Sam's Lye Tank

[Sam Roberts]

Well like most things I probably went a little overboard but finnaly got my Lye tank set up. 55 gallon plastic barrel, 40 gals water, 8 lbs of lye, but best of all something that the dogs can't get into. For a vent I used two elbows with a couple of nipples screwed into the top, and and stuffed the last elbow with part of a plastic Chore Girl to keep anything small from crawling in. I drilled a 1" hole a few inches from the top and ran a 1" piece of PVC through the holes where I would have something to hang my cast from. To strenghen the 1" PVC I ran a 1" dowel through the PVC pipe, then permanately capped one end of the PVC, and temporarly capped the other end using a 1/4" wooden dowel to hold that cap on. To hang the CI I'm using #9 closthes line wire. For safety I use vinyl, chemical resistant goves, full face shield, and apron. How much will it hold at one time? Who knows.....

Post 1 of 2

[Sam Roberts]

Post 2 of 2

[Robert Hilman]

Looks good Sam!

[Sandy Glenn]

WOW!  State of the art for sure!

[Jesse and Kim Dunfee]

I must say Sam....when you do it you DO it!.  You can use that thing till the angels come a calling without changing it I'm sure. And you did it so any critters can't get hurt to.
  To give an example...I used a plastic tote with 10 gallon of lye bath almost a year before I changed it. And the only reason I dumped it was cause it was starting to smell.

  Good job Sam.

[C. Perry Rapier]

Sam, you did a very nice job and it will work great. Why did you vent it? Maybe I am missing something, but I don't vent mine, should I be? I just have plastic over the top so the lye water does not evaporate.

I have three lye tanks going at once, the smallest is 30 gallons. I just put my pieces in there when the tank is empty, thats how I started anyway, and then poured the lye water in, and then I put my gloves on and reach in there and get the pieces out. I put them in a bucket and then rinse them off and then start to work on them. You can really pile a lot of iron in like that.

I probably got at least 20 pieces in one tub. This is just the way I do it. I ain't sayin its faster, stronger, better, or worse, its just the way I do it.

[livens]

Thats a real nice lye bath you have. And as big as it is, it looks alot safer than the little rubbermaid tote that I use.

[Sam Roberts]

Sam, you did a very nice job and it will work great. Why did you vent it? Maybe I am missing something, but I don't vent mine, should I be? I just have plastic over the top so the lye water does not evaporate.

 

The reason I vented the tank is that it is outside and in direct sunlight during part of the day. The cover is basically air tight and the contents are caustic, I really didn't want to take a chance of opening it up if the tank was under any internal pressure. I realize being vented will cause it to evaporate sooner, but better that than a lye bath when you open it up. ;)

[Sam Roberts]

Ok, what am I doing wrong? Seems like every piece of CI I do in the Lye I have to redo in the electro. There is always a bunch of crud/crap (whatever you want to call it) still left on the CI when I remove it from the tank. Is my solution too weak? I used 1lb for each 5gal of water. All pieces have been left in the tank for at least 2 weeks, without any Charlee peeks. Am I taking it out too soon? I must be doing something wrong, but don't know what it is. Thanks.....Sam

[Jesse and Kim Dunfee]

Sam,
  I can't think of anything your doing wrong. I am certain you used 100%   sodium hydroxide. Right?
Is it mixed up and dissolved completely?
  The really baked on "carbon" stuff is hard to remove but the Tar like stuff thats thick just melts off my pans in a day or two.
  Is you water run thru a water softener? That might make a difference. I don't know what to tell you.

[Sam Roberts]

I ordered the lye from a chemical company (picture of the bottle in reply 1). It should be completely disolved and water is not ran through a water softener.  About the only thing else I think I can try is put in another 2 pound bottle of lye.

[Tom Penkava]

Ok, what am I doing wrong? Seems like every piece of CI I do in the Lye I have to redo in the electro. There is always a bunch of crud/crap (whatever you want to call it) still left on the CI when I remove it from the tank. Is my solution too weak? I used 1lb for each 5gal of water. All pieces have been left in the tank for at least 2 weeks, without any Charlee peeks. Am I taking it out too soon? I must be doing something wrong, but don't know what it is. Thanks.....Sam

What is this crud/crap ??  I always have a ( slimy ) residue that has to be washed/scraped off when the iron comes out.  sometimes it is a small amout, other times it is thicker.

[Sam Roberts]

No this is not slime, it's still hard. About the only thing I can think of is not enough Lye.

[Sam Roberts]

 :-[ :-[ :-[

Hey y'all there is nothing wrong with my lye tank, it works fine. Figure the odds, I had, I think, 12 pieces in it, I pull out 4, they all look like crap. The other 8 were fine. Who knows :o :o :o

[Roger Barfield]

I used 1lb for each 5gal of water

Sam, I used 2lbs per 5 gallons when I made mine.  Some pieces have to sit in it longer than others, but they eventually get there.  If there is anything left, I put them in the electro and that does the trick.

[Roger Barfield]

Sam, I did some checking and you can even make it stronger if you like.  Take a look at Dave Smith's instructions how he makes his.  http://www.panman.com/cleaning.html

[Sam Roberts]

One thing you can say for Dave, his should be stroung enough... :o Well I bought 16 pounds and used 8 in 40 gal of water. I'll add 4 more pounds and see if it works better..

[Jeff Friend]

We had a thread a while back about lye.  Here is the link http://www.griswoldandwagner.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1219183465

In this thread, I posted some dilution info as well as a PDF of Olin's Caustic Soda Handbook.  I'd recommend anyone using caustic soda read the safety information.  I believe a 5 percent solution should work plenty fast, especially in the summer.