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To answer your question I first want to make sure you know what causes the explosion of tanks when someone doesn't do it right. The explosion is cause by smoke/vapor. Liquid fuels need heat to make them burn and the part that burns in the case of these two products is the vapor. Keep the smoke/vapor out of the tank and you can cut on them safely without an explosion. This can be done with the exhaust of a good vacuum cleaner blowing in one hole and having another hole for the smoke to get out of. The key is to keep smoke/vapor below a concentration needed for ignition. It is pretty easy to do. Straight answer to your question is that diesel is hard to get out of a tank while propane is not. Contrary to what I read below, propane, or any of the 'ane products do NOT permeate steel. If they did, it would leak out the side all the time. Where most people make the mistake is they think the smell means there is propane present but propane doesn't smell. A product called Marcaptan is added to the propane at the refinery (as it is to Natural gas at the first pumping station) to make it smell. Remember I said propane was easy to get out of the tank, well it is. When it is gone, it is gone. bye bye. The marcaptan however is a different problem. Now listen because if you are cutting an OLD 'ane tank, be it propane or butane, the OIL based odorant has to be dealt with. All the propane ever put in the tank was vaporized in order to use it unless it was pulled out with a liquid leg to fill a motor fuel tank. ALL the marcaptan, small amount as it is on each tank fill is still in it. Oily, smokeable and explodeable with enough heat. This "leftover" product is why you may have heard someone say their propane tank is getting low because they can smell gas when cooking (or whatever). It is concentrated in the bottom of the container and the propane picks up a heavier concentration of the smell. An old tank may have several gallons of this oily stuff in it. The oily stuff, whether it is diesel or this ordorant has to be controlled to cut on the tank. These old tanks seem to make good feed bunks but so do the ones you can buy. I'd really hate to have St Peter ask me why I was there and have to say that I was cutting on an old fuel tank. He may not let me in. A $250 dollar store bought feed bunk is much cheaper than the damage cost you may inflict on yourself or someone else, cutting open a tank.
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