Starter Tanks, Anyone??

Hey guys... So, last night I just happened to be out in the barn, and came across this starter tank, off of an old unstyled WC. I promised this one to my friend Rich (R Aikin), but back when I put it up for sale, it generated a lot of interest... Several people wanted to buy it, which really surprised me...

MAKE  a set of stamping dies, and fit 'em in a hydraulic press!

take a piece of 1/4"  plate,  heat it, then hammer it till you have the appropriate (close) radius,  make it's partner...  remember-   the guys that made those original tanks left their technology behind from which you can learn.  You've got much more at your disposal than THEY did!

I heard a long time ago there was a guy in Gilson,Il making the starter tank. I don't know who it was but I don't think he makes them anymore.

Lanse, the 'domed' ends are easy to make.

Is this a tank to hold gas before switching to fuel oil ?  Not familiar with WC's.  Jim

I saw this tank in my parts book for a ca. Never seen one actually on a ca. Where does it mount? Anyone have pics. Fred, how much do they run? Ron 

Use 5 inch truck exhaust tubing like we do in UK, it makes life so much easier !!!

Most any of the vendors on this site either carry them or can get them.

Norm Meinert (www.normsantiques.com) carries them in stock. They are perfect copies of the original, with the studs built-in, ready to fix under the hood.

Lanse- It's hard to do this kind of thing in small-volume and 'compete'.  Even the guys that do it, expound substantial resources and hold a few on hand for very low sales volume.  Fortunately, the guys that do, usually have access to shops that do other similar things for other industries, so the actual part carries much less of the 'overhead' involved.

But it is important, as an individual, to not only be able to DO this kind of thing, but to learn how it was originally done, and how it is done today, and understand that the OLD ways worked, and were economical to do at THAT timeframe, with THOSE techniques, in THAT scale.  It is also important to understand how modern techniques work, at what SCALE they become efficient, and how and why materials and processes have changed.

An average person wouldn't bother getting out of his football chair to do this- we've moved rapidly away from a inventing-manufacturing society, and into consumerism... where the rest of the world's products come to us, and many of those products are using highly-automated processes, so very little skilled labor and artisanship are required. 

People in today's world, seem to be satisfied to find some 'niche' where they can get their fingers between the consumer and the producer... they don't really have to be involved in anything other than being 'in the middle'.   While people who are truely successful, take their position at the START of the line, and carry it as close to the finish as they can.  If you read up on the Industrial Revolution, horizontal and vertical integration... guys like Andrew Carnegie, Westinghouse... and of course, the whole history of every major tractor manufacturer, especially Allis-Chalmers, you'll see how incredibly different our world has gone through change.

Learning the skills to making the rounded end of the tank... the OLD way, and the NEW way, and then, a way that YOU can do on your own, is a really good thing to learn.  Cut disks, use a planishing hammer, and silver-solder one up as a one-off.  Then make some stamps, stamp and weld.  Make a mandrel for a lathe, and SPIN the ends... that is a unique process  that's still used in some applications, but not as many.