Turbulence

My Feedback: (76)

Has anyone made their own tanks? What glue did you use? Hysol? Not trying to put Gary out of business or anything, just need a "one of" set of tanks.

Turbulence

jetflyer

My Feedback: (5)

I know RCJI had an article a few issues back on making your own tanks. The method they should was to use foam for the tank mold then to fiberglass or Kevlar the foam. Afterwards you cut your fittings out and then saw the tank in half to remove the foam. Then they applied a strip of fiberglass or Kevlar around the seam. So I assume you would use aeropoxy for the fittings, but epoxy for laminating the fiberglass or Kevlar material.

You could also make molds from the two halves instead of joining them. That is how I figure most production tanks are done by the individuals selling those tanks fitted for different airframes.

I'm thinking about giving it a try sometime this summer when I get a few other projects completed.

JR Gautreaux

Turbulence

My Feedback: (76)

I have no problem with the mold and the foam part. I was under the impression Kerosene will eat out some epoxy. If I make my own tanks then I can carry a lot of fuel in the CG and then save room under the hatch to make it look better.

Turbulence

CobraJet

My Feedback: (4)

Vinyl Ester Resin is good to use where chemicals are involved. West Systems should work, too. The US RC Jet Command has a [link=http://www.usrcjc.org/howto/conformal_tanks.htm]web page[/link] dedicated to rolling your own fuel tanks by Rich Fong.

yeahbaby

My Feedback: (21)

Ralph I'm pretty sure Zpoxy finishing resin works as the bonding glue for the cloth. If I remember correctly that's what Rich Fong used when he built his tanks for the 106 years ago. Aeropoxy the fittings for sure. If I'm wrong i'm sure someone with more SA will correct me or provide some type of amplifying remarks.

good luck

buck

foster4u

My Feedback: (112)

I am also planning to build a set of tanks(for my F105), and I am thinking about simply closing off the center of my fuselage as the tank and adding a 1" square panel at the top that will be sealed and screwed on. The panel will have two brass lines in it to be used for supply and vent and from this tank to the header, any thoughts?

cactusflyer

My Feedback: (4)

I made the tanks for my Viggen. I carved the plugs out of foam and applied liberal amounts of Z-poxy. I originally tried to glass the plugs, but I quickly realized that I was making a mess that was going to be hard to get a smooth finish on. I abandoned the glass while the resin was wet and just applied a couple coats more. I shot about three heavy coats of K-36 and sanded the things smooth, waxed 'em and made female molds. For the molds and parts, I used EZ-Lam epoxy from Aerospace Composites. For the tanks that I am flying now, I used a layer of 4 oz,a layer of 6 oz, a layer of 10 oz, another 6 oz and finally a layer of 4 oz to provide a tighter weave for the interior. These tanks are extremely strong and overbuilt. On the bench, I have a set with a 4-10-4 combination and it seems about right. The resin seems to be holding up to the fuel...they have been holding about a third tank of residual fuel for a few weeks and I have 5 flights so far. Oh, 'ya, I joined the tanks with a strip of 6 oz that I layed-up up on a waxed sheet of aluminum. I cut this into 1/2 wide strips while it was still "green" and formed it around that joint line and held it in place with clothespins until it cured. When I was ready, I used Hysol to bond the strips to one side making sure that no glue was on the joint line that was going to be between the halves. I bonded BVM Kevlar Tank fittings in. When this was dry, slipped that other half on and bonded it with Hysol and that was it. My conformal tanks hold about 30 oz. each and weigh the same as a Dubro 32 oz tank. The "second generation" tanks weigh about 2 oz less each. In all the articles that I have read, none specify the weight and layers of cloth used. I chose to use regular fiberglass instead of Kevlar because I have a lot of it on hand and it's easier to handle. Maybe Kevlar and vacuum bagging would be optimal.........

Tailwinds,

John

CJ2002

Ralph,

I made the tanks in the RCJI article using 'ordinary' epoxy laminating resin (bought from a company over here called Chemietechnique...it's probably a West Systems product). I've had one of the tanks full of fuel for several months now with no sign of a leak. I used BVM Aeropoxy to glue in the fittings.

Cheers,

Dick
England

calkai

When I saw the topic, I image that someone built " Home Made Tanks" like M1A2 facilitated by JET turbines!!!

