Hi
First an opinion:
I’ve been using my Pro for a couple of years now and it has been just fine with no leaks.
However, lately it has begun to seep a drop or two.
From the “git go” I was not happy about it on several levels but made it work. I have been “assuming” (nothing fact driven) that the reasoning behind the two piece table was ease of shipping as well as cost but have NO data to support that assumption. IMHO a one piece pan would be MUCH better
So here is where I’m at: as noted above, seep has developed and if I am gong to resolve that I have decided to make my own water pan. My plan will be one piece and a bit heavier gage of SS. According to my trusty micrometer mine is .041 thick (19ga.?) I would like to use 16ga. (0.59). Having said that I know that bending 16ga SS WILL be a challenge for home equipment.
There will be visits to local shops to see how that can be achieved. And YES it is going to be
more expensive but worth it I hope.
Has anyone done this? pros? cons? do it again? or hell no don’t even think about it!!
Thanks Guys…keep on cutting
Funny you should bring this up, I’m in the middle of that very same process. I went with 14ga cold roll rather than stainless, since I run sterling cool I’m guessing stainless isn’t essential. While I was at it I added a couple inches to my risers and went with a 4" deep pan.
The 14ga was a challenge to bend at 53" wide. I tried with a tapco siding break, but only managed a little bit of bend. I ended up using a piece of angle on the shop floor with some stabilizers welded to it, then I welded another piece of angle to my W11B wheel loader bucket cutting edge. Even then with 2.5" angle I had the front wheels off the ground without it bending, so I raised it up some more & then kinda bumped it on the drop so it got a little momentum built up. A few hits with that and I got close enough to a 90 that I was able to beat it the rest of the way.
The 38" bend was easy enough with the 48" grizzly finger break. I’m going with a single drain into the 55 gallon drum below.
By in the middle, I mean really in the middle, taking a break while getting ready to cut the drain hole & dimple it.
I’ve got a project in 3/8" waiting, I’ll update once I run it for a bit and see how I like it.
Interesting approach. That has to be a first. It worked. Bravo, very ingenious.
I did a quick 3/8" job and it seemed like less splashing out near the edge. 30 gallons of water/sterlingcool to fill to 1" from the top for 3" of depth.
For the slats I welded a piece of 1x2x1/8 tube onto the bottom, near the ends & in the middle of each. I had somewhat randomly chosen my extra riser height, but it worked out to almost exactly 2" required to put the slats ever so slightly above the sides.
So for 1 of 1 projects I’m happy so far! It does take a while to drain (3.5min)/refill (7.5min), but I can live with it. The 55 gallon drum on its side results in a bit of a sediment settling area since the bung with 3/4" FIP adapter is up from the bottom. I did have to move my shelf as low as it would go to clear the barrel, and I was able to do a couple inches of slope towards the outlet.
Finally had time to look and reply! Your solution is just about identical to what I have in mind, Good job! I haven’t had time to look into getting bends made at local shops, but if I can, I may use 14ga. too. At the moment, I have more pressing issues (“zero feed rate” messages) and have to figure that out first. Another motivation for me in addition to “one piece no leak” is that I want BIGGER drain holes! Mine are to small, get clogged and take forever to unplug and drain.Hoping Langmuir reads these postings and may improve the product.
Cya