you shouldn't allow an acetylene tank to freeze?

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I am looking at purchasing an oxy/acetylene setup and was reading safety info on the like. I was surprised that it said to not store an acetylene tank below freezing - that the acetone in the tank could separate and theoretically be unsafe. is this true? I certainly don't want to bring the tank inside in the winter!
 
There shouldn't be ANY water in there, and acetone doesn't freeze (as far as I know)

When I lived in North Dakota, the Acety tanks were in freezing temps all the time.
 
Originally Posted By: Linctex
There shouldn't be ANY water in there, and acetone doesn't freeze (as far as I know) ...
Neither does acetylene, as far as I know.
 
Acetone that absorbs the gas in the cylinder has a very low freeze point, -93 C to start freezing according to google I hope to never see those kind of outdoor temps. Greater danger is to get the gas to a pressure above 15 lbs or around copper
 
Originally Posted By: bioburner
Acetone that absorbs the gas in the cylinder has a very low freeze point, -93 C to start freezing according to google I hope to never see those kind of outdoor temps. Greater danger is to get the gas to a pressure above 15 lbs or around copper


I thought it was 20. I know at my welding school they had it in the danger level on the gauge and i think i turned it down. Nothing ever happened. I forgot what they said would happen, but I think it was actually propylene due to cost and safety.
 
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Originally Posted By: bioburner
Acetone that absorbs the gas in the cylinder has a very low freeze point, -93 C to start freezing according to google I hope to never see those kind of outdoor temps. Greater danger is to get the gas to a pressure above 15 lbs or around copper
copper?
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: bioburner
Acetone that absorbs the gas in the cylinder has a very low freeze point, -93 C to start freezing according to google I hope to never see those kind of outdoor temps. Greater danger is to get the gas to a pressure above 15 lbs or around copper
copper?


Copper.
That's a new one on me.
They never taught us that in college.

Three things come to my mind that we were taught.
1, Don't lay the cylinder down as it will draw off the Acetone.
2, Don't draw it off at too high a volume as it will also draw off Acetone.
3, Don't use it at a greater depth than 1 metre when submerged under water.

Nothing about freezing or Copper.
 
Originally Posted By: Ducman
Copper.
That's a new one on me.
They never taught us that in college.

Three things come to my mind that we were taught.
1, Don't lay the cylinder down as it will draw off the Acetone.
2, Don't draw it off at too high a volume as it will also draw off Acetone.
3, Don't use it at a greater depth than 1 metre when submerged under water.

Nothing about freezing or Copper.


They didn't mention anything about setting the pressure regulator to 5 psi did they ?
 
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: Ducman
Copper.
That's a new one on me.
They never taught us that in college.

Three things come to my mind that we were taught.
1, Don't lay the cylinder down as it will draw off the Acetone.
2, Don't draw it off at too high a volume as it will also draw off Acetone.
3, Don't use it at a greater depth than 1 metre when submerged under water.

Nothing about freezing or Copper.


They didn't mention anything about setting the pressure regulator to 5 psi did they ?



It doesn't ring a bell.
We don't work in PSI here anyway, that is unless one is inflating tyres or working with compressed air in general.

Besides where I did my time we never used Acetylene as it's best suited for welding due to the higher temperature it burns at so we only used it at college for Oxy Welding and a very little bit of cutting. Come to think of it the only time one would be drawing Acetylene off at or near maximum would be pre heating and or Oxy welding Cast iron by Brazing or Fusion welding
In our workplace all our work was exclusively cutting with Propane which was more economical for high speed(at the time). No Oxy welding of any description.
We often found that welding Cast iron was best done with Cast craft electrodes or Stainless steel electrodes.

The dedicated Acetylene gas regulators have a red zone to indicate the maximum limit one could draw it off at so it was safe. In that case there was no need to be concerned about specific values.

The equation changed drastically when Propane became more expensive.
Then a little later on everybody was changing over to Plasma cutting anyway which had a different set of issues.
Later it changed to HD Plasma cutting for some applications where one required a better finished cut edge.
Now days it's Laser cutting for the thinner stuff, or abrasive water cutting for the really thin stuff where no distortion is required and clients have very deep pockets.

At the end of the day, I'm well and truly out of date.
 
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Everything freezes at some point. However that may not happen on earth naturally. Lowest temp ever recorded was -89.2C and that is above the freezing point of acetone.
 
My acetylene tank has been stored in my unheated backyard shed for the last thirty five years and there has been zero issues with freezing. The tank always works when I need it, even in winter.
 
Well the likelihood of the acetylene tanks freezing in the real world is pretty much zero.
Look up copper reacting with acetylene. That's why one never sees the gas plumbed around with copper pipe that and the fact it should never go above 15 psi. Look at the gauge set for it and the red zone is at 15 plus.
My father wore two hats, one was a master welder and the other was for blasting and taught explosives in the military. One way or the other its going to go down:)
 
Never heard anything about freezing when I went to school ( Florida ), instructors did mention not to lay them down, 5 psi on acetylene 20 on oxygen for HVAC copper soldering.
 
I worked in a machine shop for 24 years and all of our gas (including acetylene) was stored in an unheated shed, sometimes in temps down to -10F. Never had a problem. The gas company was the ones that put the gas in our shed. However, we had to store the oxy in a different shed (unheated) for safety reasons. We got hit by OSHA for that one.
 
Originally Posted By: tomcat27
I am looking at purchasing an oxy/acetylene setup and was reading safety info on the like. I was surprised that it said to not store an acetylene tank below freezing - that the acetone in the tank could separate and theoretically be unsafe. is this true? I certainly don't want to bring the tank inside in the winter!


Are you planning on welding with it? If not then I would look in to oxy/propane. For cutting, heating, brazing it works just fine with less hassle. Can use cheap BBQ tanks.
 
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