Sounds a good ideal for more fun!!! Real sound and as powerful as full scale one!!!

Tom

Woketman

My Feedback: (6)

I made an Isobar tank years ago. I just used the lost foam method. I mechanically removed as much of the foam as possible and used lacquer thinner to remove the last 1%. I simply epoxied in the brass tubes right through the wall of the front of the tank. Made sure I did everything right the first time on the inside knowing that I could never get in there again. Actually, had I needed to open it up, it would have been fairly straight forward to saw it in two, fix the issue, and rejoin with some epoxy wetted glass strips. I used several epoxies (adhesives and finishing resins) and all worked fine with no compatibility issues. As far as I know, all epoxy resins are OK with Jet A.

Thud_Driver

My Feedback: (1)

FWIW made one this week using West System 105/206 resin/hardner.

1. Cut blue foam block to shape using hot wire. Final shaped and did contours with sanding block and scuff pad. Made plug 1/4" taller than required to account for seam. Cut tank in half horizontally with hot wire after final shaping and trial fits.
2. Cut 1/4" cardboard stips from cereal box and glued them around top of bottom half for a seaming flange.
3. Covered plugs with Glad plastic wrap. With a heat gun, I was able to carefully shrink most of the wrinkles out. The stuff sticks to itself and you can cut, fit and wrap. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it does have to cover all the foam.
4. First cloth layer was 3/4oz cloth to minimize pin holes and I hit it with epoxy pretty heavy. Next layer was 9oz cloth followed by 4 oz cloth. The corners were tough and I had to cut and overlap.
5. After it was mostly hard and looking pretty ugly, I sanded it out and coated it with a heavy layer of epoxy looking at it in the light to make sure the coat had full coverage with no pin holes. Laid another layer of 9oz cloth onto that and made sure it was fully wetted out.
6. After it was cured, I put it in the oven for 10 min at 200 degrees just to make sure. Careful, the blue foam will warp if it gets too hot.
7. The plugs were then popped out of the parts. Nothing stuck to the Glad wrap and the inside was smooth. Trimed everything, did some sanding and checked the overlapping mating fit.
8. Cut some brass 5/32" tubing, fit and glued in the overflow and pick up lines. I also put in the tygon pickup line and clunk in.
9. Scuffed the seam line on both parts and glued the two halves together with Aeropoxy. Actually I used Hysol E-20NS which is a no sag white 20 minute hard epoxy like Aeropoxy.
10. After it was cured, I threw it in water, blew into it and checked for leaks - weren't any.
11. Since it still looked ugly, I sanded it out and painted it with some old Hobbypoxy white.
12. Next is a fuel soak test.

Wayne Miller

Hi,

This is an old trick I learned many years ago, its easy and I hope it will help.

When I need to make a tank, I just:

1. Get a correct size plastic fuel proof bottle with a good sealing lid (hair dye, alchohol, camping fuel bottle, or cleaning fluid bottle etc.). You will also need a length of brass tubing that is the correct size for the silicon tubing.
2. Then get some rubber grommets from Radio Shack that slide over the brass tubing very tightly. I would suggest you get the assorted grommet pack for your first attempt so you can experiment to get the right size since they are very inexpensive.
3. Then, being very carefull not to split the plastic, drill two holes in the lid of the bottle (the holes can be in the plastic bottle, but I prefer to use the lid), make sure the holes are just a little smaller than the grommets. By making the holes in the lid just a little smaller than the grommets will ensure a good seal - no glue is needed, just a press fit. As an alternative, the holes can be burned through using a soldering iron but I find this does not always have a smooth edge and is sometimes hard to seal.
4. Then force the grommets into the holes in the lid.
5. Then form the brass tubes to shape you need, slide them into the grommets in the lid and add the silicon tubing and klunk.

I have had great success with this method for many years with never a leak when properly done.

I hope it helps you, please let me know how you make out.

Best regards,

Wayne Miller

Shok

My Feedback: (28)

I want to add smoke to my AV8R, but there is no room inside.
I wonder how hard it would be to make a cool little drop-tank for the belly to hold the smoke fuel.
Anyone tried this?

Woketman

My Feedback: (6)

Kevin Whitlow used to regularly use a drop tank for fuel. Then he'd actually drop it after he burned what was in it. Very cool!