Will scuba tank work for portable air tank?

I just found a old scuba tank and was thinking of making a portable air tank out of it. I would put a regulator and gauge just like a portable air tank would have. My question is if it would be safe to fill the tank to 120 psi and mount it in the bed of my truck for emergency uses while trail riding?

 

I went with ARB, but I have plans for lockers in the future

 

SCUBA tanks have maximum psi ratings up in the thousands... so 120psi would be more than safe.

 

SCUBA tanks are normally filled to around 3,000 psi, so I think you'd be ok with 120psi. Probably wouldn't be able to do much with that small of a volume of air though.

 

I dont see why you wouldn't be able to , The pressure when diving with a scuba tank is intense , But I would call a scuba shop and ask them what psi it could handle when filling . Great idea IMO

 

You should check the hydrostatic test date on the bottle. That will tell you when the last time the bottle was safety checked to hold high pressure air. Its usually engraved around the neck/top of the bottle. Mostly likely not dangerous, but the bottle could likely have a small pinhole leak in it.
(I used to work with compressed air cylinders and SCBA's in the Navy.)

 

I know it won't help with a lot of air but I just like because it's small and should be enough if I got a hole I could plug and fill the tire up enough to get me back to safety. I don't see and new writing towards the top to see when it was checked last. All it really says is scott and has a bunch of random numbers on it.

 

They're required to be hydro tested every 5-7 years, some are okay for 10 years between. I'd never use an old cylinder that was out of date. It's a bomb with 30 lbs of shrapnel.

 

That's an aluminum cylinder. Are there any dates stamped into the top, near the regulator?

 

I don't see any dates. Just a bunch of random number.

 

Could be a new cylinder that hasn't been inspected yet. If it were me, I'd take it to get inspected anyway before I used it. A fire supply company will be able to hydro test it for you, or you could call a local scuba/welder's supply/gas supply shop and ask them where to go. Shouldn't be more than $50.

 

The numbers should look something like this on the bottle. The Hydrostatic test date would be the "06-01" It's formatted in month/year I believe.

 

Cylinder explosions.

 

Correct.

 

Op, how large is that cylinder? from the looks of it its a 20-30 cubic foot cylinder, which wont power many air tools or fill tires....

The cylinders in the shop i work at are filled to 3000 PSI, and are 80 cubic feet. I know you can get up to 100 foot cylinders as an industry standard. Like it was mentioned above, you need to make sure the hydro is good on the tank, and shops wont fill it unless it has an up to date hydro and visual inspection. Visual inspection will run from $30-50, and the hydro $70-100. Best bet is to go find you local dive shop, they can do both the hydro and the inspection for you, and if the tank fails, can probably hook you up with a proper cylinder. id also have the reg serviced by them if you can, the last thing you want is that failing and dumping your tank on the trail.

 

This take doesn't have 4 numbers with a dash in the middle to show a date but the rest of the numbers look like those.

 

There's a 3A98

 

I admit we hyrdo test in bulk, but where are you seeing $150 of testing on a single cylinder? We pay $12 for visual and hydro per cylinder, but we're dropping off 20-50 at a time every 4-6 weeks.

 

Im going based off of my local rates, the shop i work charges $35 for the visual and $75 for the hydro, but we outsource the hydros, and were only doing maybe 1-2 tanks a month

Edit: forgot to mention the visuals are done in house, only the hydro's are outsourced, and by work i mean Scuba Shop