How to Cut an Oxygen Cylinder Angle Grinder

If your old propane or oxygen cylinder has become unusable, and throw it away with AL-KO, you can try to use it in the farm. The case can serve as a good preparation for the furnace, smokehouse, barbecue, water containers. Before this, it must be freed from gas residues and properly cut. To do this, you must follow a certain procedure.

How to Cut an Oxygen Cylinder Angle Grinder

Oxygen and carbon dioxide cylinders do not present any problems. after bleeding off gas residues these are ordinary pieces of iron that can be easily cut with an angle grinder without any preliminary preparations. Propane is already a little more complicated, and the question often arises: how to cut a gas cylinder angle grinder? Even with the valve fully open, all gas will not escape, and the remaining amount will be enough for a small explosion or fire. Therefore, the cylinder must first be prepared. To do this, we need the following tools:

  • Horn or gas valve key.
  • Hacksaw for metal.
  • Funnel, watering hose, bucket or other source of water.
  • angle grinder with discs of different thicknesses and safety glasses.

After that, you can get to work. We perform all actions in strict sequence to avoid undesirable consequences.

  1. We completely bleed the gas by opening the valve. It is strictly forbidden to be near the outgoing jet at this moment. In addition to the danger of fire, all clothing can be saturated with the smell of gas. The presence of pressure in the cylinder is checked using a soapy solution, soaping the valve and watching the bubbles.
  2. After that, you can begin to turn off the valve. Next steps: carefully remove the pins fixing the valve, and try to unscrew with a key. On old cylinders this is not always possible, but if you are lucky, then a hole with a diameter of 6 mm will open to us. If the valve does not lend itself, then simply cut it with a hacksaw for metal. It is advisable that at this moment someone feeds you water to the place of cut, or simply direct the stream from the hose. This is necessary to prevent the formation of sparks.
  3. Now you can fill the cylinder with water through the hole through a funnel or a thin hose. This is called degassing. Water is heavier than any gas, so it displaces its residues and dissolves condensate. The resulting gasoline solution is non-combustible and can be safely drained.
  4. It is better to drain the water not near the house, but somewhere in the landfill due to the strong and persistent smell of gas. If the valve has not been cut off and the filling was through a small hole, compressed air can be supplied to the cylinder to speed up the process. It will create excess pressure and the fluid will flow out in a good stream.
  5. Now that most of the fluid has been drained, you can start marking and cutting the balloon. Most often, cutting is done at welds, but for an individual project, you can cut in any direction. The average wall thickness is 3-4 mm, and at the joints 5-6 mm. Any angle grinder can cope with such a thickness without any problems. To facilitate the work, you can first go to the place of the cut with a 1.6 mm thick disk, and finally saw through a thinner disk. This prevents the disc from getting stuck at the output and breaking it, which can lead to personal injury. In addition, this cutting method is more economical and faster. During operation, do not forget about protective equipment.
  6. Sometimes it may be necessary to remove the connecting ring between the straight and convex parts. To do this, the ring itself is cut by an angle grinder in one place, and then is cut down with a hammer and a chisel.
  7. The balloon stand at the bottom is removed as follows. the angle grinder slightly cuts the weld, usually it is fixed with dots, being careful not to damage the cylinder itself. Then the ring is knocked out with a hammer and a chisel, the welding residues are cleaned.
  8. If, after opening the canister, a strong smell of gas remains inside, it will need to be burned from the inside with a gas burner or blowtorch. After that, the body of the container becomes completely harmless and can be used in everyday life.

Video: How to Cut an Oxygen Cylinder Angle Grinder


The most difficult operation behind, now you need to remove the old paint and rust. A petal emery nozzle for the same angle grinder is well suited for this. Now the cylinder blank is ready for further priming and painting.

In this way, it is possible, and most importantly, to safely cut gas cylinders of any size and type, with the exception of acetylene cylinders, consisting of a special filler.