Building Hydraulic Tank

[Jorville]

I needed a hydraulic tank of a specific size so I built one for my hydraulic unit. The tank completely filled will hold 17 gallons, I keep it at 15 gallons. The tank holds a little over a gallon per inch. The first picture shows another tank where the pieces were cut out of. That truck that tank was on was scrapped out a year earlier. It would have been nice to have had the pieces sheared from new sheet metal. The pieces would have been perfectly square then. They are pretty close now. The sheet metal is ten gauge.

View attachment 442196


Tank with two sides and bottom with baffle welded together. The baffle is so the return oil can not just return on one end of the tank and go pretty much directly to the supply port.




tank tacked together without last side




Tank completely tacked together so corner welds can be made without filler rod. Tank was oxygen/acetylene gas welded together. The arc weld tacks were burnt into the weld as the corners were fused together without filler rod. Had to add a little filler rod once in a while when the bottom of corner had a little gap. After tank was completely welded together I had to vacuum out the tank. Tank had weld splatter inside it. The inlet and outlet ports were welded with 3/32 7018.




Tank on the wood splitter. I completely rebuilt the Hydraulic unit. Another engine, the old engine was crank start, sure is nice to have a starter motor. New hydraulic pump, all new hoses. The only thing from the old machine was the frame and cylinder and Valve and the parts on the beam.

 

[Shield Arc]

I'm fairly new to welding. But I think I would have sanded / ground off all the mill scale on that steel. Especially what would be the inside of the tank!

 

[Mysfyt]

At least it's not too late to sand/grind the outside before you weld. 10 ga is fairly forgiving.

 

[Jorville]

I'm fairly new to welding. But I think I would have sanded / ground off all the mill scale on that steel. Especially what would be the inside of the tank!

Look at the pictures of the inside of that tank, it's all clean nice steel no rust or crud. I could have wiped it off then ate off it. pretty clean stuff.

 

[Jorville]

At least it's not too late to sand/grind the outside before you weld. 10 ga is fairly forgiving.

I welded the tank without any sanding or grinding. The outside was power wire brushed before welding. I had made a plate to screw down to the top of the tank over the filler. With plugs in all the ports the tank was sand blasted before painting. Sand does not take off metal and does not leave scars.

 

[Jorville]

At least it's not too late to sand/grind the outside before you weld. 10 ga is fairly forgiving.

I welded the tank without any sanding or grinding. The outside was power wire brushed before welding. I had made a plate to screw down to the top of the tank over the filler. With plugs in all the ports the tank was sand blasted before painting. Sand does not take off metal and does not leave scars.

 

[Shield Arc]

Look at the pictures of the inside of that tank, it's all clean nice steel no rust or crud. I could have wiped it off then ate off it. pretty clean stuff.

Strange! Sure looks like a lot of mill scale to me.
Here is the outside of a gas tank I built awhile back.

 

[muddstopper]

I'm going to do a little thread hijacking because I need to build a hydraulic tank for my wood processor.
I ran across a 100gal fuel transfer tank for $75 a few months ago. I figued the price was cheap enough so i bought it. Metal isnt real thick, but I dont really see a problem, if it will hold 100gal of diesel fuel, it should hold a 100gal of hydraulic fluid. I plan on cutting a section out of the top so i can get to the inside to weld in some baffles. I'll probably also use gyptal (sp) to coat the inside. I plan on adding a ring around the cut out area of the top and bolting a new top to the tank. I think this plan will work, just need some opinions.

 

[bigdeano]

When I built a special 5 gal hyd tank I bought pickled and oiled steel. It has the mill scale removed. Of course when you weld the seams you create new scale in that area unless it's filled with inert gas. I used CO2. If the scale breaks loose it could chew up the pump etc.

 

[Jorville]

Strange! Sure looks like a lot of mill scale to me.
Here is the outside of a gas tank I built awhile back.

Shield arc, I cut these pieces out of another hydraulic tank. The outside is kind of cruddy because of being out in the weather. The inside is spotless because it had hydraulic oil in it about a year before I cut my pieces out of it, no rust or crud. That hydraulic tank had no mill scale in the inside then so it should not have any now. The inside is clean.

I have seen a lot of hot rolled sheet metal that is covered in mill scale. I have seen other new sheet metal that is clean (shiny almost) no mill scale, not stainless either. Your gas tank looks like the stuff with no mill scale unless you cleaned it up real good. I saw your tank build, nice job.