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Looking into fabbing catch cans/ coolant tanks need some input

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fallenauthority

15+ Year Contributor
692
11
Oct 14, 2004
La Plata, Maryland
Just picked up an Eastwood Tig200 a couple weeks ago, been practicing welding on some spare aluminum plates I had laying around. I want to start playing around with making catch cans and coolant tanks. I plan to start with aluminum sheets and cut them down to size for the walls of the cans however, I dont know what gauge aluminum would work well for catch cans and coolant tanks. Now one thing to note is the coolant tanks I will be planning to eventually make will be used in a pressurized application, they arent going to just be catch tanks they will be a degas bottle that is part of the pressurized cooling system. So whatever I use will need to withstand 16ish PSI without ballooning.
This brings another question, I figured I could use a sheet metal brake/shear to do the cutting and any bending I would need however the shears I have seen are only able to cut 20 gauge, now I dont know if they will handle thicker gauge if it is aluminum. Any input or guidance will be appreciated. Thanks guys!
 
I think 3mm ally will be fine, in 5251 grade as its quite tough and strong or close to it. I thi k 2mm might work but would depend on grade and how good your welds are of course, if it was me though i would do 2mm for catch can and 3mm for coolant
 
Ok so 9 gauge for the coolant tanks and 12 gauge for the catch cans, thanks for the input on that aspect.
Now I am wondering what shear I could get that would handle the 9 gauge aluminum. I kinda want a brake/shear combo. I dont want to dump a ton of money on one because I just bought my tig so something kinda entry level for now to get my feet wet so to speak.
 
Ask calan he may or may not share some of his secret. LOL
 
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