Sealing tanks with metal?

[Warrensmentor]

Hmmm, I've read a few of these tank builds and I've never heard of just welding 4mm plates to waterproof a tank build until Tor mentioned it. Tor, or anyone else, would a coat of what you said, OSB, on the metal be enough to protect the metal from rusting? would the coating be enough so that rays aren't bothered by the constant presence of metal? Would you even need a plywood frame around it?

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[Tor-Eriik]

I dont see why people wouldnt use metal, as we always put stuff in there to avoid stuff from leaking to the tank, the same with metal offcourse. I would build the tank like i did in my 1200 gallon thread, but insted of putting 2000 worth of dollars in epoxy i would order precut 4\6mm steel plates that would fit perfectley into the "frame", and get a welder to put it all together. Then i would topcoat it with something fishsafe. Here in Norway the choice would be Jotun Penguard Topcoat.

Atleast here in Norway steel sells by the kilos, and a few sheets of lets say 270x100 will not have much weight in them.

OSB is a type of plywood btw (the plates that i used in my build)

 

[DIDYSIS]

Good idea I can work with metal easy . I was even thinking with some builds why not get Acrylic to form one foot around all the seems. A corner that is braced with a piece of acrylic to make sure it's water proof then silicone the acrylic corner to the frame work. Make your corner/seams really bullet proof. then just seal over everything. Don't know if everyone can picture that. Lol

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[anarekist]

wow that's an interesting idea. alot of welding tho..

 

[Tor-Eriik]

Not really that much welding, and for those who knows how to do it, it would be an easy fix.. on 6mm its normal welding,on 4mm there is a special method that takes a little more time, its named "tigging" in Norway.

I dont understand that this has never bin up before. Atleast here in Norway the epoxy is so frikking expencive, atleast when you want the safe marks as West System.

 

[B_IN_SD]

We have a member here on mfk that had a stainless tank made, it looked really nice.

 

[jpedric]

i had thought about this when building mine. basicly build the plywood box for support then line it with sheet metal and weld the seems to seal it. i would be worried about long term though. the welds produce alot of heat so any coating on the back side of the metal probably wouldnt hold up during welding. then when your done you would coat the inside but would still have to use a fairly expensive epoxy if you wanted it to hold up being submerged. and what if the backside (between the frame and metal) started to rust. you wouldnt be able to see it so you wouldnt know until it was too late. im not saying i have the worlds greatet plywood build but i think it is better and much more practical than metal. i built a plywood box using 3/4. cut a viewing window in the front leaving a 4 incn boarder all the way around. then i had sheets of 1/8 abs plastic cut to fit the inside. abs melts with heat or chemically with acetone. i used acetone and melted cut up pieces of abs pipe to make a glue. i then put that into a ketchup squeeze bottle and "chemically welded" the seems with that. my 1/2 sheet of glass then went in with a thick bead of silicone laid down then i set the glass into it.