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I Forge Iron

Slack Tub ?


ironwolfforgeca

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For my inside shop slack tub, I have a half whiskey barrel in good shape standing up right next to main walkway, but recently it started to leak and makes a mess where I walk around welding table NOT SAFE ! my floor is concert, It will not fully seal even though water has been in it for a long time
The leak seams to be where the bottom & side come together
I am thinking for painting either the inside or out side of it
to fix leak ? --- Anyone have this problim ? or a better Idea on a fix ??? :)

and yes on the look out for a Lg stainless steel replacement:rolleyes: down the road

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If you are going to paint it you'll be better off painting the inside. Either way it will have to be pretty well dry (I know there is paint advertised to work on wet concrete but on wood, I don't know). Since you have to let it dry to paint it you will either have to do without a slack tub for maybe quite awhile or get another one to use in the meantime. If you get another one to tide you over you won't have to fix the one that's leaking. Doesn't look like a very tough choice to me but then my wife complains daily about my left-brain linear thinking:)

Bill

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talk to wooden boat people. I remember a story some oldtimmer told me about using saw dust. Seems after it is soaked in water in the crack it swels and fills the leak. Also, there is wooded boat calk. I think its oiled okum or something like that, same stuff they used in cast iron drain pipes... What ever you do, don't evr let it get empty or too low on water...

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Small boats are often caulked with cotton, like a soft yarn (you can use yarn just fine). Then the seam is "payed" with thinned paint or varnish. Modify a file tang to scrape the seams, then use a putty knife to push cotton in the seam.

Yes, I've helped caulk a boat. There are more than a few ways to do it though.
Phil

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You say you can weld, make one.

This is mine, made from some 12 ga SS that I had left over from a fab job. All the sides are tapered, the bottom is a slight V so when if freezes in the winter it will not swell but the ice pushes up and also if you drop something in it, it automatically goes to the center, it has 1"+ lips bent past 90 at the top so when you quench a plow lay the boiling water will be directed back into the tub and they also make the sides stiff, it has 2 roller skate wheels on the far end on the bottom so it can me moved to dump it and it also has a drain plug at the very bottom on the near end. and It will NEVER RUST out.

slacktub.jpg

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Hi,

I have used silica gel to stop leaks before; the stuff that comes in small white packets with electrical goods to keep them properly dry. You can also buy it from photographic supply shops.

Get it out of the bag, and if it is in large granules grind it to about the same size as table salt. Then hold it in your hand very tightly (if the barrel is full) and rub it in to the leaking area; it expands VERY quickly as it hydrates and so your leak is stopped!

I have also heard of this being done with corn starch and plaster of paris, but I have no experience of using these substances for that purpose.

G.

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Mine leak, but only for about a week after I fill them up. Suprisingly they dry and shrink within a couple days of being emptied. Fix: Empty it, turn upside down and tap around staves, not bottom boards, with a rubber mallet, right it and fill again. How old was yours when you bought it. I have a cooperage in town so mine was new and had minimal srinkage, when I bought it.

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My slack tub is an old copper wringer washer with the motor removed and the hole for the agitator patched. Kinda nice since it's on a wheeled steel frame the brings the height up a little and it has a drain valve on it to easily drain it on those rare occasions when the weather gets cold enough to freeze it.

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I use an old whiskey barrel also. Mine stopped leaking a couple of days after I filled it. I have noticed that if I let the water level get low it will leak a bit near the top the next time I fill it, as the wood drys out. In my case I think I need another iron ring (can't remember what they are called) near the top to hold the form when dry. In your case you might turn it upside down and tap on the iron rings to tighten them up a bit. You might also have some deterioration in the bottom stave's that would need replacing.

Hoops that's what they are called!

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  • 4 weeks later...
Hi,

I have used silica gel to stop leaks before; the stuff that comes in small white packets with electrical goods to keep them properly dry. You can also buy it from photographic supply shops.

Get it out of the bag, and if it is in large granules grind it to about the same size as table salt. Then hold it in your hand very tightly (if the barrel is full) and rub it in to the leaking area; it expands VERY quickly as it hydrates and so your leak is stopped!
G.


As someone with EXTENSIVE experience with silica gel, let me recommend that you don't do this. Silica gel is a carcinogen, and when crushed it becomes airborne, like asbestos. I worked with the stuff every day for a year, and never did so without a mask. Actually, that's a lie. I did work with it without a mask, but then I was stupid and got yelled at for it.
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  • 3 months later...

I don't know if it would work but if you could get it to dry and want to stick with the whiskey barrel you might go to the local auto parts store and try some of the brush on bed liner for pick up beds. Once dry it should seal and provide a tough waterproof coating and should be fairly heat resistant.Just a thought.

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I use one of those oval-shaped galvanized tubs, but I don't have to quench anything huge. I'm not sure if the galvanization has any effect on the steel. Our water here is so hard with calcium carbonate that I try to catch rain from both of our annual storms to fill it.wink.gif

I keep and use my SUPERQUENCH in a 5 gal. plastic bucket. I got both at the local home repair store.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I use the ever handy square bucket the kitty litter comes in. My shop isn't heated and I'm in the great white north. These buckets will take quite a lot of freezing before they finally split. My supply of buckets is way ahead of the freezing damage. Whatever works for you.

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  • 3 years later...

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