Hey, all. Does anyone have any instructions/advice on how to build a gunge tank please? I've looked online, and can't find anything. I'm thinking of building one with a slatted base so that the gunge can pour through into a bowl/pool for easy disposal. Also one that can be collapsible.

Collapsible and gunge tank don't really go together. A tank full of gunge is seriously heavy, drop one on someone's head and you could break their neck, with life-changing or even fatal consequences. That's why all the gunge tanks you'll see in use are solid constructions, designed to take the weight as safely as possible.

If is possible to build a tank using scaffolding parts, which allows for disassembly, but make absolutely sure everything is clamped properly and securely before using, as someone's life could depend on it.

Yeah, scaffolding sounds like a plan. I can't remember who it is, but I know someone on here used PVC scaffolding. Would be good to know how much gunge can fit in their tank.

I use a scaffolding tower so collapsible, no clamps but they are a fixed height. It holds my 50 litre tank without any issues.

I would strongly advise against pvc, while they might be strong, in my experience once they start twisting it goes straight to collapsing in seconds.

Could be this guy
https://umd.net/forums/i-now-sell-high-quality-remote-control

Where did you get the scaffold tower, and how much was it?

Internet, about £200 I think but I didn't shop around as I had other uses for it.

Nice. I'll have look. Thank you.

It wasn't, but they have a similar device. I'm sure the model's name is Chloe.

The main reason why there's not much online for plans on building a gunge tank is because of the significant risk of liability combined with the sheer costs to undertake one. Many people forget the engineering aspect required to construct (it's not just walls, but how much of a load can be suspended safely from a height greater than 0 ft. This is why good quality tanks easily run into the thousands of dollars/pounds (and also why producers charge the rates they do for their content). Collapsible tanks are often even more expensive, once you consider the impending medical bills that happen.

Imagine taking a car, but then also saying that you want to be able to become a briefcase so you can always take it with you. Can it be done? Sure, but at what expense? What are the trade-offs? Certainly safety will suffer compared to most other vehicles on the road, but that's the trade-off for convenience.

If your goal is to have a once-in-a-while experience, you're much better off to invest in private sessions with one of the different groups out there. Having seen first-hand how much work is invested in the sessions I've been a part of, the expense is well worth what they charge.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do.

We built out original tank to be collapsible. Essentially it split into sections so we could lay it flat in the back of the car to take to events. We fabricated it out of angle steel and Perspex to get what we wanted but appreciate not everyone had facilities to do this. It bolts together fairly easily and splits down easily if we need it to.

I feel like this is an undertaking I'll have to make when I'm more established, and have more money coming in. I want it to be a constant feature, but finances say no at the moment.

I believe you are referring to me and the PVC collapsible tank I built.

The PVC collapsible tank I built uses a 10 L bucket as its tank, it was primarily a prototype (therefore was meant to be low cost) for a bunch of ideas for a future tank but designed in mind that it could be dismantled and transported if going on location with it but designed to be safe to use with the right supervision. But much of engineering is about trade-offs, to be cheap and of sufficient standard to be both cheap and safe meant settling for much lower capacity AND it took a LONG time to design such that it is not a project to give out to beginners as you will see as you read on (I will however later suggest something you may find easier to undertake that would be safer for your first project).

Some important points to make clear - this is by no means the first gunge tank I have ever built. I've built previous gunge tanks that were much less portable capable of holding significantly more gunge. But let me be clear - regardless of whether you are building a permanent or portable gunge tank the objective is never to try put as much gunge as possible on top of it but to ensure you have sufficient Factor of Safety built in such that if the structure weakens through wear and tear it won't suddenly collapse. I am not going to state what level Factor of Safety I built in as I have over the years seen many frankly unsafe gunge tank plans been sent to me in DMs that if I were to say that I used a weight of x kg to test a tank design I know someone will think that if they copied the design they could just shove an x L tank on top leaving them absolutely no safety margin for wear and tear, make absolutely no allowance for any possible flaws during construction meaning it might not even be able to handle the same test weight at all and they may miss crucial design elements such as the fact that should their be a structural failure in the portable tank it is designed to fall either forwards or backwards like say Jenga blocks rather than falling straight down like a building demolition and so therefore fails safely leaving whoever is sat under it unharmed.

