Time to knock the rust out of the BSA tank…again. Third time in 20 years, at irregular intervals. The lining has failed again, and I don’t think I’m going to bother re-lining it this time. Just get the rust out and try to ride it and keep the tank full. Apologies about being able to see your non-influencer-looking author in the reflection!

Mr. Dog has his doubts

As you can see, I crafted an exceptionally sophisticated rotisserie for spinning the tank with some abrasive inside (in this case some steel BBs) to knock the big rust loose. Please don’t get too jealous about the fine adjustment mechanism for centering the tank that I cobbled together in about 35 seconds–this sort of thing comes naturally to me as I enter the “cranky old man” stage of my life.

I think it’s a good thing I have a new cap for the tank, this is the old one

You can see the rust dust escaping from the cap after just a few minutes of rattling and twirling. I’m going to pickle the tank with vinegar after this initial “get the big stuff out” stage. I might even use some of my precious evaporust in it…not decided yet.

This accumulation of rust dust is perfectly normal, I’m sure.

The BBs seem to be doing the trick, even though they’re not “sharp” like nuts and bolts would be. Their coverage is limited to the “outside” of the tank using this method, of course, so my noodle arms will probably have to do some random shaking to get to the central spine. Not sure yet how I plan to get most of the detritus out, shop vac and a shake, maybe? Rinsing would be ideal but it’s impossible to get all of the rinsing fluid out. We’ll see.