Never buy 14oz tanks again

[BigGrib]

You read that correctly. Never buy a 14 oz propane tank again. Well unless you're in a dire straight and can get to your refill station. Refill, I thought it wasn't possible to refill 14 oz propane tanks. Well not until now. I found this nifty little adapter at Harbor Freight for 16 bucks that allows you to refill 14 oz propane tanks. It's really easy to do but takes about 40 minutes total to do it. You gotta take your tank and throw it in a freezer for about 15 minutes. This drops the temp inside the tank and actually pulls it into a vacuum. Take your adapter that you got and screw it to your 5lb tank first then screw your 14 oz tank to it open the valve on the 5lb and tip the tank upside down. This pulls the propane into the tank as a liquid. You will only get about a half charge before the tank warms up and pressure equalizes so you gotta freeze it again and repeat. After that you got yourself a full tank of propane. Really cool and this thing will pay for itself after about 5 or 6 refills.

[potatoflinger]

The only thing about those is that after you refill them, it is illegal to transport them in a car. I doubt a police officer would be able to tell the difference between a new tank and a refilled one, but you never know. (But I think the cop would be more worried about the cannon that you are using the tank for rather than the tank itself)

[scottcrete]

yah i can totally see a cop pulling me over.. making me walk back to the trunk and opening it to see this laying inside..

I think he would either.. shitt himself.. or he would just shoot me when i poped the lid.. I dont think you have to much to worry about there with the cop being mad about the propane tank.

[spudman029]

Mother of god. Could i get a thread link to the OD green cannon?

[scottcrete]

http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/my-at4- ... 13649.html

[Spuddin]

or u can make one yourself for about $5 bucks from parts at the local propane store like i did.

[OuchProgramme]

You could just blow up the guy with the cannon and drive away

[pat123]

Why would you want ot refill them when a 14oz tank is only $2.50? Is it really worth the time?

[benstern]

Potatoflinger is right. It is illegal to transport them in vehicles when refilled. says so right on the canister.

[BigGrib]

That's fine. you gonna show me the test they do to tell if it's been refilled or not while you're driving along the road. just saying. And for me yeah it's worth it, I go through those 14 ouncers like i go through beer. while i'm working on new concepts and stuff, i'm always puttering in the shop, i throw em in the freezer while i'm dickin around and refill em. I've got about 5 of em, but i'll never have to worry about having to make an extra trip to walmart to get a bottle before i go out shooting. that right there is worth the 16 bucks i spent for the adapter.

[SpudMonster]

On the old SGTC forums, a member by the name of P_J said that he refilled the tanks when they got down to about 1/4 tank. If you've ever seen these 14 ounce tanks, they are fuckin' THIN. As in probably 0.02" thick. The reason it's illegal to transport them after refilling them is because of the stresses caused by emptying them then refilling them again. The tanks are NOT that durable. But, if they always have a quantity of liquid in them, then the pressure is much more constant. It doesn't matter how much liquid the tank contains, but there must always be some inside it. Otherwise the pressure change caused by refilling is too stressful.

[ammosmoke]

Well, they do have a pressure pop valve you know...

[BigGrib]

On the old SGTC forums, a member by the name of P_J said that he refilled the tanks when they got down to about 1/4 tank. If you've ever seen these 14 ounce tanks, they are fuckin' THIN. As in probably 0.02" thick. The reason it's illegal to transport them after refilling them is because of the stresses caused by emptying them then refilling them again. The tanks are NOT that durable. But, if they always have a quantity of liquid in them, then the pressure is much more constant. It doesn't matter how much liquid the tank contains, but there must always be some inside it. Otherwise the pressure change caused by refilling is too stressful.

This might be true, i just dont think there is that big of a stress on the metal, yeah it's cold but those tanks aren't any thinner than refrigerant tanks of that size and it's not illegalt to refill those small tanks, flammable liquid or not

[Lentamentalisk]

Why would you want ot refill them when a 14oz tank is only $2.50? Is it really worth the time?

because refilling a 20lb propane tank only costs $20 (at Orchard Supply Hardware that is.) Thats less than 1/2 the price. Note this can also be done with smaller canisters, so you can get very small storage on your cannon that doesn't cost a fortune and has a lower IGB factor (It Go Boom factor, this acronym was introduced to me by a friend who is a retired laser physicist, so it must be the technical term.)