Now I don't personally give out plans for things like the portable gunge tank as I work on the basis that anyone with enough engineering experience to understand things like factors of safety and redundancy already has enough experience to know how to build such a structure themselves. The people who don't are the ones most likely to cut corners - either because they don't appreciate why they are necessary or are letting their dick in hand make unsafe decisions. I don't want to enable someone to do something dangerous.

I am happy to advise on a whole bunch of other areas, for instance:

Gunge Tank Release Mechanisms

Fluid Mechanics - Many people make the mistake of believing bigger gunge tank equals better coverage, a crude way of demonstrating this isn't the case is to compare the sort of coverage you get from slowly pouring a jug of gunge over someone from a few centimetres above them versus quickly upturning a bucket of gunge from a top a step ladder and seeing how most of it just splatters off the top of their head leaving them relatively uncovered. Understanding pressure, height, kinetic energy and flow rate can allow you to create an efficient gunge tank that gets much better coverage and impressive results with a fraction of the gunge you might have put in a less efficient tank design that winds up spraying most of the gunge over the tank walls instead.

More basic gunge tank designs safer for newbies to start building first - for instance rather than a collapsible gunge tank which is more advanced it might be that you could get the same desired result with a disguised "gunge tank" that would be safer to build. ie get a wardrobe that someone could sit on a stool inside it, drill a hole through the top, push a hose pipe through the drilled whole and then when you wish to use it have a bucket on a stool behind the wardrobe, a drill pump, electric drill and two hoses to pump the gunge through the hoses to drop down on the wardrobe's occupant without the wardrobe needing to carry any load. You would need to coat the inside of the wardrobe in the sort of weather proofing varnish you might use on a garden shed and it would be advisable to shove a paddling pool in the bottom to catch the gunge when in use to aid clean up when in use but when everything isn't in use you could shove the buckets, stools, hoses and pumps into the wardrobe and anyone that came round visiting would only see a wardrobe from the outside and not question why you've a gunge tank in your garage - just as an example in case the reason for wanting portability being so you don't have something awkward to explain - in which case you can solve it by disguising it rather than by being collapsible. (Though if you are invested in wanting a collapsible version that requires less know how then it is possible to build a tank using something like Quadro that is designed for like playframes for gardens - it won't be cheap but there's some marketing material they had involving some elephant standing on a cube made out of it at some point so should easily hold a medium sized tank).

It wasn't you, I'm afraid. I had a look around, and realised it's PieroProductions I'm thinking of. Thank you for your advice though. I was thinking about getting an old wardrobe to be honest. Might just have to stick with that idea for the time being.

It wasn't cheep to build, the steel and Perspex was expensive back then let alone now.

In lockdown I built a collapsible gunge tank - by which I mean, it could disassemble into parts which I could then stow away in a cupboard. The tank wasn't particularly tall, you could sit beneath it (either on a step stool or kneel) but not stand and it was stood over (or rather, inside) an inflatable padding pool.

Pics of it are here: https://umd.net/forums/gunge-tank-specs#postid_771423

The tank stood on 4 fence posts, each one bolted onto a frame also made from fence posts - and at the sides there were some supporting beams - everything was assembled using long bolds and wing screws - this meant I could screw everything together quickly by hand.

Covering the top of the frame, I had a square slab of thick chipboard (which I think was once a wardrobe door), and this came in two parts - In the middle of this there was a rectangle cut out where I sat a hopper. (https://www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-push-fit-rectangular-grid-rec-hopper-110mm/90316?tc=PB7&ds_kid=92700055281954505&ds_rl=1249404&gclid=CjwKCAiAvK2bBhB8EiwAZUbP1KunBHGXOyNGbpHg1mRgCAwvnkQZjz6msH7oYfjQ6l9_uaoxsRtWHhoCISAQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds)

Over this I then placed a large frame which held two large water tanks, which I think were the kind you get in attics. In each one, I had cut a hole the size of a plug hole, and the holes were positioned over the hopper.

