The Pneumatic Tanker Thread

So, had a little hiccup unloading cement this morning. Middle hopper seemed like it had rocks stuck in the valve. I got it unloaded, returned to the shop at the end of my day and found these....

So, not only was our genius mechanic nowhere to be found, but I couldn't break the darn thing enough to fit out through the valve. So, I put coveralls and respirator on and crawled inside the tank to retrieve the darn things. Such fun I tell ya!

 

try going inside a butler, post it floating away during the Hurricane Agnes flood, to hammer and chisel out the plug in top of the air pads..1972, what respirator?

 

I've been inside a few of them over the years. Doesn't matter why you're in there, it's never much fun. But, I'll never go without a respirator. I like my lungs too much.

 

As our loaders would tell us, We don't have chunks in our silos so there is no way you could get those chunks from us! Not sure how else they would get in there if haven't loaded from anywhere else in the last couple weeks, and wasn't in there when opened lid and looked inside tank before loading!

 

In this case they have no argument. Last Friday they were putting baskets in every trailer to catch the clumps. Last night was a different group of loaders, and no baskets....

 

They did put a 'box' fan over top the far dome lid to pull in some fresh air...

The did give us [probably inadequate] dust masks and set up the fan when we had to shovel across the cement off a failed air-slide. those old bastages had a central gate valve and a divider about 1/3 rd high so when one side's 'slide' blew out, they sent in 'both' of the "College Kids" to shovel across what hadn't slid over the barrier and discharged off the good 'slide'...and always on a hot and humid day....

 

Muriatic acid.

 

just keep it away from any chrome but yes it will remove cement...one of my first jobs was washing Macks used to haul cement, pour some in a bucket, add water and brush it on the truck. It foams up as it eats the cement, rinsed with water. Turns chrome trim black.

 

Thank you very much. I hit it with the muriatic acid, scrubbed, rinsed, and hit it with the aluminum brightener. Slowly but surely she is starting to look like a tank again.

 

What type of blowers y’all suggest for plastics and salt?