Homemade Stainless Tanks?

[mtnbrewer99]

Need to pose a question to all you equipment gurus out there. Looking at a few stainless tanks on craigslist and I wanted to know if they were worth picking up. They were formally used for liquid nitrogen; I figure since that is a fairly inert and non corrosive liquid the insides if the tanks should be pretty clean. There are no valves or manways so I would have to add them, but I do have access to a talented welder/fabricator. The tanks look to be a 3-pc design (they have a weld on either end as if the two end caps were welded on)--should I worry about those welds and sanitization? They are 40gal tanks, which would be perfect for what I need, and they are going for $125 per tank. I am looking to start up a small brewery and these could be a great way to have some inexpensive tanks for conditioning. What are people's thoughts on this?

Thanks for any help-
Matt
Tumbledown Brewing

[bheliker]

Nitrogen dewars are great. Beware: they are jacketed and insulated with gunk and a small tube you can run liquid through, so when you cut through them you'll have to deal with that. We carefully cut the outside top and bottom off one and stripped the outer shell and all that crap off, just using the inner vessel. And we use a couple fully intact as brite tanks. $125 for a 40 gal isn't bad, though I've paid less.