Welding gas tank

[carb1]

With all the different way's people tell you to weld a gas tank I wanted to tell you what worked for me. The gas tank on one of my bikes started leaking where I had a 1/8 pipe bung for a fuel gauge. I drained the tank and let it sit in the sun for two day's. I then filled the tank with Dawn detergent and water. people say it has to be full with out any air pockets. If it is completely full you will never get it welded with out water coming out where you are welding. I had the tank about 7/8 full and tig welded it with silicon bronze rod with no problems. Just wanted to let you know what worked for me.

[chopprs]

I just drain all of the fuel, take it off the bike and shove my torch in the bung...BOOF! You can then weld anywhere on the tank that you want to. Everyone is so scared of the fuel in the tank. It is really no big deal.

[farmall]

My bro had his face shredded from the explosion trying to weld an installed oil pan because his boss wanted to cut corners. He's tough, and later joined the fire department after his plastic surgery healed.

Less safe methods work most of the time....

[Dragstews]

You can also use the exhaust of a car with a hose in the tail pipe running to what yo're welding...
Take away the oxygen and no boom ....

And that makes me think of a story about sailing ships that went boom .....



Manure…

An interesting fact

Manure: In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and it was also before commercial fertilizer’s invention, so large shipments of manure were common.

It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, it not only became heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a by product is methane gas. As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and did) happen.

Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM!

Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined just what was happening. After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the term ‘Ship High In Transit’ on them, which meant for the sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.

Thus evolved the term ‘ S.H.I.T ‘ , (Ship High In Transit) which has come down through the centuries and is in use to this very day.

You probably did not know the true history of this word.

Neither did I.

I had always thought it was a golf term.

[Tattooo]

I just drain all of the fuel, take it off the bike and shove my torch in the bung...BOOF! You can then weld anywhere on the tank that you want to. Everyone is so scared of the fuel in the tank. It is really no big deal.

Don't believe the hype.... You can get hurt doing that if you don't do it correctly...

[Skjoll]

There are some instances where you have to be very careful in welding like when welding on old propane canisters and such to turn it into whatever... but when it comes to motorcycle gas tanks you can reduce the risks of igniting anything that has permeated into the pores of the metal by filling the fuel tank with water or any other innocuous fluid prior to welding.

I've turned old propane tanks into air compressor reservoirs using this method and kept my 'pretty' face (see the pretty cat in my avatar? I still look as pretty as his butt).

[chopprs]

Don't believe the hype.... You can get hurt doing that if you don't do it correctly...

Stupid is what stupid does. I did say to remove all of the fuel. I have been doing it for over forty years...

[Tattooo]

Stupid is what stupid does. I did say to remove all of the fuel. I have been doing it for over forty years...

Just saying remove all of the fuel means nothing to a new guy that has never done it before... Think about it.........

Just because you have been lucky doesn't mean anything... Yep your right... Stupid is what stupid does.

[chopprs]

Tattoo, if you are looking for an argument you will need to look somewhere else. If there is just vapor in the tank it just goes "POOF". I have done it well over a hundred times and never once has one blown up. By the way, gasoline does no explode, sorry.
Filling the tank with water will just make it more difficult to weld and limit your penetration likely resulting in a reduced quality weld.

[farmall]

"Shit" has ancient origins and is not an acronym. A quick way to find word etymologys is to search the word followed by etymology, which of course I just did. Bold mine.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/shit

shit (v.)

Old English scitan, from Proto-Germanic *skit- (source also of North Frisian skitj, Dutch schijten, German scheissen), from PIE root *skei- "to cut, split." The notion is of "separation" from the body (compare Latin excrementum, from excernere "to separate," Old English scearn "dung, muck," from scieran "to cut, shear;" see sharn). It is thus a cousin to science and conscience.

"Shit" is not an acronym. The notion that it is a recent word might be partly because it was taboo from c. 1600 and rarely appeared in print (neither Shakespeare nor the KJV has it), and even in "vulgar" publications of the late 18c. it is disguised by dashes. It drew the wrath of censors as late as 1922 ("Ulysses" and "The Enormous Room"), scandalized magazine subscribers in 1957 (a Hemingway story in "Atlantic Monthly") and was omitted from some dictionaries as recently as 1970 ("Webster's New World").

Extensive slang usage; meaning "to lie, to tease" is from 1934; that of "to disrespect" is from 1903. Shite, now a jocular or slightly euphemistic and chiefly British variant of the noun, formerly a dialectal variant, reflects the vowel in the Old English verb (compare German scheissen); the modern verb has been influenced by the noun. Shat is a humorous past tense form, not etymological, first recorded 18c. To shit bricks "be very frightened" attested by 1961. The connection between fear and involuntary defecation has generated expressions in English since 14c. (the image also is in Latin), and probably also is behind scared shitless (1936).

[Dragstews]

Well .... SHIT ... !!!



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[Tattooo]

Tattoo, if you are looking for an argument you will need to look somewhere else. If there is just vapor in the tank it just goes "POOF". I have done it well over a hundred times and never once has one blown up. By the way, gasoline does no explode, sorry.
Filling the tank with water will just make it more difficult to weld and limit your penetration likely resulting in a reduced quality weld.

Not looking for an argument at all....

But what your suggesting will get someone burnt real bad that's all I'm saying.... There is a way to do what your suggesting... I've welded tanks hundreds of times without water in them but not by { just drain all of the fuel, take it off the bike and shove my torch in the bung...BOOF} That's a bad suggestion for kids of today....

You didn't say vapor above you said fuel and you know how hard it is to get all the fuel out of some tanks...

I'm just saying.....

[chopprs]

.....wow

[Tattooo]

.....wow

Yep I totally agree.... WOW.....

LOL People do stupid shit without helping them along... you tube is full of it... LOL

[DustyDave]

I generally shove the steam cleaner in the fill and flush them with steam untill the metal is good and hot, then let them dry in the sun then smell for gas. No smell = no gas.
Dusty