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From: (no name) (no email)
Date: Sat Mar 02 2002 - 23:47:28 EST
I'm big into tanks these days, especially fuel and holding.
The fuel tanks for the boat I'm building will be integral with the hull.
There will be six (6) per side, twelve (12) total with an estimated total
capacity of about 720 US gallons.
The holding tank is a custom built, 65 gallon tank, using epoxy and
knitted glass, but that is a story for another time.
Today, it is fuel tanks.
Each tank requires four (4) process connections.
1-1/2" NPT for the gravity fill.
1/2" NPT for a vent.
1/2" NPT for a fuel suction complete with a PVC dip tube.
1/2" NPT for an excess fuel return.
As I am installing all these process connections, which are PVC, with
fairing putty, beginning to think I should have been a plumber.
All these process connection will end up being connected to hose.
My favorite hose barb for small lines on a boat is 1/2" copper water
pipe.
5/8" OD, low cost, reliable, non reactive. Add a couple of hose clamps
and you are in business.
Have a wholesale plumbing outlet, about 100 yards down the street.
Walk down and buy a wad full of copper fittings, a 10 ft length of copper
pipe, some plumber's flux, some plumber's solder, and walk back to the
yard with a plastic shopping bag in one hand, a 10 ft copper spear in the
other.
A little work with a tubing cutter, and a 10 ft length of copper pipe is
now a collection of 20, 6" nipples.
Need 36 soldered assemblies, so it is time to build a soldering jig.
By the time the sun is ready to set on the warm SoCal afternoon, 36
soldered assemblies await installation in a PVC adapter fitting that has
been puttied into the top of the tank.
I will never challenge a serious plumber's skills, but my assemblies
don't leak either. Some just don't look to swift.
As I install these assemblies into the tanks with teflon thread compound,
I look at this forest of pipes and think I might just be building a
refinery or chemical plant piping system.
There is just a little bit more to plumbing than the following:
1) Friday is payday.
2) Crap doesn't run up hill.
3) Never bite your fingernails.
Still to come, the valve matrix that allows the contents of any tank to
be moved to any other tank.
Stay tuned.
Next time, "The plumbing nightmare continues:"
Lew
S/A: Challenge, The Bullet Proof Boat (Under Construction In The
Southland)
Visit: <http://home.earthlink.net/~lewhodgett> For Pictures
There are no problems, only varying degrees of challenging opportunity
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