Got resin build up in your tank? want to clean it out?

[OdysseySlipways]

for anyone interesting who has started to accumulate resin in the bottom of their pressure tanks and it's starting to get a bit thick and heavy but am not sure how to remove it, i got just the way

I take a ragular weight hammer and a 1/2" wide chissel and place the chissel near the edge of the edge of the resin build up and start taking a couple of wacks at it and then slowly start to work my way around and then slowly in towards the middle of the tank.

I did this a few weeks ago in my 2.5 gal tank as it was getting to be about 3/4" thick and i was starting to have trouble mking my 2 taller molds fit.

once you have it pretty much all cleaned out (or as clean as you can get it and are happy with it) give the inside of the tank a coat of mold release like you use in prepping you molds prior to casting.

i was thinking of using a hammer and large screw driver (as i used before), but i have the chissel sitting there from other work and thought i'd try it and it worked great!

[DennisH]

You didn't knick into the tank itself did you?

I'm just wodering what that might do to its structural integrity. Good idea with the mold release.


Dennis

[modelnutz]

You didn't knick into the tank itself did you?

I'm just wodering what that might do to its structural integrity. Good idea with the mold release.


Dennis

I was a little concerned about that very thing when I read this post.

Had a thought...what about setting a pc. of strapping of some sort ( metal banding comes to mind ) in the bottom of the pot extending up both sides.
That way, when the resin spillage becomes too thick, there will be something to grab on to so you could ( potentially ) pull the cured resin up and out by yanking on the strapping.

Did that make any sence ?

[haywire]

Why not place a layer of saran wrap or something on the bottom of the tank that you can remove after your done?

[OdysseySlipways]

wasn't worried about nicking the tank.

as for the saran wrap, never thought about it when i first started with that tank.

i was trying to think of something like a super thin piece of spring steal or plastic that would spring open to formt ot he walls of the tank and hald something like a small trash bag in place.

the rest of my tanks have a piece of plexi glass cut to the size of the tank and set it in the bottom do i can put all of my molds in there flat and not have them tip over. i also cut a little notch out of that as a finger hole to pull the plastic out once in a while to clean.

the reason i didn't do that witht he tank i cleaned is i needed every scrap of height i could get to fit the molds in.

i also use the chissel to cleanoff the resin from the plexi

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

Every time I spill something in my pressure/vacuum pot I feel bad, so it gets cleaned regularly. Never see more than two or three spills before it gets scraped clean....

3/4" is a ton of resin...

Also, I got tired of the round bottom of a small pot, so I cleaned, and rough sanded the bottom, then poured resin into it and let it self level.
Even when I have had to scrap that one clean that level pour hasn't moved. After cleaning, I do spray that one with mold release.

3/4 of an inch buld up... my my...

[OdysseySlipways]

that 3/4" has been acumilating for a few years now. it's from when i put bigger molding into the tank like a MC80 class or the star destroyer hull molds. the spills are from what's coming out of the top of the mold frim just filling it.

and don't forget they get used 3 and 4 times a day sometimes

as to filling the bottom with resin, i just cut out circles of plxiglass and droped a piece into each tank. all of the circles are still in use from when i first made them. and if i need to drop a big mold intot he tank that requires the full depth f the tank, i take out the disc.