Oxygen tanks on the road.
 

Hello all!
First post on here, but have been reading for a while. I am planning a year long road trip with my lampworking studio. I run a small Bethlehem minor burner and a couple large oxygen tanks. I have a couple questions. First can I transport them on there side strapped on the top of my sprinter van. And second can I run the tank while it is on its side? I know that other gases like acetylene need to run upright. Any info will be awesome!

Bonus question- I don't use a kiln and would love any tips on preventing cooling fractures, fiber blanket?

No, it's a bad idea to drive down the highway with oxygen tanks strapped to the top of your van. I'd hazard a guess that that would also be somehow illegal. Heaven forbid one of them come loose, you'll kill someone. Not to mention they weigh about 150 pounds each, getting them up there is a recipe for hurting yourself.

Yes, you can run an oxygen tank while it's on its side.

Bonus answer, I hope you're not attempting to sell any of your unannealed items to the public, because you'll give everyone a bad name.

You'll need to be compliant with DOT regulations for the transport of hazardous gases. That's likely to mean tanks would need to stored in an upright position in a welded steel cage fixed to the inside of the vehicle - think of welding trucks or cylinder delivery trucks. Probably even more regulations come to bear when your transporting both oxygen and propane in the same vehicle.

There's all sort of reasons why strapping the tanks on the roof would be a REALLY BAD (!!!!) idea:
- First how do you get them on roof. K tanks are heavy - easy to roll, very difficult to lift
- Car roofs aren't designed to carry heavy weights
- A rolling item on a flat surface going down bumpy roads, taking turns . . .
- Weight up high on a vehicle like that changes the CG which changes the way your car handles, stops etc.
- Straps aren't goin to work either. If you had to stop quick the tanks turn into projectiles.
- If the police are on their toes they'd arrest you and impound your vehicle

With a small burner like that you could probably run and oxycon off a portable gas generator.

As Menty says unannealed glass is not for sale. Eventually the stress builds up and the glass can explode - bad for your customers, bad for you, bad for the community.

Thanks so much for all the info! Doesn't he OxyContin require a lot of electricity? Also the annealing kiln? I'm not gonna have a ton of access to power. I know there are ways to run outside. As you can see I'm somewhat of a beginner.

I don't think an oxycon or a kiln take any more power than a window air conditioner or a refrigerator. I could be mistaken but I don't think I am on this.

And with a programmable kiln you can set the ramp up to annealing temperature to a percentage of full power so that load can be stretched out over time.

The thing about un annealed glass is really important and you really need to know about the details on that so do the search thing here and educate yourself on it please.

As examples: a Glass Hive Short Guy (http://www.theglasshive.com/BEADANNEALERS.html) takes 8 amps at 110 Volts. A Regalia 10 LPM oxycon (http://www.oxygenplusmedical.com/seq...ncentrator.htm) requires about 5 amps at 110/115 Volts.

To power both of these at once would require a 1500 Watt (min.) generator - see http://powerequipment.honda.com/gene...how-much-power for more information on how to calculate energy needs. So something like this Honda generator would probably work http://powerequipment.honda.com/gene...models/eu2000i

Depending on where you stop to work you may be able to plug-in, so perhaps a few good heavy duty extension cords are all you need

when i make beads away from home I use an o2 machine and annealing bubbles and then when I get home I anneal them.

Or for fairly small beads, pick up a HotHead so you don't need oxygen other than what is in the air.

This:
And this:
Annealing Bubbles are the bees knees! At the very minimum, you should be batch annealing. Unless you have no intention of ever selling. You can get annealing bubbles from Artco: http://www.artcoinc.com/annealing_bubbles.php

If you're just making small soft glass items, definitely go with the hothead. No oxygen required. The hothead is really under-rated. You can do a LOT on a hothead. Except boro.