# What can I make out of 200 spent NO2 canisters? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 1, 2020, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758 "2020-03-01T22:01:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758/21 "2020-03-03T05:13:21Z")
**Raza** do you work somewhere with a lunch room? That’s a great place to put free food stuff that you want to disappear. My thought about the used ones…please remember that while I looked them up online, I have never held one. So here’s my artsy-crafty idea: make a wind chime out of them. You can put different amounts of water or oil in them, then rig a bent wire inside to make a hanging hook and string them up onto a bent coat hanger hanger. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758/22 "2020-03-03T07:00:03Z")
You can make a wall mural spelling out “I survived 90s rave culture, so no virus named after a weak beer is gonna kill me” ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758/23 "2020-03-03T22:07:18Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > The typical dimensions are here: [Whipped-cream charger - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whipped-cream_charger#Description) > [@](#): > > The cylinders are about 6.3 cm (2.5 inches) long and 1.8 cm (0.7 inches) wide, and are rounded at one end with a narrow tip at the other end. So the usable cylindrical length is maybe 1.5-2 inches. That should work as the bridge on an electric cigar-box or other bass 'ukulele. I wonder if filled and empty cylinders would produce different tones? > [@jnglmassiv](#): > > When I was a stupid pyro teenager, me and my stupid pyro teenaged friends would fill spent CO2 cartridges (probably very similar to the nitrous oxide carts) with blackpowder and glue cannon wick into the bottom to seal. It was rare to find even a fragment after blowing one up. We would pack potassium permanganate in a little Testor’s paint jar, ram a wad of cotton on top, squirt in a bit of picric acid, then quickly screw the cap on and flush the jar down a school toilet. Then await the fecal explosion in a classroom downstream. Don’t try this at home, kids. Or at school or the office. Wouldn’t be prudent. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758/24 "2020-03-04T05:03:10Z")
Back when sailors were iron, ships were wood, Christ was a seaman apprentice, and I was doing coffee houses the vials the pharmacist gave you your Rx in were made of brown tinted glass. Which you could slide over your left ring finger and apply to your guitar strings. I guess if you cut off the pointy end of a whippet bottle and applied some serious polishing you could use one as a slide. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758/25 "2020-03-04T10:26:55Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > I’m gonna chew on this one. I love MacGyver-ing things to solve a problem with the materials at hand … this is the reverse, a potential solution that is simply in need of a problem to address! > > Let’s see. Packed tightly, there would be some insulating properties. Combined with the shiny surface, which reflects sunlight … they be used as a surface lining or cladding, to keep some (admittedly quite small) enclosed area cooler. > > They’re opened via a small hole poked into one end … uh, so I heard. You could use them to store small amounts of liquid - injected via syringe would be simplest, but you could submerge them in a vat and let it seep/bubble in - and cap off the hole with silicon caulk, paraffin or other wax, or a really tiny plug. > > Does that give ya any ideas? Not legal ones. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758/26 "2020-03-04T10:38:53Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > When I was a stupid pyro teenager, me and my stupid pyro teenaged friends would fill spent CO2 cartridges (probably very similar to the nitrous oxide carts) with blackpowder and glue cannon wick into the bottom to seal. It was rare to find even a fragment after blowing one up. It sounds like you coulda put an eye out! :eek: But seriously: a spent CO2 cartridge filled with blackpowder and ignited? That’s not too far removed from a hand grenade, is it? Those fragments are carotid artery-seeking missiles. That wasn’t wacky teenage skullduggery, that was a special kind of stupidly dangerously stupid danger. You worked and trained so hard for years in pursuit of the Darwin Award only to lose out in the end to freakishly bad luck—the odds must have been astronomical that you’d survive to adulthood. