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Any waterjet cutters out there recommend a way to clean the garnet out of the tank in a way that is as painless and easy on your wallet as possible?
I'll be shoveling it out in a few days, but has anyone invented anything that would work and not cost a ridiculous amount of money?
Thanks!
Find a local FSAE team at a college that needs some free cutting done. I know the UNM's FSAE team cleans out the huge tanks for a local business at least every 3 months. Two tanks are about 6'x6' and the other is 8'x20' I think. Those were fun times.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jetcutter
All done, just for other waterjet cutters out there:
Had a buddy help me shovel, took out around 3-1/2 pallets worth of garnet (7,000 lbs -not including water), took the two of us an hour and a half of non-stop shoveling. Not so bad, but I wouldn't want to be doing this everyday! The top layer is the worst, it's sticky and once you step in the tank, you won't be able to move. Just dig around your feet and work in sections. The best shovel is the square point type, anything else just doesn't work.
Good luck!
We are lucky enough that we just pull the grate and get in there with an excavator. Thank god the boss has one (and a skid steer). Our tank is around 12' x 6' and it takes us about three to four hours.
We use an excavator like shamusmtb, we rent one though. Usually takes about 3-4 hr to do a 80"x160" filled to the brim. We've shoveled before, if you have more then 8-10k in there its not very fun.
Valuable information!Quote:
Originally Posted by Herbert777
I've had some luck w/ a trash pump and a settling tank.. if you use water to stir the material up it flows pretty well. The key is the settling tank has to be large enough. We also manufacture a type of Vac truck... that is VERY effective at removing everything from water, garnet and 'drop's from the tank.. as long as they are smaller than 4". It takes about 8 minutes to pull off 5000 gallons of water and then another hour or so to pull out the rest of the material.. If you have access to a 'hydro dig' operation where they can suck it out for you.. it'll be faster and cheaper than most everything else with zero chance of damage to the tank etc [compared to an excavator etc]. We used to pay $4-500 each time we had them in [until we started to manufacture our own]
Fwiw
get a little wooden skid to stand on inside the tank and move it around so you're not knee deep in garnet and scraps. we have garnet removal system and only dig it out every year or every 2 years
We use a vacuum truck. Takes 15 minutes. 8'x14' tank. We clean after it's half full full of garnet.
An abrasive removal system is a good investment; there are several on the market.
use a large suction car.
abrasive removal system: use pumps to pump out in to emty sand bags that hangs inside a "open case" whit water return to tank.
"case" just an example -> http://www.sunnforest.com/Machinery/...2520system.jpg
we use sandpiper pumps to pump out sand from the tanks.
You need a Bart wand. It's the most affordable way to clean your tank. It's made by Barton.
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Seems like $2600 is a bit steep for something you can rig up for a couple hundred bucks.Quote:
Originally Posted by suade907
Universal Pressure Washer Injector - Sludge Pump
If you can build one more power to ya, but the Bart is a proven device and it works very well. Over the long haul it will pay for itself many times over. After a person shovels their tank for the first time they will never want to do it again.
I've been looking at the Extractor brand. They seem to offer the option of renting once or twice a year.
I did not find the Barton extractor that useful when I tried one. I manage a university build space that includes formula SAE teams and has an Omax 2626. This is the roughly 2’ x 4’ tank and it is miserable to shovel out. I ended up buying large plastic scoops (like for ice) from McMaster Car. The tank is so small a shovel won’t work. Luckily we have literally hundreds of students to recruit for the job!
But, another area at the university with a much larger Maxiem machine bought the Barton setup. After about a year they were sending it off to surplus since they didn’t like it, and I decided to give it a try. It really didn’t work well for me. It constantly wanted to clog up the wand or hoses.
I just acquired my own 2’ x 4’ Flow and really like the way the tank is separate from the rest of the machine. I took off the monitor mount and have it mounted separately, so all I need to do is roll the whole tank outside with a pallet jack and empty it.
Get a slurry jet.
Then you never have to clean out the tank. The abrasive stays suspended in the cutting fluid and best yet the system sucks it out and re-uses it closed loop. Huge operating cost savings and no more dealing with the super sacs on the input side either.
They also cut faster too, which doesn't hurt.