I’m planning on making a gas bottle based log burner for a gazebo I’m building in my garden.
I have an idea of what I want it it to look like

So where can I acquire a free gas bottle? The local tip used to be happy to give them away but have recently been taken over and are not allowed to give them away any more.
I have called a few gas suppliers who don’t have any.
Lastly I have tried the local classifieds and have found a few for sale but buying one doesn’t seem right (although I will if cant find a freebie)

I’m based in Stourbridge, West Midlands if any one has one.

Cheers

Andy

Round here anywhere that travellers have been camped for more than 3 days – they seem to just leave their empties behind when they go.

A friendly scrap metal dealer?

Top of the Dee estuary last winter had about 20 washed up by the winter storms, lots of scrap places won’t take them so I’m sure there must be plenty “floating” around

Put an ad on Freecycle

Scrapyards is a good idea but I didn’t try any thinking they wouldn’t take them for health and safety reasons.
Ill give a couple a call.

Annoyingly its the sort of thing I regularly see dumped when out riding but cant remember where I last saw one.

ME!

I have one in the garage wasting space. It’s got a German thread on it which is why I can’t use it in my caravan, but that won’t bother you.

I can be in Ludlow with it easily enough. Only problem is, it has a little bit of gas in it.

I’m sure I read somewhere that the bottles are legally the property of Calor (it’s only the gas you buy) – that might be why they won’t give them out rather than H&S

Cheap on Gumtree.

Mine’s not from Calor. I had to pay the 70€ deposit for it too 🙁

Please take it.. I have no other way of disposing of it!

Thanks for the offer Molegrips but Ludlow is bit too far to make it worthwhile with petrol cost.
I have found a few locally for around £10 which worst case I will buy.
It just doesn’t seem very fitting to be buying one for an “upcycling” project
Thanks again

I’d have dropped it off for free… like I say I need rid.

McHamish – Member

I’m sure I read somewhere that the bottles are legally the property of Calor (it’s only the gas you buy) – that might be why they won’t give them out rather than H&S

This (possibly molgrips excepted), the deposit doesn’t (or didn’t) cover the cost of the bottles, we had some nicked off the boat and when we went to replace them the cost was £70 each! And the insurance didn’t cover them due to the number of people ‘losing’ them and turning them into wood burners. The agreement you have to sign states the bottles are the property of calor, so that’ll be why there’s no spares, and probably why the pikeys nick em and leave them behind.

upcycling

Not really upcycling* is it, taking a perfectly serviceable gas bottle, and turning it into a novelty stove.

*I hate that phrase, and the way it’s used to mean “really badly restored furniture done by someone with no skill” I suspect in 50 years time the antiques roadshow will be filled with nice furniture and the conversations will be along the lines of “well, it would be worth about £5000, but some idiot in the 2010’s decided to paint it in 2 coats of cheap paint and staple on some fabric from dunelm, in the craze known as ‘upcycling’, so it’s now only worth about £30”.

Fill it with water then empty before setting to it with an angle grinder!

Molgrips, I’m sure someone would bite your arm off on ebay for that bottle.

Already ebayed it and freecycled it, no joy.

I don’t think they put a deposit on them any more. When I last bought caravan gas, they just charged me a flat fee and said you can return the bottles if you like. I signed nothing.

How big is the bottle molegrips?

Er caravan sized, so the 7kg size.

Er caravan sized,

Your gas bottle is the size of the caravan?
Calor do take a very dim view of this stuff. There are some great cylinder safety slides you should look at before you start.

Thanks again molegrips but 7kg will be too small.
I’m looking for around 13kg.

I have seen the info on removing the last traces of gas by drilling a couple of holes and filling with water. Anything else to be wary of?

You should have a nice open hole at the top where you have taken the valve out to avoid drilling into it. Honestly there is a some serious consequences if you don’t do it right it’s not a have a look see job.

Drilling holes to remove the gas doesnt sound too wise, shouldnt you remove the valve and flush it with water?

Angle grind it with water in it to be extra safe. Please be very careful when cutting them open.

They do all belong to Calor or whoever the gas company is, Calor took out an injunction with a Guy in Swansea as he had “aquired” about 400 of the things. Caused us all sorts of problems 😆

Sorry that’s what I meant.
The process I was going to use is
Empty bottle by opening valve and leave to vent overnight.
Remove valve fill with water and drill a vent hole.
Fill with water from hose and let water pour out of vent hole for a few hours.
Fill with water and cut out door opening and flue hole.

Yeah, drilling a hole in it doesn’t seem like a good idea…

As an experiment…shake a can of coke for 30seconds, then drill a hole in it.

I would assume that if there’s any gas at all in a gas bottle, the effect would be similar but less sticky and more explody.

ah…that explanation seems a bit more sensible!

Gas bottles go “boom” to say the least, when they get into scrap metal fragmantisers so as said, stay safe.

*I hate that phrase, and the way it’s used to mean “really badly restored furniture done by someone with no skill” I

Shabby chic = I’ve painted it white…badly

Remove valve fill with water and drill a vent hole.
Fill with water from hose and let water pour out of vent hole for a few hours

Maybe I’m missing something here but why is that bit necessary? Once it’s been completely filled with water that will have displaced any residual gas, what does letting water pour out of a vent hole for hours achieve, apart from wasting water?

Andy, I have a large empty bottle, live near Bromsgrove.
Email in profile.
Matt

No idea what it achieves and I thought similar but it seems the way most people who didn’t go boom do it.

Thanks Matt. Ill send you an email now.