Realcent.org

I've come across a situation with a hoarder. One of the things he collected is "empty" aerosol cans he collected for scrap.

Is there a way to "crush" the cans so that it can be rendered safe for scrapping? And will scrapyards take them?

my yard wont take any type of pressureized cans unless they have holes in them.
not sure how you would do that safely.Target practice maybe.

I instruct my kid to shoot a hole in them. He loves to do it, especially if the can still has some pressurized liquid in them

my guys take them from me whole. but I have only taken a few at a time. They take freon tanks from me also. took a half a truckload the other day. Just call and ask.

Thogey wrote:I instruct my kid to shoot a hole in them. He loves to do it, especially if the can still has some pressurized liquid in them

...ahhhhh..... fond memories!!! That can be fun and is one of the better ways to put the hole in them.

I regularly shoot propane tanks for a buddy of mine. Only way I've been able to make them blow up is with tracer rounds. Regular bullets just make a hole and make it stink real bad the rest of the afternoon, hehe. Save them for last.

Deal

NotABigDeal wrote:I regularly shoot propane tanks for a buddy of mine. Only way I've been able to make them blow up is with tracer rounds. Regular bullets just make a hole and make it stink real bad the rest of the afternoon, hehe. Save them for last.

Deal

What caliber of regular bullet do you shot them with? I have a couple of tanks I need to scrap.

We usually use .308 or bigger, as some of the bigger tanks seem to have two layers of metal. And a bigger hole for the scrap guy to see through never hurts. The last ones we shot with a old 7mm. Mauser. A steel tipped .223 works without a problem on most though. I have used .223 FMJ's as well. Stay back. Just in case, hehe....

Deal

I took a shot at an old fire exteniser one time with my 7.62 X 39 it bounced and hit the house beside me.

I find it funny my inquiry turned into how we can make scrapping more fun with firearms. lol.

With the being said, for your typical off the shelf aerosol cans, would a .177 or a .22 airgun do the trick?

My boy's Daisy BB gun does the trick with 4 to 6 pumps and a standard steel BB.

NotABigDeal wrote:I regularly shoot propane tanks for a buddy of mine. Only way I've been able to make them blow up is with tracer rounds. Regular bullets just make a hole and make it stink real bad the rest of the afternoon, hehe. Save them for last.

Deal

Good to know. There are several old propane tanks in the junk behind the barn. I wondered about shooting them. What caliber do you use. How far away do you feel is safe?

Disclaimer: I am not a safety expert by any means, and past results do not guarantee future results. That being said....

I try and shoot them as far away as possible. Now I've shot a larger one at no more than 40-50 yards, probably not a good idea if it would have blown up, but I guess we'll never know, hehe.

We've used several calibers to do it. .308 works great but is kinda overkill for small gas grill type tanks. Usually a .223 with a plain FMJ will work, but I typically use steel core .223 on them just because I can, hehe.

Please be careful, and don't blame me if they explode, hehe....

Deal

I used to try to sneak my sister's hairspray cans into the burn barrel. Pretty neat explosion. Spoil sport mom started checking for them, though. A local wrecking yard had a car's gas tank blow. I was about 3 miles away and saw something way up in the air still. No one hurt, but there was probably a run on shorts that night.

Well, if you /have/ to do it the quiet way, bullet holes work. Bonfire is more fun.

NotABigDeal wrote:I regularly shoot propane tanks for a buddy of mine. Only way I've been able to make them blow up is with tracer rounds. Regular bullets just make a hole and make it stink real bad the rest of the afternoon, hehe. Save them for last.

Deal

Have you tried a follow up shot after the initial puncture shot?

I've never followed up with a tracer after the initial shot. But I have followed up with multiple shots of FMJ or steel core to no avail, hehe.

Deal

LOL My husband just takes back end "claw" of a hammer to it, but then again he is crazy...

Maybe a steel round is needed to make a spark, a copper jacket or Lead bullet will not make a spark.

Hades12 wrote:Maybe a steel round is needed to make a spark, a copper jacket or Lead bullet will not make a spark.

Tracers have never failed me. The steel rounds will punch through, but I've never had them set one off. I guess they could though. I'm outta tracers....

Deal

You can set them off with steel. I learned this today.

I blew up two 5 gallon propane tanks today.

Shot holes in them with an SKS (steel). The second shot set them ablaze. 15 ft flames. We got really lucky there wasn't too much wind.

No fire extinguisher I used buckets of dirt.

Lucky l'm not on the news. I almost qualified for a Darwin award.

I use a 16 penny nail driven through a piece of scrap 1 x 4..then use it like a hammer to puncture the aerosol can. No complaints so far.

Thogey wrote:You can set them off with steel. I learned this today.

I blew up two 5 gallon propane tanks today.

Shot holes in them with an SKS (steel). The second shot set them ablaze. 15 ft flames. We got really lucky there wasn't too much wind.

No fire extinguisher I used buckets of dirt.

Lucky l'm not on the news. I almost qualified for a Darwin award.

Darwin, hehe. I can see it....

Deal

Propane doesn't do much, just a big flame without much bang unless it's mixed with oxygen. We found an old acetylene tank on a farm we were cleaning up once that was laying on it's side and all rusty so we stuffed it into a brush pile and lit it. About 2 hours later we heard this huge BOOM and when we looked out the window there was still debris falling back to the ground like 15 seconds later! Guess the relief valve must have been rusted?

And nothing like an aquanet hair spray can in a bond fire to clear out the crowd! This was the preferred propellant in our potato guns back in high school! I'm not looking forward to my payback when my boys get a little older.

All this talk about explosions brings back some great memories! I saw a guy light his propane torch once and got the gas/oxygen mixture adjusted where it needed to be then banged it on a table to put the flame out. Then he had a donut spare tire with a hose he had made to go over the cutting tip of the torch so he filled the tire with the gas/oxygen mixture. Then took it out on a dock, poured some charcoal lighter on it and lit it. Pushed it out on the water and talk about boom! Not safe, extremely dangerous (what if the tire had a leak?) but highly entertaining!

OK I think I'm done. Anyone want to trade some black powder for some silver?