Vacuum pump to dry inside of tank? Refrigeration people?

[Waterwulf]

I have a steel 72 that I'm getting ready to tumble. I have my skate board wheels tumbling stand complete with motor and rubber strap all ready to go. I was thinking about cleaning it afterwards and remembered something from one of my hobbies.

I used to race remote control race boats in my younger years. (I still do but it's all play now. My current boat is a 48 inch inboard tunnel hull with controllable Canards on the nose that's pushing 80mph) In the early days, construction techniques were trial and error. Radio boxes that contained all of the sensitive electronics leaked. One of the almost mandatory items in the R/C Boat toolbox, was the "Booze Jar".

It was a mayonnaise jar fill with Isopropyl Alcohol. If your radio box got flooded, you'd yank the electronics out and drop them in the jar of Alcohol and shake. The Alcohol would not harm the electronics but would absorb the water instantly. Isopropyl Alcohol is Hygroscopic and really and truly loves water and will absorb it until bloated.

Here's my idea to clean the tank after tumbling. Dump the tumbling media out and air blow it clean with tank air. Wash it with very hot water and dump it. Then pour in a couple of quarts of Isopropyl Alcohol, shake it and dump it. Then insert the end of the hose attached to the hair dryer and blow it out with hot air. The Alcohol evaporates and takes the water with it.

 

[happy-diver]

Do you think you could dump that couple of quarts of alcohol into some glasses half filled with coke

I think in order for your hair dryer to catch up, with the heat sink that is the tank, it would have to be
acetylene fired

 

[Waterwulf]

That's Isopropyl Alcohol, not sipping Alcohol so it probably would not go real well with coke or anything else.

Yeah, I said hair dryer but it's actually an industrial hot air blower. I owned an on-the-side business that refinished firearms for Law Enforcement agencies. It's a forced air dryer for drying off metal parts after they've been washed after they've been Manganese Parkerized. It's not powered by Acetylene but the 220v heaters will get it pretty hot pretty quick. I'll run it first with low heat to vent it so it doesn't ignite the fumes and take off for parts unknown. The nozzle will stick inside to the bottom so it will blow up and out.

Besides, Isopropyl Alcohol has a very low flash point. It doesn't take much heat to cause it to evaporate. However, it can cause condensation when it evaporates because it's cold so that's why the higher heat with higher air flow: To cause the condensation to evaporate to.

I have cleaned a lot of metal for refinishing using abrasive blasting, vapor blasting, electrolysis and acids to get it ready to be refinished with Nickel plating, Phenolic resins, paint, etc, but I have never cleaned or tumbled a steel tank so it's a learning process to me. Flash rusting was always a problem in cleaning metal parts. The best way I found to prevent it, was a fast Alcohol dip/rinse followed by a forced hot air blast. Is that overkill for a pressure vessel filled with air that I will breath?

 

[happy-diver]

I like inventing stuff but if there is already a way it is sometimes better to stick with the way

Maybe I can breathe the alcohol and then drink some coke

Dive shops would have to build a shed for the alcohol, a bay for delivery, and get big locks

I would get right into researching this phosphoric acid stuff

If you're heating tanks and you are running really hot water through them wait for summer

 

[Waterwulf]

Maybe you'd like to drink or breath Isopropyl Alcohol but I don't think it's ever going to become a mixer for coke, either kind.

 

[Waterwulf]

If you are heating tanks when you are running boiling water through them wait for summer

Why?

 

[Wibble]

Isopropyl alcohol is expensive.

Why not use a hairdryer with a hose to blow in hot air to evaporate the moisture? Works well in toilets/rest rooms for drying your hands.

 

[Waterwulf]

I've never tumbled or cleaned a tank before so I really don't know anything about it. I don't know how much flash rust is acceptable but in the world of refinishing the metal parts of firearms, any flash rust is bad and will ruin the job. Isopropyl alcohol is a couple of bucks for a pint. It's worth it to use it as a final wash and water absorber. I don't know of anything else that will clean it, absorb the water and then evaporate and not even leave a smell.

 

[Tracy]

I've never tumbled or cleaned a tank before so I really don't know anything about it. I don't know how much flash rust is acceptable but in the world of refinishing the metal parts of firearms, any flash rust is bad and will ruin the job. Isopropyl alcohol is a couple of bucks for a pint. It's worth it to use it as a final wash and water absorber. I don't know of anything else that will clean it, absorb the water and then evaporate and not even leave a smell.

It depends on the opinion of a random person. Light flash rust is of no actual concern in a scuba tank. It is dry air that doesn't react and it poses no risk. It is usually ignored, but then you run the risk of a random shop doing a Visual inspection and going ape **** about the world ending because flash rust is apparently flammable and will melt your eyes.