When I was towing my mixer, at first I had just put the tank on a frame and the bottom of the tank cracked. I had it brazed and then put 3/4" plywood between the tank and the frame. My blade is only about 4" off the bottom of the tank, and the turbulence was flexing the tank bottom. The brazing did not hold, and exacerbated the problem because the heat weakened the metal and burned off the galvanizing.
My seam never leaked a lot like yours. Once I made the mixer stationary I started leaving a fillet of papercrete around the bottom seam since the extra weight didn't use any extra fuel. It only reduced the capacity of the tank a little. I can spin the blade faster with a stationary mixer because I don't have to worry about bouncing the contents all over a bumpy dirt road. The cracks in the bottom of the tank spread from turbulence flexing the bottom, and construction adhesive didn't help, nor did screwing down the edges or attaching a patch. After a while I just trimmed the ragged edges and let pc seal the holes. There is one large hole about two square feet in area, and a couple of smaller ones. Ten years later I'm still using the same tank on the same plywood. The plywood is dark gray, impregnated with cement which no doubt has helped preserve it.
spaceman
All opinions expressed or implied are subject to change without notice upon receipt of new information. http://Starship-Enterprises.Net
On 6/27/2011 8:38 PM, JUDITH WILLIAMS wrote:
My biggest problem has been with the leaks. If I ever build another tow mixer I will use a plastic tank with an elephant trunk. The seam around the bottom of the stock tank just comes apart and has huge gaps. I have patched it up many times but it is not fun and the repairs only last for a couple of loads. I was thinking of taking the stock tank off putting a better tank on what I have. The guys who made it for me used oriented strand board and it had completely delaminated so it is probably beyond saving. I must say that just having a mixer that still makes papercrete after 5 years of hard use is a miracle.
Follow progress on the new project at http://www.papercretebyjudith.com/blog
More papercrete info at http://squidoo.com/papercretebyjudith
__._,_.___
