A tank like this should cost me how much?

You might want to give a couple scrap pieces to the welder guy first so he can try welding them and see how it goes. All kinds of metal alloys are not weldable, particularly in thin sheet.
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Good idea.I will take it to the welder to see what he thinks before I start the fabrication process...Thanx
 
s/s tank vs aluminum

I think with tools in the garage, I would go with aluminum.:unsure: It's easy to work with and does not discolor when welded (turn blue). But if you have access to the needed tools to work with stainless and you can get it done at a good price, go for it! and please post pics of the finished product.:cool:
 
My I ask, Why stainless and not aluminum? Welding cost should be about the same. But the ease and weight advantage of aluminum would be my choice. That tank does look good!!!

for an experienced welder/fabricator. Both materials are equally easy to work with. Since Moto has access to a plasma cutter he will find working with SS to be an ez task.

One tip for ya , when you get all your parts dry fitted, and all that is left to do is weld the SS tank up. Ask your welder to purge your tank while welding it. You will be very impressed with the results as the weld on the interior of the tank will look just like the weld on the exterior and not crystallized. By doing this you will never have any issue with particles getting into the fuel line as you wear this tank in.
 
Hurricane ..good advice..used to do that on all the custom SS marine tanks I built and light gauge military stuff that was x-rayed...should not be an extra charge for one small tank
 
Nice TT, i was pretty sure most people on this forum had no idea what i was talking about,when I mentioned the purge. Ive done a lot of pressure vessels and food grade SS, and we had to purge all the time.

Pleased to meet you Tedd
 
Hurricane, could you detail how to purge? Looked up several welding dictionaries and didn't find any thing.

(please use small words and type slowly)snork
 
Ok Dan , simply put. When welding SS you add argon gas , the same gas you are using to weld with. And you are welding with a tig machine. Its kinda tough for me to formulate it into words with out boring you to death with a long explanation. Maybe tedd can provide a better example ?

use google key word "purge welding stainless steel" and you will get plenty of examples
 
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Yes I could explain purge welding if my typing skills would permit more than about 5 words a minute and didnt have to use the spell check.... as Huricane says it is a long explanation and has different set ups and applications for every different things or joints you are joining...basically you want to replace the air surrounding the stainless joint to be welded with Argon..normal tig welding does this on the front/face of the weld,,purging is done on the back of the weld or on the other side of the welded joint...total gas pressure on the back side of the weld must not be excessive..weld blowouts on front can occure..There is a lot more to this than I want to type ...Tig welding.. is not something learned overnight.....Hurricane--your turn to take over as welding teacher on this forum ..I didnt do a very good job anyway..made every one mad when I told them No Gasless Mig Welders from HF
 
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.There is a lot more to this than I want to type ...Tig welding.. is not something learned overnight.....Hurricane--your turn to take over as welding teacher on this forum ..I didnt do a very good job anyway..made every one mad when I told them No Gasless Mig Welders from HF


HaHa Tedd, Im in the same boat. Ive ****ed off more than one noob that thinks he knows how to weld on this forum and also on another forum, when it comes to welding. Im a professional welder with decades of experience,this is what I do for a living . But when i try to explain welding techniques to a weekend welder that only owns a harbor freight 110v gas less mig things get lost in the translation and the other person thinks Im being a know it all.

And when it comes to the typed word it is easy to take things the wrong way and out of context when someone tries to explain there point of view.So for anyone reading this , please dont take offense to the way I try to help you understand welding and techniques I am only trying to help out is all.

When I would weld small vessels or SS piping how we would purge is by tack welding all parts together and use masking tape to cover all weld gaps and any fitting gaps except for two inches where we would begin welding. then we would use the same tank of argon gas from the weld tank using an extra hose from the tank regulator. We would make a connection from the hose to the part being welded and let it fill with argon. You could put your face close to where the weld was going to be started and feel the pressure of the argon being pushed out of the weld ment thru the 2 inch spot not taped up.

I would normally let the part fill with argon for a few minutes depending on the its volume,using mostly my experience as a guide for the amount of time to to pass before welding.

I would start to weld where the tape was not covering the weld seam ,holding my tig torch in right hand and slowly pulling the tape with my left hand from the weld seam as i welded .

It always impressed me how nice the weld looked on the inside of pipe or a vessel and even a gas tank when this procedure was done correctly.

One thing I found out , purging is a fairly easy procedure to master if you know how to tig weld well. And the results are impressive.And would make a gas tank project look even better when completed.

Sorry for the long read, hope this helps someone someday with there project..
 
Perfect and thank you Hurricane & Tedd. Really was my question though poorly asked. How to keep the gas in when welding.

Last question, can or would you use this method for MIG welding an aluminum tank?
 
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