Processor build step by step

This page is Work In Progress and therefore may not be complete.

There are a number of ways you can get hold of, or make a tank. This page describes how a tank can be made using a 44 gallon drum and a home made come.

Cone and Drum

Preparing the Barrel

Steel Barrels have either a solid top with a small cap or a fully removable lid with a band around the top to seal it. This depends on what the barrel was originally intended to do. Most liquids usually have a small cap with the clip top barrels typically used for powder products. Both are readily available. The barrel pictured here originally contained fruit juice but had a membrane inside so a "clip top" barrel was used. This barrel cost the author £10 and as a result of the membrane has no corrosion inside.

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  The Barrel when it was bought, the membrane was not in place, the clip was included but not photographed.

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  Cut the bottom off the barrel leaving a little of the curved edge intact. This will mean the cone needs less shaping (hammering) to fit the profile of the barrel.

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  Remove all of the paint from the area where welding will take place. It might be a good idea to remove paint from the inside surface too, as the gasses released from the burning paint can interfere with the welding.

Preparing the cone

The barrel is made from 0.8mm sheet steel so it would be sensible to find some sheet of the same thickness for making the cone. There is a wiki page all about making the cone for the bottom of a processor tank. It might be worth adding a few extra points here thought. It is not difficult to form the curve of the cone once it is cut out (this was initially a concern of the author). It might be worth adding a tab to the edge of the cone to help with welding up. There is no harm in making the cone bigger than it has to be and trimming it back later. In fact this is important to the welding method used in this write up. Leave the hole in the middle of the cone smaller than you need until the cone is welded up. you might have the right size hole as per the calculations but it is easy to make that hole the wrong the shape when you're bending the cone to shape and welding.

For Much more information on making the cone and the dimensions of the cone see the following wiki page:

http://www.biopowered.co.uk/wiki/Cone_bottoms_for_tanks

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  After much looking around for sheet steel it was decided the back of this cupboard was suitable so it was marked up and cut out.

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  The cone was welded on the inside and the outside to give a better chance of sealing.

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  Once the cone is welded up, cut the hole in the bottom of the cone to the right size. You can carefully use a hole saw or a dye grinder. Then weld the nipple in place. The size of the nipple depends on your choice of pump.

Welding a cone to a drum.

It is far easier to weld a lap joint than try to lay a fillet considering the gauge of the drum.

You will need 0.6mm wire and a proper shield gas that is suitable for shallow penatration, Co2 isn't really good enough.

Fit the cone on the drum and tack the lap joint every 6 inch, close down any gaps between the cone and drum wall, grind flush all tacks.

Lay the drum on its side and weld in a downward direction between the 10 and 20 past position. You'll have to get the weld speed, amps and wire feed just right so a bit of practice will be needed before you weld in anger.

Grind back flush the last 15-20mm of each section of weld and start the next section on top of it, when you get to the last run of weld grind both ends flush so you start and finish over the existing welds.

Paint ground off the cut edge

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