicle.

I would question using the POL Valve as well. They are designed not to allow free flow…keeps the pyros from blowing up houses. So they gotta come out.

What does your local gas company say about doing this? You don’t see these things routinely so I would imagine theres some kind of law stating that you can’t. Be a good idea to check first.

Anybody know?

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!