Baker water tanks

[9x10 in Indiana]

Anyone know what was used to seal between the cast iron side and sheet steel of the water tanks originally? We had to cut out a couple of places to patch and, may have got this sealing metal too hot and melted out a little. Spelter maybe? Hope to re skin the tank this winter!

[Chris Huber]

Baker Originally melted lead between the sheet metal and cast iron. My family replaced our sheet metal and we tried using lead but it didn't work well and we eventually gave up on the lead. What we eventually did was glue rubber edging along the sheet metal, then lay the cast iron on it's side and fill the crack on both sides with silicone and placed the sheet metal in the grooves on both sides and smash them together with the rods through the tanks. I then sealed the tanks with truck bed liner to seal the tank completely. I also put an edge of truck bed liner on the outside to ensure it wouldn't leak. Works alright for me.

[ZZGraham]

We built tanks for my Avery and will be doing some Peerless tanks soon. We put a small bead of silicone between the sheets and a small amount on each rivet. Drive the rivet cold as they are small and the silicone can do its job without heat issues.

It can get a bit messy with the silicone and good clean up is important. Silicone can really mess up a paint job so I wire wheeled everything then sand blasted before painting.

Tom Graham

[sawiley]

I'm remaking my Baker's tanks right now, and would like to do them the original way - was the lead simply melted and poured in, or was the tank head and wrapper heated, like for brazing/soldering? Is the lead put in after the tanks are assembled, or a thin coating put in the bottoms of the grooves before assembly?

I'd prefer to stay away from caulks and sealers, because I know that they can change over time, and what holds today may not hold next year, aside from their effect on paint jobs. Not as much of a problem with lead, although ventilation while pouring is a must.

[Dale Miner]

I think that after the lead was poured, it was then 'calked' by driving it tight with a blunt chisel, similar to when soil pipe was used with leaded joints.

[9x10 in Indiana]

That's kinda what it looks like to me. Poured, cooled then caulked.

[sawiley]

So, melted lead poured into assembled joint, without needing to heat the heads or wrapper?

[9x10 in Indiana]

It appears that is the case. We haven't replaced ours yet, just patched them up for now. Looks the side is layed down and the sheet is placed in the channel and then, the lead is poured between the two on the outside of the tank. I would guess that all of the throughstays, would already be in place and tightened up.
After all is poured, it looks as is a blunt chisel is used to caulk the seem like the previous post mentioned.

[sawiley]

I guess the last question would be if there is any flux or pretinning needed, or if just being sandblasted clean before pouring is enough. I'm guessing that it not that far different from laying up lead for auto body work?

[Dale Miner]

Originally Posted by sawiley

I guess the last question would be if there is any flux or pretinning needed, or if just being sandblasted clean before pouring is enough. I'm guessing that it not that far different from laying up lead for auto body work?

It is actually quite a bit different than leading autobody work. 'Leading' body work uses a solder with a fairly high tin content, and the 'lead' becomes tinned to the sheet metal. With the joint on the water tanks, tinning is not needed. The sealing effect occurs when the lead (not a solder) is mechanically rammed or caulked into the joint. The metal needs to be cleaned prior to making the joint, not so that it can be tinned, but so that water doesn't leak through the dirt after the caulking process.

---------- Post added at 01:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:12 PM ----------

Warming the cast iron parts would help the flow of the lead so that it levels better and finds it's way to the opposite side of the sheet. Having the lead on the back side of the sheet is needed to back up the sheet when the lead is rammed (caulked).