DIY Tank Holders - Cheap, Easy, Quick

[JDostal]

Last night, I built three tank holders that hold two tanks each. It took me about a half hour and I spent a total of $11.59 on supplies for the three tank holders.

Heres the materials you will need, for each tank holder:

1 Water Noodle (Those styrofoam things kids play w/ at the lake) Make sure they are solid (no hole in the middle) and around 2 1/2" to 3" in diameter.

7' of 3/8" (or thicker) rope

At Wal-Mart last night, I bought three water noodles for $1.44 each and one bag of 50' of 3/8" synthetic rope for $11.59.

Instructions

Cut the noodle into thirds - mine made three 20" pieces.
Cut two 42" pieces of rope
Melt ends of rope, or take other appropriate measure to prevent fraying

Take each noodle piece and measure in from each end 3". Drill a 3/8" hole through the noodle on each end - the rope will pass through this hole.

Take your rope and tie a knot in one end. Pass the other end through the noodle. Do this for each side of the noodle. You should now have one noodle w/ two pieces of rope passing through it.

Now lay it on the floor, and lay your tank lenghtwise against the noodle. Lay another noodle on the other side of the tank. Where the second noodle presses against the tank, you will want to tie a knot in the rope right next to the tank. Do this for both ropes, and now put the rope pieces through the 2nd noodle piece and slide it up until it hits the knots. Now tie knots against the other side of the noodle so that the noodle is stationary.

Now lay your tank down against the 2nd noodle piece again. Feed the rope through the third noodle piece and snug the third piece up against the tank. Tie knots in the rope wher appropriate and trim off the excess rope.

Complete!! Your finished tank holder should look somewhat like a rope ladder - see the attached image, which is nothing more than a screenshot of an ascii illustration for a better look at the idea. I don't have a digital camera available to me at the moment.

Good luck!!

[mad1]

sounds great! I made a set out of 2" PVC the same way but mine
probably slide around a little more than yours.

[SA-Diver]

Just put large O-rings around the ends of the PVC to stop the sliding.

[JDostal]

The PVC is probably a lot more durable than the water noodles - if I drop a tank on mine, they get a little damaged. Not a bad idea to use PVC at all...

[DA Aquamaster]

I got cheap and copied the noodle and rope idea 3 years ago and made at set for 3 tanks and a set for 4 tanks. Both are still holding up well after 3 seasons of hard use. Using large diameter 1/2 rope and cutting smooth holes is a key factor in durability I think.

[JDostal]

What did you use to cut the holes?

[bigz]

I did the noodle and rope thing last summer. Then, I found a type of thin, non-skid floor mat at a local dollar store. I glued the noodles to the mat, with shoe goo and now, my tank "rack" lies nicely on the floor of my SUV and DOES NOT move with the tanks placed in the noodles. No ropes, no hassles.

[DA Aquamaster]

Omicron once bubbled...
What did you use to cut the holes?

I used a very sharp thin bladed fillet knife my wife has in the kitchen. I didn't tell her about it though :)

You could also use an exacto knife with one of the longer carving blades or prhaps a regular fishing fillet knife if it tapers enough on th end.

I have found that you can stack another row of tanks on top of the ones in the rack as long as they are secured from sliding. The rubbery nonskid pads made to keep plates from sliding on boat table tops works really well. You can get it in large sheets for little money and a layer of it bewteen the two rows of tanks keeps everything from sliding. A dive bag or wet suit stacked on top of the last row of tanks also seems to provide enough weight/resistace to keep them from sliding around the back of our vehicles.

[ABQdiver]

I made mine from a combination of the noodles with the holes and CPVC pipe in the center.
Drilled holes through the pipe and the noodle and then threaded 3/16" nylon rope through knotted at both sides of the pipe to hold in place.

The thing rolls up and ties together when not in use. I felt the pipe in the center gave it more rigidity and helped hold the whole unit together....

[nkw5]

ABQdiver, thanks for a great tip. Now I no longer have tanks rolling around in the trunk! I like how cheap your device is, too.

[FredT]

Omicron once bubbled...
What did you use to cut the holes?

A hot spike (a nail 5/16" dia x about 10" long) melts and reinforces the holes all at the same time.

[bwerb]

This sounded way too complicated :D...here's what I did:

Pool Noodle $.97 CDN
Piece of old rope - free.

One really pointy pen...poked hole through pool noodle (cut into thirds. Pushed rope through then into next noodle etc...strung all three sections together with two pieces of rope.

Only knots in rope are at one end...big figure 8 knot...the noodles are free to slide back and forth along the rope "track". Left the other end of the rope long.

So...put three tanks onto the noodles in the trunk...the fourth tank only has noodle on one side...the rope wraps over top of this tank and back under it's neighbor to hold it in place. It doesn't move in my trunk at all.

Total construction time 10 minutes...total spend...97 cents.

[blacknet]

Hello,

What I use is 1" pvc pipe and some rope. Not figured cost but it was very cheap.

Ed

[JDostal]

Thanks for the tips everyone...I'll see how long this set lasts and then when I make my next set up I'll try some of these things out. Thanks again!

[mddolson]

I added washers to prevent the knots in the rope from pulling thru the noodle.

This is it's 3rd summer.

Mike D

[JDostal]

Nice :) Those look a lot like mine...same color and everything.

[Harvo]

These are great ideas.
I'll be making one soon.
I think that I will be going with
BWERB idea.

Thanks

[Narced-on-Land]

bigz, that's a great mod to this idea!

Not only will the tanks not go from side to side, but no fore/aft movement either!! I have a van and that will stop motion like a tool box liner, great!!

:)

[Chivas]

I cut the noodles with an electric knife and used wire ties instead or rope. One tie around each end and then tie the ties togeather. Took 5 minutes.

[DavidG]

I have a lathe and drill press so I have the capability to build the can and head but I'd like to make a smaller can that would contain enough power to last for three dives when using a 10watt HID bulb. Given those requirements, I thought going to NiMH batteries would be the ticket.

I've got a UW light cannon and thought of gutting the ballast and bulb and creating a light head using it, but...

I've got a pack of 20, 2000 mAh AA's in a 2 x 3-4-3 configuration that generates about 13.5 volts with a total of (therotecally) 4 Ah's. My amp meter only goes so far and the thing with NiMH's is that their design permits high amperage discharge. So, when I hook them up to the ballast, they blow the 2amp fuse EVERY time. The ballast creates the initial arc with 6000 volts and then once lit drops to 12 volts in order to sustain the arc. At just under 10 volts the light dies. So the inital draw seems to be what is killing the fuse.

What am I doing wrong? If I use a higher rated fuse, won't I kill the bulb? Should I try a slow burn fuse? The manufacturer says the ballast and bulb can operate using NiMH's.

Have any of you been able to successfully get something like this to work. Obviously, I KNOW NEXT TO NOTHING ABOUT ELECTRICITY OR BALLAST ELECTRONICS.

[JDostal]

Well, I think the first problem would be that you are trying to supply power to your tank holders :D

[DavidG]

Kind of a "Home improvement" - Tim Allen thing!
Man, I have no idea how that happened!!! I was on the DIY - build a canister light thread - how in the heck did it get here?
Cut and paste time. Sorry abou that.

[JDostal]

Hehe...heck yeah. Build a tank holder that'll load/unload your tanks for ya...

Kind of weird how that happened...