propane tank forge

Just stick an open ended air line from your compressor down into the tank and let a fair amount of air flow through the bottle. As long as you keep the air/fuel mixture below the LEL you are safe. I used to weld and solder gas tanks that way quite a bit, even fresh off the car. If the mixture you create is too lean, it will not ignite.
 
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Thanks guys. I appreciate the tips. Will post an update but probly a couple weeks out. Ski
 
When cutting gas tanks for EFI in-tank pump conversions we would fill the tanks with Dry Ice. CO2 is heavier than air so it won't float away and as the dry ice sublimated, it would provide a continuous flow of CO2 to replenish any lost from cutting/etc while pushing out any flammable gases.
 
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Argon is kind of expensive for a purging agent. I'd use CO2 or engine exhaust to clear a tank for welding.

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Two years ago I built a large smoker for my nephew. The smoker would be built from a 250 gallon propane tank. Even though this tank had set for years with the valve removed I was quite nervous about cutting into this tank. Since this would be used as a smoker it was critical to get rid of the mercaptan. I used 50 gallons of water, 5 gallons of bleach and 1 gallon of Dawn dish detergent. Let it set for three days, rolling the tank occasionally.

With an overabundance of caution, after I drained the tank, I removed the bottom drain and put a shop vac hose in the valve hole on top of the tank
and purged it for thirty minutes. I then made a fuse with a paper towel and put this sticking out of the valve hole, then lit it and got the hell out of the way.
No explosion! Then I went to work with my plasma arc torch.
 
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