Tank Tumbling Help

[BoltSnap]

See? Wasn't that easy?

Don't let this awesome sense of power get to your head and start to abuse the power!!!!

 

[Wookie]

Don't let this awesome sense of power get to your head and start to abuse the power!!!!

ALL OF YOUR THREADS ARE MINE!!!!!

 

[zider]

that's nifty. Still expensive and annoying, but probably worth it

Just don't make the same mistake I did by buying a gallon bottle rather than the quart size. It is quite certain that some material will be left in this gallon long after I'm dead.

 

[TrimixToo]

For my own education, is paying someone else to tumble a tank for you expensive enough that it's worth the effort to do it yourself? I ask because I newly returned to diving and haven't had to do it yet.

Do enough diving with enough gear and all these investments pay you back at some rate or another.

I have 35 or so steel tanks. The local cost to tumble, O2 clean, and rebuild the valves is over $100/tank, or an average of over $700/year. The homebuilt used tumbler (with media), Crystal Simple Green, and O2-compatible inhibitor cost me a lot less than that all together.

 

[guruboy]

Just don't make the same mistake I did by buying a gallon bottle rather than the quart size. It is quite certain that some material will be left in this gallon long after I'm dead.

I'll take some...

 

[Clark Fletcher]

how many tanks do you have, how often do you have to/choose to tumble?

Wow. It does make a lot of sense for you. If I had that many tanks, I'd certainly be doing my own tumbling.

I only have two 100 steel tanks. And they do have to be O2 clean. But, I just bought them used and the price included the tanks, visual inspection, tumbling, O2 cleaning, and new valves. So, I have no idea what the visual, tumbling, and O2 cleaning will run me when I have to do it again.

Thanks for the post tbone. Very educational.

 

[UCF]

if it's minor rust, i'd use a whip before I tumble unless you are also trying to O2 clean.

me personally or me professionally is also VERY different. Professionally, Oxy-safe from Global then Blue gold. Oxy-safe is the rust inhibitor, blue gold is the cleaner. Personally I use simple green and rinse really well

Alu-oxide chips are perfectly fine and should be available locally. Need about 30lbs/tank to tumble properly. IIRC if you are properly motivated some people use 10-15lbs of glass beads for the oxy cleaning process.

I don't use rust inhibitor and just go for rapid drying and rinsing. I follow the GMC flush cycles of 2 minutes on, let all water drain, then 2 minutes on. As soon as it is done, I shove a LP hose up there and blow it out. I find the process of using the rust inhibitors to be very complicated and choose to just rapidly go to dry them out and then fill them quickly. It is important though that if you do this in the summer in Florida, your risk of flash rust is extremely high. I try to do this process in a climate controlled building or outside during the winter when the air is very dry.

I probably should have whipped it first. But now I built a tumbler.

Do you tumble the tanks with the aluminum oxide chips wet or dry? If wet do you tumble it with the oxy-safe or blue gold, or do you tumble dry then rinse with those?

What is the GMC flush cycle?

 

[UCF]

Quiescience in Key Largo does mine cheaper than I can possibly buy my own gear to do it myself. If you are in an area where someone already does this, check with them before investing.

I used to have my lds do it. It was $20 to $30. Dive shop sold. New guy wants $65 a tank. I normally have to do a few tanks per year. Built a tumbler for $150. Still need media to tumble with, so not sure what it is going to cost when all done, but hopefully break even by next year.

 

[UCF]

Just don't make the same mistake I did by buying a gallon bottle rather than the quart size. It is quite certain that some material will be left in this gallon long after I'm dead.

I'm going to try to find it for sale locally in Orlando. Same with the media. So we will see how it goes.

 

[grf88]

For light rusting aquarium gravel will work but for heavy rust and scale you need something like ceramic or aluminum oxide media. If you use aquarium gravel it has to be the non-coated type. Some people even use dolomite or pea gravel.