Can't scrap an aluminum tank?!?

[Darkforeboding]

I hope this hasn't been discussed somewhere before, but I did a search of the site and didn't turn up anything.

The wife took an old US Divers aluminum tank to the scrap metal yard today with her aluminum cans and they refused to take it. The guy at the place said that since it had a serial number it needed to be returned to the manufacturer.

This sounds like BS to me. Anyone ever heard this?

DFB

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Complete and total BS. I assume the valve was removed?

 

[boulderjohn]

I checked a bunch of sites--none of them say anything about returning it to the manufacturer. It sounds like BS, but I am not an authority. Here are 2 sites.


Where to Scrap SCUBA Tanks | eHow

What Can You Do With a Decommissioned Tank?

 

[mselenaous]

Lots of really cool projects to do with a tank.

A student gave me a scuba tank cookie jar.

 

[TravisD]

Sounds like he's confusing it with leased tanks like you get welding gasses (and O2/helium) in that have a neck-ring signifying ownership.

Little work with a file or grinder and that serial # would be gone.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Make a damn awesome set of wind chimes! Or a little hibachi grill. Could also have someone put handles on it and use it for a battering ram. Make a lamp. Strip it, polish it, and put those big fake palm fronds in it. Make a nice mailbox as well. Let some little turd playing mailbox baseball hit that! Make trolley for it, cut the end off and plug the valve end. Drill a hole, add a fuse, drop a mortar shell in it and voila! July 4th fireworks launcher! Imagination is the key here.

 

[Diver0001]

It's not a serial number.

It's a code that identifies tank characteristics.

Maybe it would help if he knew that. Otherwise just grind it off and take it back when someone else is working


... acutally now that I say that, there might be a serial number worked into the code.... but they don't have to know that

 

[keller34]

What Travis said is dead on. They are not educated at that place and need to be. I have seen that before with others. I am a scrapper and ran into that myself once until I educated them.

 

[3D diver]

I gave mine to a buddy to use for target practice.

 

[Darkforeboding]

Seems like it was one of the shops in Orlando that was using failed tanks set into the parking lot in concrete to keep cars from accidently running through the front of the shop.

DFB