Dull Men's Club

Yeah. At the union hall where I got my structural steel welding cert, there was a whole yard of "don't do this shit" that they walked the class around. Almost all of the examples had killed someone too. There was a whole section on definitely do not compress liquids in random dumb ways. I don't remember the details but there was a box like a custom made toolbox for a pickup truck that someone had built square tanks into and was doing something like a service truck transferring fluids to heavy equipment. It wound up blowing apart catastrophically and killed more than one person. They did the investigations at that hall so they had all the bad stuff already and had to keep it for a designated amount of time for legal reasons.

Air is not super duper dangerous like any kind of fluid. Fluid is what will get you, and that compressor will have fluid in the bottom, so it can get you.

That was my main take away from structural steel; compressed fluids = xrays + engineer & with no exceptions.

I possibly had a close call with the Grim Reaper after patching a garbage truck flat many years ago. Caged, but 110PSI still made me fly across the shop after a damaged band let go, and the air alone peeled the skin off one of my palms. More to that story, but suffice to say that was traumatizing. Now I have a phobia of compressed air and shit like this is why.

Before I could afford a new compressor, I left the garage every time I ran my Grandpa's old one I had first time after months sitting. Drained after every single use and again check for water after sitting unused a long time. Still get really nervous even just filling a car tire to 32PSI.

100% agree on tossing it. The risk isn't work it. I think the only thing I'd do differently is to stab that hole to make it larger, as a way of indicating to any would-be dumpster diver: "you really do not want this".

I have a similar policy for CAT6 cables, where if I'm tossing it due to diagnosing that it's dead, I'll cut it in half. The next person who wants to revive it is now on-notice that it might have problems.

Same policy for faulty home appliances: the cord gets cut off.

That would have been a dumb way to die…

Happy, that you dodged that bullet, op!

May I use this opportunity to rage about the unit "PSI"? Feel free to ignore.

PSI is a stupid measurement. Sensibly one would use Pascal, hectopascal or Bar (which is 100 kPa).

But even within the us standard or imperial system it makes no sense. Pounds per square inch. Who uses s for square? It's already taken by second. Square is the unit to the power 2. Pounds isn't "p" either, it's lbs aka "libras". And inch is not "i", it's "

So it should be lbs/"² .

Flex tape baby 😎

This is why you drain your compressor tank daily.

I would use it to test how much destruction it could unleash. Maybe bury it in a pile of sand or in ground. Set a long line to. Start it. Overpressure it. Wait.

But completely agree. It is unsafe. Do not use it.

If you are going to repair something like this, always do a hydrostatic test to twice working pressure. It's the only safe way to check for failure. But throwing it away was almost certainly the right choice here.

You're really overestimating the force of a home compressor. I've seen 2500PSI tanks rupture. Those will kill you

These small tanks most dangerous failure is zipper style. Water sits in the bottom and rusts in a ring, creating a blowout panel.

Yes! You gotta be careful with these. Glad you made the right decision. My air tank has an expiration date on it for this reason. I don't use it much, but I plan on pitching it so that I don't die.

When it comes to industrial-grade pressure vessels (which are genuinely terrifying BTW), the first step is to inspect the damage. In a backyard setting, most people don’t have access to ultrasonic testing, radiographic imaging, or any of the other fancy tools professionals use—so yeah, that might be the end of the project right there.

The danger doesn’t magically disappear, but at least the tank probably won’t obliterate your entire house if it fails. Probably. No guarantees though, but you can safely expect to see a hole in a wall and any people standing in the line of fire.

Once you’ve figured out how bad the damage is, you’re left with two options: repair or scrap. If you don’t know whether there are other weak spots lurking in the tank, you’re basically playing Russian roulette—with shrapnel. Not my favorite variety, but you do you.

If you’ve somehow made it this far and still think repair is the way to go, here’s what that might look like:

You could weld a reinforcing plate over the damaged area. Ideally, you’d also do a proper stress test afterward to make sure it’s not just a ticking time bomb with a fresh coat of misguided confidence.

And if (or when) the tank fails and someone gets decapitated, it’s good to have documentation ready—so it’s clear who gets to explain things to the judge. That means keeping track of who did the repair, how it was done, what materials were used, and where they came from etc. Bonus points if the paperwork is legible.