Hyd tank

[Sparky24]

Hello everyone,
Got a question on welding a hyd tank for my log splitter I am building. I am making it out of 4"x6"x 1/4 tube. My question is would it be better to weld the end caps with tig or stick and is there anything special I have to do when I weld it. Hope you can help.

Thanks
Bob

[Sberry]

There is no pressure on the tank, it has to hold just better than shelled corn, weld it up anyway you want.

[Compchassis]

I built a tubing bender years ago and made the main stand out of 6" square tubing and used it as the hydraulic fluid tank. I cleaned everything very well and triple pass welded the base where it attached to the main stand. I was worried about leaks to I made sure to stagger any spots where I stopped and restarted welding. To my surprise, the thing still seeps. It just leaves telltale marks around every stop and start point, just enough that about every year or so you have to clean it up.

[Leons2003]

Leaks

A number of yrs. ago, I generated three pare of aux. gas "saddle tanks" out of Al. for the Suburbans, welded up w/mig. To check for leaks I filled the tank w/water added cake coloring, rigged up a plug w/schrader va., used a bicycle pump to pressurize and mark any leaks. With the Hydraulic reservoir, since it is only subject to only atmos. pressure, I would use the welding process that your comfortable with.
Hope this helps
L*S

[Paul Seaman]

I just helped a friend out building the tank for his splitter, we tigged all of it except the bungs and we migged them due to the thickness of the collars.

If it holds liquid its good, but make sure the weld is tested with penetrant before you load hydraulic fluid into it. After that you'll have a hard time getting the contamination out of the leaking spot, and burning through hydraulic oil is nasty and not good for the health.

[Sparky24]

Hey thanks for all of your help. Iam going to try and get this done this weekend. Would it be any benifit to weld fins on the tank to help get rid of the heat or would this be just a waste of materials.
Bob

[Paul Seaman]

Bob, I wouldn't bother, but if you find it gets too hot later it will be sealed so no problem to add later. Another thought would be if you need a heat sink for it you could fab aluminum fins and do a tank wrap and strapclamp it into position {kinda retrorod tech}.

Be cool,

[Sparky24]

pjs that sound like a good idea never gave that a thought. Thats why I like this site. You get answers to your questions by some very smart people. Thanks for all your help.

Bob

[Paul Seaman]

Your welcome!

I am not that smart, just pay attention to detail and make mental notes of how things are done, old ways, new ways, yes ways and nooooooways!

Peace,

[glockdoc]

Sparky24

Hopefully you will post a few pics of the splitter when your done

[VBI]

hyd tank

If you are using 4”x 6”x ¼” tube, I would suggest making the end caps 3 ½” x 5 ½” x ¼”, that way you will have a full ¼” outside corner to corner weld joint.

Set it up so that you can run a 100% continuous seam weld with your wire feeder and let your stop point over-run your start point by ¼”or so.

Whoops, missed that you want to weld with TIG or STICK. Both would be OK. If you stick weld, tie in your starts with some overlap and finish your final stop with some overlap.

[Sberry]

I just repaired one with the oil running out of it, fire run right down the rod.

[tackit]

I just repaired one with the oil running out of it, fire run right down the rod.

Sberry could you please give more details, your story sounds very interesting. thanks

[Sparky24]

Fire right down the rod. Sounds interesting sberry I would like to hear the rest of that story. I will send some pictures when I get done and figure out how to send them. It might not be fancy when I get it done but at least I will have fun building it.

Bob

[Sberry]

Oil was leaking out the hole, it was underneath so as its dripping it ran down the rod untill I got the leak sealed off. I have also sealed leaks by welding a coupling over the hole and then screwing a plug in after.