Cut oil tank with torch?

lot of good ideas here. with the price of scrap metal @ $50.00 a ton why in the world would you even fool with it. maybe worth $10.00? fill it with water before cutting? 275gal of water is a lot of wasted water & energy. put the darn thing in your yard with a sign on it for $15.00 let someone else cut it. by the time you pay for the oxygen, accetelene, 275gal of water, & gas to haul it to the scrap yard your in the hole. give it away

OK so let me ask a question...is cutting it up the only way to get the tank out?

If so, then follow the sound suggestions here for how to do that.

There is not going to be much working space in an average crawl space, but I have a hunch the house was not built around the tank, and there IS some way to drag it out. The average 275 or 300 gallon tank in my area is around five foot long and up to 40 inches in diameter. Look for a spot where you can remove siding and/or studs and drag it out. After that many years the steel may not be sound enough for much abuse tho, and it may very well have pin holes on the bottom or near the ground line you can't see.

Please do not put more than a couple pounds of air into the tank, if you decide to do that. They are not strong enough for pressurising to even ten pounds.

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find the way out. Wrap a chain around it and have someone pull it slowly while another person watches to make sure it doesnt knock down a pier or anything.

You can also hire a pro to remove the tank.

We needed a piece of steel to repair the top of a Bush Hog. We knew of an old fuel oil tank in the dump, a few miles away. This tank was shaped like most fuel oil tanks, but set flat, on the long side.Got the tank home, took the legs off and the three fittings, the filler, the guage and the vent, then rolled it over to the flat side. Completely empty, no liquid, just the smell of fuel oil. After chalking a rectangle on the tank, I put a metal cutting blade in the Skil saw. I cut the corners and let my son finish the straight parts. I went up to the house. Within a few seconds, the tank exploded. The threaded openings on the underside became jets, propelling the tank straight up 10 feet. At the same moment, one end of the tank blew half off. The quarter inch opening made by the Skil saw was about 16 inches long. My son had goggles and gloves on. Flames shot thru that narrow opening and gave my son 2nd degree burns on the entire underside of both arms, in an instant. Empty fuel tank, yea right.

Yep, empty fuel tanks are a lot like unloaded guns. They tend to get people seriously injured or killed who arent familiar with all the rules.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o...wnfueltank.jpg

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o...omfueltank.jpg

Trucks on cinderblocks usually don't fall.

Nor do cars on bumper jacks.

If that convinces you that it's perfectly safe to work under them, then torch the tank. If it leaves you thinking perhaps jackstands really are a good idea, cut the tank with an air saw or such.

Our old ditch burner runs on DFM (diesel fuel marine). As does our smoker at work, my furnace in the basement, and several other things I have or have had. The stuff burns. Not as easily as gasoline, but pretty durn easily.

Those two pictures I posted (well the web sight that has the pictures) are of the tank that blew up and the resulting flash burn.
This tank was empty, I couldn't get a drop of fuel oil out of it. It smelled like fuel oil. I had cut one before, in the winter and didn't have any trouble.It was sunny and nearly 80 F the day the tank blew. Warm enough to vaporize any residual fuel oil in the rusty interior. Note the blast marks around the three holes.
Any cutting that can produce a spark or high temperature can ignite a tank.