New Project Oil Storage Tanks COMPLETED PICTURES DECEMBER 2, 2017

Looking forward to your progress...valving ,piping,safety rails etc.

BIG project but your skill is legendary!

jpv in France

Please give some detailed construction thoughts on building such a large cylindrical object out of styrene.

Myles,

I have some additional progress pictures I will post now. I build the large ones just like smaller ones that I have constructed. You will see in this case I had to join four sheets of styrene for this tank. The maximum sheet size I can buy is 12 inches by 36 inches. This tank works out to 18 inches high by 40-1/16 inches in circumference. The two vertical seams will be hidden by vertical fire-foam piping. The horizontal seam will be visible. I sanded it some but I am sure it will be more visible than the scribed plate seams on the tank. The pictures show the four pieces glued together. I had to take the drawing that was in degrees and convert the nozzle and manway locations to inches of circumference. In addition, I had to convert millimeters to inches because the drawings are metric. You can see how I layed the stairway out in the flat. I marked it with a template I made and glued all the stair treads on.

Alan Graziano

Alan:

One word - wow

It's brilliant to glue the stairs onto the walls in the flat. I wonder if this makes it a very delicate operation to form the cylinder without knocking off the steps in the process? The alternative, of course, is equally daunting since getting those steps attached and properly oriented is not easy. How many internal formers are you going to use to maintain structural integrity?

How are you reinforcing the seams? I'm finding that just butting the sheets together without any backing isn't very secure, but the backing makes having smooth curves more difficult.

Myles,

There is a backing strip about 1/8 inches wide at the four sheet joints. There will be no internal bracing on this tank. The next tank I am building is 18 inches across. I will have bracing on the roof of that tank to prevent the cone from inverting during shipping. The shell does not require bracing because it is round. If I glued braces on you would see distortions in the styrene at the glue joints.

Alan Graziano

Al, when I mentioned additional supports I was referring to additional round formers to provide intermediate support to the shape. I can imagine how cumbersome it is to roll all that styrene around two large circles and holding it all steady enough to get solvent cement in place. Ugh!

Myles,

As you can see in the pictures, I rolled and glued the seam without any horizontal stiffeners. The only horizontal members I use are at the top of the tank in order to provide an area to glue the roof to. On a real tank the top angle is typically a 3" x 3" x 3/8" steel angle rolled to the tank radius. I added a four piece roof support n this tank to prevent the roof from imploding during shipping.

Thank you Joe.

Alan Graziano

Looks Great! What is that green curve-drawing tool you have? I've never seen anything like that. It still looks like a very fragile assembly.

Myles,

it is called an accu-arc. I do not think they are made anymore. It has a sliding scale of radius in inches. It goes from about 6-1/2 inches to unlimited. I confiscated it from work where I used it for tank drawings.

alan graziano

Cool... And it's still available.

I'm not sure I have enough use for a $50.00 drawing tool, but it's good to know it's there AND it's made in the USA.

I often do layouts on Illustrator and print them out and temporarily stick them to the work piece that needs to be cut. But for large radius circles, this tool could be helpful.

Alan:

Do you use it just to draw the arc on plastic or do you use it to cut the actual arc?

Joe

Joe

i cut the arc with the accu-arc. I use a box cutter to follow along the edge. You just can press too hard with the cutter or you will push on the accuracy and distort the radius. If you plan to do a larger radius than 6 inches, this tool is a must.

i still put actual radius marks from a centerpoint to assure I have the exact radius that I want.

alan graziano

It would nice to see a video of you doing what you do.

Alan:

Thanks - I keep learning stuff from you.
I built a circle cutting jig for my band saw which will do the cutting but this tool will come in handy to draw the outside arc so I can set up the band saw plus if I need a 'one of' I can use it to cut also. Like Myles I did a google search and found a bunch on Ebay ranging from $30 to $60.

Question - you seem to use box cutters instead of Exacto blades to cut plastic - preference or a reason?

Joe

Joe,

I started using a box cutter at 16 when I worked in a super market. I feel I am able to press down right on top of the cutting blade. You cannot do that with an exacto. You have to buy high quality razor blades. The cheap ones don't last.

alan graziano

Old memories - I worked at the Double E food store in high school. All they gave me was a big spoon and said to start dishing out the rice pudding........but filling the pickle barrel was fun.

Here are the pictures of the first tank completed and ready for painting.

Alan Graziano

Great work and information.

645,

i still do hand drawings. Some customers bust my chops about it, but I can crank out manual drawings quicker than I can do with cad. I am just an old dinosaur.

alan graziano

Here are a couple of pictures of the painted tank.

Alan Graziano

Looks Great Alan!

Beautiful Work!

Here are some pictures of the second tank. It is 18 inches in diameter and 18 inches high ( 72 scale feet)

Alan Graziano

Alan, you are quite the model builder! You always turn out great work! Just wonderful!!!

Here are the pictures of the completed petroleum storage tanks.

The first picture is of the construction of the tank foundations from two circles with ribbing in between.

Thank you all for the nice comments  and thank you Joe and Myles for coming up with places to by an Accu-Arc.

Alan Graziano

Very impressive (as always). What was the metallic finish?

Your work is meticulous!

Alan as Myles has stated Very Impressive! Can you do me a favor and explain how you build the top of the tanks, also where you got the stairs?

Mike,

the cone roof is made by cutting a circle of .020" styrene and removing a pie shaped piece in order to form a cone. I use a backing strip of .010" styrene to glue the joint and form the cone. The initial diameter of the circle is larger than the diameter of the tank. Once the piece of pie is removed, the diameter gets reduced to the tank diameter.

i place the stair treads on the tank while it is laying as a flat sheet. I scribe .040" styrene to look like grating and cut the pieces into about 1/4" x 5/8 " rectangles for the stair treads. After the tank shell is pulled together and round, I add .060" square styrene posts to each tread that are 7/8 inches long. Lastly, I glue a strip of 1/16" x .020 " styrene strip to the top of the posts to create the top handrail.

alan graziano

Myles,

i used krylon nickel color spray paint.

alan graziano

Wow Alan, not sure if I could do that. I will have to look back at the start of your build! Either way it sure looks GREAT!

Terrific!

It's a great color. Do you spray indoors or out?

Myles,

 I try to always spray outside.

alan graziano

Alan the tanks look even better painted that nickel color.  The seams, where all the plates are "welded" together become evident.  How do you accomplish that effect?

Beautiful!!

Coach,

the seams are scribed with a boxcutter when the sheet is flat. If you look about 12 inches up on each tank, you will see where I seamedtwo sheets together. Because I had to glue the sheets together with a backing strip the styrene distorted and makes the seam stick out more than the others. I am not happy with this but have to accept it. The vertical splice seams are hidden by vertical pipes going up the side of the tank. In real life, tanks can have distortions at seams from welding and from settlement.

alan graziano

That's a lot of work scribing all those seams but the result is fantastic.