making a steel pot from a gas cylinder (pics)

[JohnC]

I had an old cylinder that I had emptied and removed the valve from, and I was fancying making a cauldron type pot for use on or over fire....

Marking out the lines

roughly chopped out with a grinder and cutting disc

take off the bottom stand, dent out the depression in the centre..

edges cleaned up a bit and a bit of iron for the handle..

into a fire to try to burn off the paint and any lining that might be there...

back in the shed for sanding down.....

I'm hoping to clean the inside up a bit more, then season it to see if that makes a difference. I'm wondering about a wooden lid for it.
Certainly not a pot for a backback, but it's getting there

 

[Toddy]

That looks really sound
I like the idea of the lugs too

cheers,
M

 

[MartinK9]

Nice Mod

 

[Zingmo]

That's really good!

I had a gas cylinder under the angle grinder this weekend and I was considering a cauldron , but this happened instead...

I think I may try to make a small pot, if I can get a tiny cylinder or maybe a large fire extinguisher.

Z

 

[Whittler Kev]

I can never get the valve out. Are they a "normal" or a left hand thread? Do you put a little drill in first to mess the valve up? or due you just whack hell out of it?

 

[FGYT]

I can never get the valve out. Are they a "normal" or a left hand thread? Do you put a little drill in first to mess the valve up? or due you just whack hell out of it?

'King Big spanner

 

[ged]

I can never get the valve out. Are they a "normal" or a left hand thread? Do you put a little drill in first to mess the valve up? or due you just whack hell out of it?

In the UK I'd expect a right hand thread. You should be able to see at least a part of a turn of the thread sticking out from the cylinder so you should be able to see what it is. Otherwise it hasn't been fitted right, the threads are tapered and you can't rely on a tapered thread if it bottoms out. Tapered threads can get pretty tight, you may need to be masterful with it. I've never done anything to damage a valve first, just loosen it gently with a big spanner (Stillsons are good for this sort of thing) and any remaining gas will leave without too much fuss. Hopefully you've first made sure that the bottle is to all intents and purposes empty, or you could be into dangerous territory.

For fuel gas (things which burn, like propane, butane, acetylene) left hand parallel threads are often used on fittings which are expected to be changed by the user. The idea is to prevent him from making a dangerous mixture of fuel and oxygen in a bottle or a hose by accidentally connecting the wrong lines. The user isn't expected to take out the valves from gas bottles -- in fact it's forbidden -- so there's no need to use left hand threads for that reason. The other reason for left hand threads is when things will rotate in such a way as to tend to loosen a right hand threaded fastener, but that isn't the case here.

 

[Wayland]

Good tutorial. I have a couple of these that have provided many years of good service.

Cutting out the lugs is a good idea, I made wrought ones as they were going to be used for living history, but making them from the cutaway material makes good sense.