The crudest part of the tank was the release mechanism which was basically a very simple lever that which unplugged the tanks when you pulled on a bit of string.

The gunge would then pour into the hopper and mix (if I was using different colours) before coming through to the person sat below.

I used the tank about 10 times over 2 years, I always stood it against a wall - it was pretty strong and could hold two full tanks - which was a lot of gunge - I think about 8 to 10 buckets worth.

I got rid of the tank last year, scrapping all the parts - the only reason I didn't sell it was because it was potentially dangerous. I knew what I was doing with it, but I wouldn't want to be responsible for injuring someone!

In all the time I used it, I never had a bad experience - although I do remember filling the tanks once, and leaving the gunge to cool, then hearing a strange sound from upstairs. When I ran up, I found one the plugs had unplugged itself and one of the tanks was emptying itself into the pool. Clearing that up and refilling the tank was incredibly difficult.

Just remembered the day I took it to the dump - I had to discard the various parts in different bins. I had to keep going back and forth to the car, this was the day after a wam session where I'd used the tank the final time. I had brought along a bin bag containing the slimed plastic sheeting we'd used and the disposable coveralls my wife and I wore during the gunging. I just laughed allowed as I remembered tossing this bag into the house hold waste - there was a fella in there who was crushing things down by hand. I went back to throw something else in, and I stopped in horror seeing the guy had torn open the bin bag I'd just dumped into the container, and was awkwardly examining the gungey contents. Thankfully he had no idea whose bin bag it was.

This is amazing. Thank you very much. I hadn't thought to use fence posts, but they seem more logical. I greatly appreciate that, and will try to do something of my own with this information.

I'd you follow my design closely you can't lose! But please please please, be safe!!! Happy gunging!

I appreciate it, but the fence post idea sounds so much safer.

I've built one this year that "collapses" in as much as the sides and roof are bolted together so it can live flat against the garage wall when not in use.

As many have mentioned, the weight of gunge is huge, and you're expecting people to sit beneath it, so considering how much you want to support and how to do that safely has to be the first consideration.

I've not worked with metal, so I used 1.5in x 2.5in C16 timber to frame off 3 sheets of acrylic for the sides (so effectively has 6 uprights). I used 2 80mm wood screws in each joint to prevent twisting. Then a lattice for the roof, 4 joists each way, to support the hopper and release mechanism. I used 10mm thick coach bolts to hold the frames together, 2 connecting each side together and 3 holding the roof across 3 sides so it can't slip off. I haven't tried to add a clever floor, we just stick it up in a large inflatable pool.

Next thing was to load test without anyone being anywhere near under it and ideally to take far more weight than I plan to use. I stuck 80kgs on top and it took the weight fine - the hopper is 40L so this is pretty much double the weight it should need to take. After that I removed the weight and checked that I could hang off of it a few seconds (I'm not a small bloke). Not as scientific a test but reassuring that it can take my weight.

It's my first attempt, so it probably isn't perfect, but it's serving us well so far. While the plastic mostly protects the wood, it does get under/around the bottom so I wish I'd varnished the frames before first use. If anything it's also a bit too big, but it's still workable where we film. Also the bottom corners at the front could be pushed apart, so a floor would probably further improve strength.

Might be some ideas there you can use.

I've got a few ideas of my own; depends on what I can do once I get my own place.
My other half is very keen on a sex swing (which I also found to be a LOT of fun)- so whatever gunge 'tank' type thingy I go for I have the option of suspending the gunge off the ceiling hook.

Weight wise- swing needs to hold two adults, so this could easily have 100-150L of gunge overhead depending on how much I want to winch up. As for disguise? I can put a regular hanging chair in the the rest of the time- it's totally just an innocent piece of furniture