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758/27 "2020-03-04T17:50:35Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I suppose if I cut them in half (with some consistency and precision) they could be packed into some sort of frame - blunt end upwards, and used as a trivet in that way True, but you really don’t have to cut them. Imagine that you have a cardboard box that you were going to have to recycle anyway. Tip it to a 45 degree angle with one corner downward and stack the items inside until you are at the area (square inches?) that you are looking for. Next, punch a hole through the sides of the tipped box that is about halfway from the floor of the box to the height of the cartridges on each side. Feed string through the holes and create tension on the cartridges as tight as you possibly can (the string should hold the cartridges in the stacked position tightly. Next, while keeping ‘as tight as you can’ tension on the string, carefully cut the box with a box-cutter… from the first punched hole around to the second punched hole. You are then going to pull the string through the cut…then tie off the string tightly once that is done. If it’s done right (and it should work) you’ll have a circular grouping of the cartridges which you can glue/solder together. Once dry, cut off the string and you’ll have your trivet. I’d recommend using it ‘round sides up’, but it all depends on how you’re going to use it. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758/28 "2020-03-04T18:23:33Z")
There’s a few examples of art you could make. Someone made [garden art flowers](https://folksy.com/items/6743048-Garden-Flowers-set-of-3-Allium-Flowers-Garden-Art-Welded-Metal-Garden-Stakes). This guy is making [sunflowers](https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-mat-fixing-empty-nitrous-oxide-canisters-to-the-ceramic-bowls-to-mimichave-81367745.html). This guy is making [garden tiles/stones](https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/legal-highs-empty-laughing-gas-9646227) with them. I thought I’d find more cool stuff on Etsy but I didn’t find anything made from the canisters. My thought was to put a hole through the top and put it on a ball chain or a keychain. This one person on Etsy made a [custom belt](https://www.etsy.com/dk-en/listing/256990502/bullet-belt-recycled-noz-canisters-bike) that looks kinda cool. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758/29 "2020-03-04T18:37:00Z")
A brooch? A pterydactyl? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758/30 "2020-03-04T18:46:18Z")
I wonder if they can be made into tiny ocarinas… ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758/31 "2020-03-05T05:37:18Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > Back when sailors were iron, ships were wood, Christ was a seaman apprentice, and I was doing coffee houses the vials the pharmacist gave you your Rx in were made of brown tinted glass. Which you could slide over your left ring finger and apply to your guitar strings. I guess if you cut off the pointy end of a whippet bottle and applied some serious polishing you could use one as a slide. They’re just 7/10 inch diameter so that should work. Unless accidents happen. I had one of those dark glass pill bottles that fit my left pinky JUST right for sliding on my Kay dreadnought tuned open D. Then, at a swimming hole in Rhode Island, I slid down the rope… and broke my pinky on the knot at rope’s end. That bottle, and a piece of brass pipe JUST the right size, no longer fit. My slide attack was ruined. It’s been all downhill since that day in 1969. :smack: > [@Mangetout](#): > > I wonder if they can be made into tiny ocarinas… You’re going to mass-produce the fipples? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758/32 "2020-03-22T09:01:17Z")
Bells. I think these can be made into bells. Either by cutting off the rounded end and flaring it, or by cutting slots and curving the cut flanges inward in the manner of a sheep bell ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758/33 "2020-03-22T14:00:08Z")
CO[sub]2[/sub] cartridges are the same size. I never has 200 of them, but only a few at a time. I’d use a syringe to fill them about ½ to ⅔ full of water, and then stick a toothpick in the hole. Using [kitchen tongs](https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/323776008930_/Vintage-Ekco-USA-8-Stainless-Steel-Tongs-Kitchen.jpg), I’d hold the cartridge over a flame. (It could have been a can of Sterno, or it may have been a blowtorch. My memory is hazy.) When steam was trying to escape past the toothpick, I’d pull the toothpick with tweezers and let go with the tongs. The cartridge would jet off down the street. Making 200 steam rockets isn’t practical, but they’re amusing as a pre-teen. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758/34 "2020-03-22T21:06:20Z")
I really like those flowers! The description did say that the cartridges aren’t “very nice” to weld, though. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2020, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758/35 "2020-03-23T11:05:42Z")
They are zinc plated, so there are risks (metal fume fever) involved with getting them hot ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758/36 "2020-03-24T07:56:49Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Bells. I think these can be made into bells. > > Either by cutting off the rounded end and flaring it, or by cutting slots and curving the cut flanges inward in the manner of a sheep bell So - _morris dancing_? 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-make-out-of-200-spent-no2-canisters/848758.md?page=1)