Free O2 Tank

[Ghost.Diver]

To make a long story short, I have been given a Jumbo D O2 tank by a friend of mine that really has no clue about them anyway.
At first he wanted to sell it to me but I after he told me that he shot about 150 lbs of air into it to use it to run an impact gun and it being out of Hydo by several years; manufactured in '83, I told him it would cost more to get it up to par than its worth, and it could be constructed of defective alloy, he said 'is it worth a Coke?'

The tank is a Luxfer tank and the stampings on the tank do indicate that it is in fact made from the "bad" alloy.

So, I've pretty much made up my mind, but I figure I'd get some input from the board on what to do with this thing, just to see if I've overlooked anything.

 

[deepstops]

TxDeepDiver once bubbled...
To make a long story short, I have been given a Jumbo D O2 tank by a friend of mine that really has no clue about them anyway.
At first he wanted to sell it to me but I after he told me that he shot about 150 lbs of air into it to use it to run an impact gun and it being out of Hydo by several years; manufactured in '83, I told him it would cost more to get it up to par than its worth, and it could be constructed of defective alloy, he said 'is it worth a Coke?'

The tank is a Luxfer tank and the stampings on the tank do indicate that it is in fact made from the "bad" alloy.

So, I've pretty much made up my mind, but I figure I'd get some input from the board on what to do with this thing, just to see if I've overlooked anything.

Check with Luxfer and see if they are offering an exchange program like they have with the scuba cylinders. The worst that could happen is they will say no. Beyond that, I think scrap aluminum (or is that aluminium?) is about 40 cents a pound.

 

[cornfed]

There is a bad alloy? How do you check? Is it imprinted on the tank?

Cornfed

 

[scubasean]

has the info on their website...

--Sean

 

[cornfed]

Thanks.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Hydro tests run $12.00 here including the VIP. A freind of mine tests thousands of O2 tanks and scuba tanks per year and has I think found something like 4 tanks this year with neck cracks. An eddy current test is recommended every 18 months, which in practical terms means annually along with the VIP but is only $3.00-$4.00.

If it passes the hydro and VIP, I'd get it O2 cleaned and put it into service. As a diver I assume you are going to use it for emergency O2 (and a Jumbo D is ideal for that purpose) which means few to no cycles per year. And as the neck cracks are believed to be a fatigue issue, I don't think you will have an issue with it any time soon. Also a lot of cycles to 150 PSI to run an impact wrench are from a fatigue standpoint virtually nothing.

I have a pony bottle of the same alloy and again it has 1-2 cycles per year. I get it inspected annually and hydroed every 5 years and don't worry about it.

Eventually if enough of the affected tanks blow up, the DOT will have to put a maximum life limit on them and pull them from service, but with the testing procedures in place I suspect nearly all are now being caught before they go boom. Most with small non detectable cracks will have large detectable cracks either visually in the shoulder or by eddy current in the neck and threads after being subjected to 5/3rds of their service pressure during the hydro. Consequently they then fail the VIP and are condemned.