Fuel tank welding-inside & Real Men....

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In response to a recent thread on 'How to weld a tank on a fuel oil truck', the below is posted. Real Men don't clean the tanks, check or monitor LEL, or use purge gas (then calculate the purge and monitorthe purge outflow for O2) for exterior welding on fuel-rich tanks. So, by that criteria--I'm a chicken-little, girlie-man, sissy--which is fine--but--I'm here to tell the tale.This is a 750 gal. tank--jet fuel/kerosene for turbine AgCat, loader truck. The rear 5' is for fuel,then a spacer bulkhead separates this fuel tank from a separate water tank in the front. Both tanks have their own heads, with a 6" steel ring welded between them.Doing a quick, partial remediation of the tank. It didn't leak, had rusting on the bottom.Tank was steam and hot washed clean for 0 LEL. Fabricated an adjustable, easily removable ladder that does not block the 15.75" ID manhole; fatties can't fit thru it.Used large shop vacuum to suck air flow thru the tank from one of the bottom drain fittings, during tank prep.Brush, grind, sand, vacuum the rust, wipe down, coat with Permatex Rust treatment (this is a chemicalrust convertor), then tomorrow the convertor is coated with tank coating--to protect theconvertor coating. For that, I'll be in Tyvek suit and on my own air.Above is Nick--the customer--who did the final interior vacuuming, wipe down and convertor brush-on coating;after poor Dave did the grinding, brushing, fitting and welding of a 2" high X 8" OD fuel pickup dam inside. I looked like a coal miner, when I got out of this thing, after an hour+ of grinding and stringer bead brushing. This tank will be scheduled for replacement.Last edited by dave powelson; 04-10-2009 at 10:52 PM.Reason: added commentBlackbird
Reply:dam, i wish i had known about process for cutting and welding on fuel tanks before i cut open my two propane tanks for one of my bbq pits. well i filled them up with water and one of them somewhat had a small explosion, left me def for a few hours.I break things for a living...
Reply:Originally Posted by smokin_dodgedam, i wish i had known about process for cutting and welding on fuel tanks before i cut open my two propane tanks for one of my bbq pits. well i filled them up with water and one of them somewhat had a small explosion, left me def for a few hours.
Reply:That's some info worth remembering there Dave P.Not that I have any wish to weld a Propane/ Butane (whatever gas) tank. but I'm sure it will come up in conversation a few times
Reply:I've cut quite a few propane tanks open and all I've ever done was taken the valve off and run compressed air into the tank for about 5 minutes.. Never had any issues with them 'burping'.Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.
Reply:Stupid question, what the heck is the funnel hooked to crane mounted to the truck is for?Lincoln 300 Vantage 2008300 Commander 1999SA250 1999SA200 1968Miller Syncrowave 200XMT350MPA/S-52E/xr-15Xtreme 12vs Millermatic 251 w/30A  Millermatic 251 Dialarc 250 Hypertherm 1250 GEKA & Bantom Ironwokers
Reply:Originally Posted by itsgottobegreenStupid question, what the heck is the funnel hooked to crane mounted to the truck is for?
Reply:so what kind of garden are you planting with that contraption. thats a good idea on a wind driven pump, never would have thought of it.G3miller... 225g, s32p, 250x, 304, 12vs, MSW41     victor o/a thermal dynamics cutmaster 50 lenco panel spotter        hobart hf-boxG3 Farms.....raising cattle, hay, kids and hell, ...oh yeah I'm a fire sprinkler contractor by trade.
Reply:Originally Posted by G3farmsso what kind of garden are you planting with that contraption. thats a good idea on a wind driven pump, never would have thought of it.G3
Reply:We call them "airplane trucks" around here ,,,,,,  The hoppers are especially needed for rice.  Normally, you do all your groundwork, preflood the fields, pre-soak the rice seed in the hopper trailers before planting.   Once the grains start swelling up, load them into the hoppers, then into the airplane.  Gives the seeds a head-start, ahead of the weeds,,,  plus,,,,   they don't float, they sink where they land, sprout, and you get a somewhat uniform field of rice.I will mention, Dave, I know of at least one guy, has been having considerable success,,,,   drilling the dry seeds into the ground,,,,   THEN flooding afterwards.   Down by Thornton,,,,,   short-grain, short-season rice.   Just food for thought.
Reply:thats pretty neat, we don't have anything like that around here, too many hills and mountains.thanks for the pics and education.G3miller... 225g, s32p, 250x, 304, 12vs, MSW41     victor o/a thermal dynamics cutmaster 50 lenco panel spotter        hobart hf-boxG3 Farms.....raising cattle, hay, kids and hell, ...oh yeah I'm a fire sprinkler contractor by trade.
Reply:I made a sand blaster out of an old 80# propane tank. After taking off the valve assy I lit the vapor on the opening OUT OF THE GARAGE and let it burn down a bit. Then I stuck the cutting torch tip inside the hole and slowly squeezed the ox jet and it only shot a flame out for a few seconds. Continued this till all the flame was gone and then cut it in half. The opening is not large enough to allow enough air to rush in and cause an explosion. A bung hole on a 55 gal drum is a different story. I've seen one blow it's top off when a guy thought it would make a good solvent tank. Poof. What a fireball. After I saw he was ok I laughed my a$$ off and I quite sure he $#!t his pants. Wish I had the video.Kevin's Welding Service.Miller Bobcat 250.Millermatic 212.Hypertherm Powermax 600.Victor Journeyman torch set.Speedglas 9000XL
Reply:And the prize goes to........................................."Any day above ground is a good day"http://www.farmersamm.com/
Reply:Sorta like braggin' about how ya raped your next door neighbors daughter"Any day above ground is a good day"http://www.farmersamm.com/
Reply:To quote another forum member's private comment to me, in reference to all the home grown ways bantered about on thisforum about dealing with cutting/welding fuel tanks/propane bottles:Tell the true deal, and there's a ton of heros that tell you otherwise.Does anybody on the planet think it's safe to introduce a spark into a fuel rich environment???        Well, you've met them here. God forbid you should talk about accelerant.The below astounds me. In 20 years of tank work, I've heard lots of stories, some of them-first person, but never heard about purging a fire in a tank with pure oxygen.KWS advises us:I made a sand blaster out of an old 80# propane tank. After taking off the valve assy I lit the vapor on the opening OUT OF THE GARAGE and let it burn down a bit. Then I stuck the cutting torch tip inside the hole and slowly squeezed the ox jet and it only shot a flame out for a few seconds. Continued this till all the flame was gone and then cut it in half. The opening is not large enough to allow enough air to rush in and cause an explosion. Why worry about the air rushing in, while you're force feeding pure oxygen into the fire?            Chemistry factoid---it's the oxygen in the air, that combines with fuel and ignition to create a burn/explosion.    So---you purposely inject pure oxygen into a burning propane tank to help it burn off--or explode, depending on the quantity of fuel inside, the inner temperature, etc.Doing this is beyond dangerous, it's insanity......OHH--but yeah, you're telling the thousands of readers of this site--that since you did thisat least once---therefore----it must be safe! The same logic applies to running red lights.A bung hole on a 55 gal drum is a different story.I've seen one blow it's top off when a guy thought it would make a good solvent tank. Poof. What a fireball. After I saw he was ok I laughed my a$$ off and I quite sure he $#!t his pants. Wish I had the video.Fuel container fires/explosions--are anything but funny.As I've mentioned prior in this forum--I can make any tank either blow or not blow---where others are simply guessing.Blackbird