Recycling Firefighter SCBA Tanks

You have three choices. Burn it off or use a chemical stripper. Neither one a good choice. Heat it with a torch and scrape it off. Do this outside.

If done properly, the adhesion of the glass tape to the Al tank will be very strong.

You might also try freezing one and chipping away at the glass.

There is no good way.

The scrap dealer will only pay about 50% of what he'd pay for cans anyway.

Sounds like it might be table lamps after all.

Thanks for the reply.

Bonfire?

I like that sand pit heat it up until alu melts to bottom of pit. Dig it out with shovel.

Someone here at work mentioned trying that. I was not sure about how well the neighbors would deal with the smoke and fumes. I sure don't want the guy that invented the internet to show up and complain about green house gases and global warming. Heck, he probably would not leave until I gave him a "campaign contribution" for his next presidential attempt.

Seriously, I did think about melting these down and casting them into ingots for later use in machining projects.

"I sure don't want the guy that invented the internet to show up and complain about green house gases and global warming."

That's funny!

TAp the hole

fill with thermal oil

dig a electric shielded heater

heat it to about 150 180 °C .

It will burn the resin over the Al.

Empty the oil

let cool

cut it with a grinder

waste of time and energy. Crush them and bury them. Not recyclable.

If there are holes drilled in them, put them in a wood fire, the fiberglass resin will burn off leaving the woven glass to be pulled off. If the fire is too hot you may also melt the aluminum. If the aluminum melts it will be left in a solid pool in the ashes after the fire is out and cooled.

I wish to thank everyone for taking the time to reply. I have a couple of friends that are fire fighters that liked the lamp idea. So, I am going to make each of them one. My wife wants me to try making a bell out of one. For that I will be removing the fiberglass. I thought about using my old lathe with a full dust collection enclosure on it. I am not sure about the remaining tanks. I am thinking of donating them to the local Little League for baseball targets. I could hang a couple of the cylinders from ropes in the batting cage. What kid would not enjoy winging a ball at one of these during practice?

Anyway, thanks again.