275 Gal Oil Tank Build (pron)

Teamfour said:

Sounds like dirty metal and/or bad ground. You have to make sure that all metal being welded is ground to bare metal and clean. Also make sure the metal where you attach the ground clamp to is bare and clean.

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Ground should be good- I ground down a spot on the tank leg with an angle grinder to bare metal. I thought I cleaned the weld area well enough between sand paper and angle grinding. I will see what more I can get off tomorrow and report on the results.

Thanks for the feedback!

OK, so due to the damn rain and some difficulties with my welding equipment, I haven't been able to make any progress on the build. I did however make a few design changes:

1) I relocated the fire box to directly underneath the cooking chamber. This just seemed to make more sense and will be much easier to fabricate the transfer tube without all the awkward angles.

2) I changed the doors to the cooking chamber from vertical opening to lateral opening. This will eliminate the need for a counter-weight system or pneumatic type opening cylinders. Being that this thing will be around 6ft tall, not including the stacks, it will be much easier to open and close without having to reach up over my head.

3) I changed the door and intakes on the firebox from a traditional hinged door to an integrated system where the coal/wood basket and air intakes are attached to the firebox door. There will be a gasket around the door and a set of lever locks to keep it closed tightly. The intakes will consist of a pair of 3" iron pipes with notches on the protruding ends. Flow will be controlled by screwing/unscrewing a pipe cap. The pipes will be cut in half where they run under the basket, providing a even burn. I may have an additional intake at the back of the firebox in case I need to get temps even higher.

I plan to have some kind of baffle where the smoke transfer tube enters the cooking chamber, but I haven't quite worked it out yet. It may be as simple as a piece of plate steel on a pivot.

So. There it is. Hopefully I'll get some decent weather soon and I can get on with the build.

Well, the damn weather still isn't cooperating. Every time I tried to go work on the tank it's either raining or too hot and muggy to comfortably wear my safety gear.

So I decided to drag all my tools and junk into the basement and start work on the fire drum, err box.



Smoke transfer tube opening laid out.



And cut out.



I found a bed frame at the scrap yard to use for the rails. First I have to remove the rivets from the hinged cross members.



I ground off one end of the rivet with the angle grinder and popped it out with the welding hammer.

I cut the rails to length, or rather I tried to. I don't know what bed frames are made of, but it ruined 3 metal cutting blades.



I eventually put a cut off disk on my angle grinder and that seemed to work much better.

I laid out the hole in the drum lid for the basket to slide thru.



And cut it out with the jig saw. Then I cut 2 pieces of 1.5 x 1/8 flat steel and bent the ends to support the end of the rails.

Here's everything mocked-up.



I need to tweek the length of the support bars so that the rails sit out further toward the edges.

I'm going to bring home some pallets from work tomorrow and burn out the liner over the weekend (hopefully). Once I clean out the ashes, I'm going to start welding it together.

I have 2 pieces of sheet steel- I'm planning to use the bigger one to fabricate the smoke transfer tube and the smaller one to make the front of the pull-out basket.

I also think I'm going to get some small angle iron to reinforce and square up the drum lid so it seals better and is more sturdy.

I'll post more pics when I get more done, but don't hold your breath! At this rate, the rig will be ready to fire up just in time for my funeral.

Thanks for looking!

FINALLY! I solved the welder vs old breaker box problem!

I found a 50 amp breaker online and ordered it. When It came I swapped it for the 30 amp that was in the box and PRESTO!

Pay no attention to my crappy welds- this is the first thing I've ever welded.





Progress should go a lot faster now that I can actually assemble things!

I finally made progess worth writing about.



Got the brace for the basket rails cut and welded. This will keep the rails aligned during the install.



Smoke transfer tube fully welded inside and out. I pretty much used the inside welds as "practice." My welds are still pretty ugly, but that's why god invented angle grinders!



Fire Basket 85% complete. My neighbor, Bill, was a welder and fabricator for 30 years. He volunteered to bend the mesh for me and welded a few of the seams. I cut the rails and corner pieces and assembled everything. Just have to fabricate and attach the front of the drawer and trim the exp. metal down so all 4 sides are even.

Work till 10pm today and go back in at 6am tomorrow, so I probably won't get any more done until sunday. But if I do, I'll be posting more.

Thanks for looking!

Got some more work done today:



Finished welding on the hinges and cutting doors. Thanks to my neighbor, Bill, for making the hinges out of 3/8" steel for me.



Also, put a wire cup brush on my angle grinder and cleaned up the drum so I can start assembling the fire box.