Stainless steel brewery repair

Kewl stuff...I believe I was in one of these brewpubs the last time I was in Seattle!

You are much younger than I had imagined you. I pictured some old greybeard!!

Thanks

J

:-) Stuff that dreams are made from :-)

THanks for the pictures and text - good info in the pictures.

Martin

I just have an old soul.

i've got one for you.. how did you weld the three legs on and get the correct orientation so that all three plates sit flat on the ground? (when you stand the thing up)

-tony

Well I didn't put the legs on in the first place. That was done about 40 years ago in England when the tanks were built for Milk production.

When they break off it is pretty easy to line up the cracked edge. I then grind in a narrow notch on both pieces and then grind the edges aay until the leg sits back where it is supposed to, then I grind back the paint on both sides of the break. I line up my notches and tack weld it in place.

So far it has worked perfectly.

The legs break off because Stainless steel is prone to stress fractures from continuous flexing. After many years of sliding the tanks over cement floors, and believe me, they don't slide quietly, the flexing of the plate by the pipe leg causes it to fracture. Over time the fracture circles the pipe leg, and clunk, it falls off.

Ernie, thanks for the pics, it is nice to get a visual. What if you did have to purge the tank? Would you have brought in a large cylinder of Argon and do it right there? When you purge a tank of that size, how do you know when the tank is sufficiently filled with argon? Thanks.

Randy

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My gosh, it's Mike Graham of the left coast!!!! Twins!!!

Hmmm............ haven't read much form Mikey lately. Maybe he does lead a double life. Running from Miss Jamie maybe???????

Take care.

Brian Lawson, Bothwell, Ontario. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

So, is this doubled up or what? 'Cuz that ring of overworking would cause leaks, wouldn't it?

Tim

-- "That's for the courts to decide." - Homer Simpson Website @

What really scares me is that I almost thought it was a shot of me for a second.

It really has amazed me how many of us who enjoy this work look so much alike. :-)

Wayne Cook Shamrock, TX

It doesn't actually take that much argon to fill even a large tank. Argon is heavier than air, so I would have had to seal the lid of the tank, and roll the tank so one of it's fittings was on top. Then feed argon in from a hose for a few minutes to push all the air out the top.

I've done it before. Not really a big deal.

Burly guys tend towards burly work.

Mike's been offline for a little while now, don't know exactly why.

I had a theory for a while that Miss Jaime was just an alternate personality of Mike Graham.........but that just got too creepy to think about.

Mike is actually a bit younger than me.

No. The pipe leg is welded to a piece of 1/8" stainless steel that was formed to match the shape of the tank and then welded all the way around it's edge.. This panel is about 8 inches in diameter, and can be seen in he pictures. A crack in this panel will not penetrate the tank. It is a very clever idea, and makes working on the tank legs much less problematic.

I still don't understand why the tank legs are steel and not stainless steel, but maybe in the 1960's in England Stainless steel was really expensive, so they only used it where they had to.

When the tank tumbles over, hope somebody is there to slurp up the beer! Ciao, David Todtman

Wayne Cook scribed in :

we're all misfits, that's why I have a lot more beard and a LOT more hair

this one is kinda old...

hair at the moment since I don't cut it over winter the office has changed too, it has MORE stuff in it....

37 this year

swarf, steam and wind

-- David Forsyth -:- the email address is real /"\

\ / ASCII Ribbon campaign against HTML E-Mail > - - - - - - -> X If you receive email saying "Send this to everyone you know," / \ PLEASE pretend you don't know me.

I am assuming that there isn't a problem welding the steel leg to the stainless pad, using the TIG. Would there be any problems with this since they are dissimilar metals. How do you determine which filler rod to use when mating two diferent metals. Something I have never had a chance to do yet. Cheers,

Dale

Actually what I am welding is the broken edge of the 1/8" stainless pad, so it is more like welding a stainless weld bead to a stainless pad. Normally for dissimilar metals I would use Hastelloy W or Inconnel 625.

309SS is the most common alloy used for that purpose.

Ernie's favourite is a Hastelloy rod. Since I don't have any, I use 312 or 309 stailess or Inconel 625, 82 or HX for joining dissimilar ferous metals. e.g. An extreme case: H-13 to mild steel.

Ted