[u2tree]

We have a couple big water jets here, and no good way to remove the garnet from the tank. Right now we use the new guys and shovels. It doesn't do the best thing for moral around the shop. We've hired a vacuum truck to come suck it away, but it sucked away more money than anything else.

Has anyone come up with a more ingenious way to get the sand/mud out of the tank yet??

[laka]

Our Omax has abrasive removal system. http://www.omax.com/accessories_soli...val_system.php

Other than that, shoveling and vacuum truck are probably your best options. Maybe try "stirring" up the tank right before the truck starts pumping. Run the nozzle back and forth with water only. Might be easier for the vacuum rather than sucking up large sand-dunes.

[rancherbill]

What about using some sort of eductor based system?

Pump the slurry to a 45 gal drum and let it settle and let the water recycle to the machine. Probably, the 'liquid' (water) should be at 1-200 psi.

[cagedxj]

I use the Ebbco system. It works very well. A bit on the pricey side but so is vacuming out a 7x 14 catch tanks over and over again.

http://www.ebbcoinc.com/abrasive%20jet%20cutting.htm

[supersteel]

The company I work for has 2 pumps located in the front corners of the tank that aggitate the "mix" on the floor of the tank then on the back side of the tank there are 3 more pumps mounted on pref. stands that suck it up. These pumps are plumbed up to a main 4" pvc line that runs across the back above the water leval of the tank and pumps the silt into a self dumping hopper (like the ones for chips and stuff) which sits right next to the jets tank.There is a divider welded in the dumper about 1" below the water level.We just fabed a little trough for the water to drain from the dumper to the jets' tank.The height of this drain back determines the water level in the hopper.As the silt runs into the hopper the sand falls to the bottom the water spills over the divider and back into the tank.When the hopper is full of sand we just dump it into our garbage pickup dumpster.The 3 pumps in the back of the tank are on a auto timer to cycle them in 15 min. sessions all day even when the jet is not in use.This has been in use for 2 years and we have only had to have the tank pumped twice.Are jet runs about 16 hours a day 5 days a week.The hopper gets emptied about once a week.

[u2tree]

sounds like there might be some others out there who've dealt with this, thanks for the input, keep it coming. I'll figure this out sometime!!

[fobab720]

Our machine also has a collector as a sub-system, air bubbles and (return) water agitate the tank, a suction pump forces it into a 'cyclonic' separator, the abrasive runs into a catch bag, and the semi-clean water to the tank... The manufacturer still says drain and shovel annually, it's only been in operation a few months, so we are still learning.

[niagra waterjet]

I usually rent a mini excavator every 10,000 lbs of Garnet,
My son enjoys running it so much that I dont even have to pay him!!!