[jeff1]

Well apart from the painting (Michelle wants it Blue to match the paint on the floor of her van) the Swivel is now complete and I must say it works a treat, the black thing you see on top of the hose reel is a bottle holder from a push bike, (sorry Just noticed you can't see the bottle holder) This is used to stop the reel UN-winding as you pull it out and that also works a treat.
The hose reel can be removed at any time, I welded two hooks to hook the base into and and the front slots just inside the small plate I welded on, this stops the hose reel from being pulled of the swivel.

What else I like about the swivel is, When your winding the hose back in, there is no need to hold the hose, hold onto the handle of the reel, wind in your hose and move the reel right and left to feed in back on straight.

At the moment the frame is in skeleton mode, the front panel you see still has to be fitted yet, I may also weld on a few eye's around the edge to use as lashing points because as things stand, There is a lot of wasted space on-top of the tank, I may yet put a sheet of tin on top Just so we can utilise the space.
When the work is complete I'll put some pictures up when its installed into the Van.






The cage in skeleton Mode with 2 coats of red oxide before the top coat coats on.

[NWH]

Can i have 1 please Jeff when your ready.

[matt]

very nice

i will pop down for you to mine 

[jeff1]

I've got no more swivel chairs left 

But after making one, you don't need a swivel chair, Just some steel tubing and steel plate.

[Dean Aspects]

How does the tank go in to it from the top open end(in the pic) or does the frame slot over the tank
The swivel looks good a great idea looks like i might need a new seat at the computer 

[jeff1]

The Tank will slide in from the front and the front steel plate will be added with bolts afterwards.

Looks like were going to see lots of bits of swivel chairs at the dump now then lol

[matt]

funny enough, my brother has a office in london, they are throwing out 20 chairs ( having new desks aswell ) i might get him to save me a few

[jeff1]

Get them and make some swivels, you'll make a fortune Lol

[Andrew McCann]

Nice one Jeff!!

I am sure you have thought of this but how are you going to get your  tank into the frame? Have you made the frame taller than the tank so that you can slide it in?

I used to be in office supplies and have thrown hundreds and hundreds of swivel chairs away..  DOH!!!   

I have an idea and will be calling you soon mate 

Andrew

[jeff1]

Nice one Jeff!!

I am sure you have thought of this but how are you going to get your  tank into the frame? Have you made the frame taller than the tank so that you can slide it in?

I used to be in office supplies and have thrown hundreds and hundreds of swivel chairs away..  DOH!!!   

I have an idea and will be calling you soon mate 

Andrew

Thanks Andrew
The panel at the front is not yet been fixed, before I fix it I'll slide the tank in then bolt the front panel on.

Just been out and added 4 lashing strap fixings and painted the first coat of blue, I plan to add a removable top so that we can use the top of the frame as storage, I went to take a photo but my battery  run flat, its on charge right now so give it 15 minutes and I'll get the picture with the front panel removed.

Like I said to Matt you don't need a swivel chair all that is needed is a couple of plates and some tube (all steel)

I also owe you an apology  It has taken me 4 hours to get this far but that includes making the swivel & the painting, I'm thinking another hours work to complete the final coat and fixing the front, that's not including the install.

Give me a call anytime upto 1 am any night 

[jeff1]

Managed to get the pictures, the lashing fixings are there for ratchets just to hold stuff to the top of the tank.
Front panel removed to show how the tank will be installed and the first coat of blue is now on.

[Mr H]

Very proffesional looking......

What metal did you use for the frame...? The reason I ask is that I might need to get a 400L frame madeup soon.....

Regards
Mr H

[jeff1]

Mild Steel but if you can get stainless then go for that instead, I wanted stainless but my mate had none in stock.

[Clive McDonald]

I liked it.

I think you answered some of my queiries by answering andrew. I'll just make a couple of points that probably aren't relevant or you've probably already thought of because we have the same van and set up (i don't have a cage obviously)

Presumably you want the hose to exit via the side door on the drivers side and will therefore need the winding handle behind the bulk head (you need a bit of elbow room) and the hoselock feed facing the back doors. Is it handed to do this?

Sorry if this is obvious.

[Jewel Cleaning]

Jeff1, Do you think it will stand up to the test?

I'm not trying to be annoying, nor trying to claim that I know a lot about welding water tank frames, but I thought a few diagonals on that might help spread the load when under severe stress?

Please, everyone else, don't all jump on this with your negative opinions!  Just what I noticed.

Thanks,

Jay.

[LWC]

is there some way of locking the swivel as that would be annoying when reeling in

good job by the way

[jeff1]

I liked it.

I think you answered some of my queiries by answering andrew. I'll just make a couple of points that probably aren't relevant or you've probably already thought of because we have the same van and set up (i don't have a cage obviously)

Presumably you want the hose to exit via the side door on the drivers side and will therefore need the winding handle behind the bulk head (you need a bit of elbow room) and the hoselock feed facing the back doors. Is it handed to do this?

Sorry if this is obvious.

Hi Clive
The hose will exit from side and rear doors, if you notice on the silver plate were the swivel base is fitted, you will notice I moved the swivel base close to the edge for this reason, I can also move the silver plate a little more towards the rear if I need to, I haven't tested it in the van yet but will be looking at this next week.

Jeff1, Do you think it will stand up to the test?

I'm not trying to be annoying, nor trying to claim that I know a lot about welding water tank frames, but I thought a few diagonals on that might help spread the load when under severe stress?

Please, everyone else, don't all jump on this with your negative opinions! Just what I noticed.

Thanks,

Jay.

Hi Jay
Thanks for your comments, there much appreciated as everyone else's is.
This is the only tank cage I have ever built but you make a good point, my daughters safety is the upmost importance to me.
I also need some more support for the top I intend to add to it, so a couple of diagonals would serve a couple of purposes.
Thanks for pointing that out, I'll post another picture over the weekend showing the new diagonal bars added.

[jeff1]

is there some way of locking the swivel as that would be annoying when reeling in

good job by the way

That was mentioned to me the other day, it is on the drawing board, I plan to have a bar (spring loaded I hope) I will drill a series of holes  for the direction its facing x3, the bar will drop into a hole and stop the swivel as mentioned to me the other day it will help lock it in place during driving.

When I did some tests with it in the Garden, I noticed that by holding onto the top of the hose reel I was able to gently twist the reel right and left and this put the hose onto the reel a little more neater and I never had to hold the hose.

[Jewel Cleaning]

Hi Jay
Thanks for your comments, there much appreciated as everyone else's is.
This is the only tank cage I have ever built but you make a good point, my daughters safety is the upmost importance to me.
I also need some more support for the top I intend to add to it, so a couple of diagonals would serve a couple of purposes.
Thanks for pointing that out, I'll post another picture over the weekend showing the new diagonal bars added.

I knew you were concerned about your daughters safety!

I noticed on the ionic web site, that they have diagonals pointing down toward the front of vehicle.

Have you seen any photo's of ionics stuff?

It might give some ideas, but any idea can be improved; you've shown that with swivel reel!

Just add a motor onto the side of it and you'll be discounts best mate 

[jeff1]

Do you have a link to ionics site so I can have a look??

As for the electric reel, I won't be using the reel, so Michelle can keep cranking the handle Lol

I forgot to mention that the front will have a steel sheet bolted to it, so this will add to the strength but I still like the idea of a couple of diagonals