Build 24. Water Expansion Tank

I quite enjoyed this task, mainly because it involved a bit more drilling of the chassis and the reward is greater when the risks are higher! As per the usual I started by getting all the parts ready and stuck them in my tray ready for use. The main risk that I have seen from other blogs, is that the expansion tank can foul on the nose cone if it is mounted incorrectly, so be sure to check you location before committing to drilling. With the SV chassis mine looked like I had loads of room so I was happy with my location.

The first job is to mount the bracket on the chassis that the tank will sit on. I'm building the SV sized chassis and the bracket that I have got has been made for the S3 chassis. This means that the pre drilled holes don't quite align with the angles of the SV chassis. There are a couple of options for mounting the bracket from here, the first is to attempt to get the bracket aligned somehow so it will fit on as is, and the second is to simply re drill some more holes in the bracket so you get the bracket sitting perfectly on the chassis rails.

I opted for the first one, it wasn't massively out, but it certainly meant the rivets would not be sitting perfectly in the middle of each chassis rail. For me it was worth the risk and to be honest the bracket easily has enough strength when mounted in just 3 of the 4 holes anyway (it is only supporting a water expansion tank after all)

So once I was happy with this route, I aligned it the best I could, taped the bracket in position and marked the holes to drill. I removed the plate and then drilled with a 5mm drill bit where I marked, hind sight I should have just drilled with the bracket in place, the holes would have been perfectly placed then.

Once the drilling was done, it was clear that one hole was slightly misaligned, so I simply put in 3 rivets, and then re-drilled with the bracket in place to widen the misaligned hole, the drill would not slip doing it this way. Once I had re drilled the last hole, the last rivet was completed and the bracket was done.

I then loosely attached the tank as I would tighten it in place once I had the plumbing pipes in position.

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