Salty Supply came through. Fosters and Smith (my fave) was backordered for 1.5 months. Here’s the lowdown:
| Ship To: Terrence Brannon 2922 NW 65th Way Margate, FL 33063 United States 818-359-0893 Shipping Speed: |
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| Bill To: Terrence Brannon 2922 NW 65th Way Margate, FL 33063 United States 818-359-0893 |
Payment: Credit Card: Visa TERRENCE BRANNON ************1234 Exp: 12/2011  |
Order Summary:
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That’s Terrence Brannon’s “Black Beauty” as he likes to call it.
Yes, once again Black is Beautiful. Feast your eyes:
https://picasaweb.google.com/thequietcenter/BlackBeauty?feat=directlink
As someone who likes to build things but has never built a tank, here’s my humble opinion on it… and this applies to all DIY tank projects:If you like to have a hand in creating the awesome time-space portal we call the float tank, and it will be a labor of love for you, then in general I would say a tank which costs $1700 to build is a fine project idea. But .. a) what’s the value of your labor (+$1000 at least)?
what do you mean value of labor? you mean the cost for time as opposed to parts? It took 17 days total this first time with several delays to order parts. Once all parts are ordered I could do it in a day the next time.
b) no offense to our good man Terrence, but that thing is pretty damn ugly
You are definitely entitled to your subjective judgement. No more can be said about that 😉
and a tank should be a pleasure to look at, i.e. you shouldn’t feel like you are an egg roll in a giant to-go container from a Chinese place in the mall, c) you’ll spend hours and hours asking questions on boards about troubleshooting,
I have no issues with helping those with questions and I would upgrade the plans to make things more clear each time.
d) Terrence is still probably tweaking his design.
arent we all. yes
Finally, Terrence posted a video of one his first floats in the tank and before he entered he said something like “Oh wait, I need to turn this off so I don’t electrocute myself”.
those words were uttered right here –
and there were 2 levels of defense against electrocution at that point:
But I do turn them off to give myself a sense of security. That was a sarcastic off-the-cuff comment. I wouldnt put myself in jeopardy like that. I’m very fixated on my physical body.
Those words should never have to be uttered!!!
it is something of bad press I suppose. And the video presentation could be much better
I’m hoping Terrence can report on exactly what he was referring to.Finally, If you are in the USA, you can often find a used Samadhi or Oasis tank – both proven designs
– for not much more and they offer continued tech support (to a reasonable degree with used tanks, I suppose). And you can always sell a Samadhi or an Oasis later on if you have to, whereas you’d probably have to pay someone to take the BB off your hands.
the main expense in the used tank market is crating and shipping. The Black Beauty is one leg of a focus towards putting tanks in the hands of those with low-income and/or those in prison.
another focus was using completely off-the-shelf-parts.
I learned from my Oasis experience. I owned one. And it is a true jewel. I cant say I’m happy with the rubber seal in the pump because epsom salt eats through it. But I learned from that and now know of other pumps (mag-drive, chemical) which work better.
I’m not trying to be mean, but let’s be realistic here.
No, but you are certainly welcome to communicate your dissatisfaction to me. I for one would appreciate it.
Live long and prosper,
Mark
From: x2012gart <x2012gart@yahoo.com>
To: floattalk@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, March 30, 2011 1:28:15 AM
Subject: Open Source $2k TankIts Crude not super sci-fi IPod gen float, but down and dirty and looks like it gets the job done…
wondering what you all think..
I am seriously considering taking up where John Lilly left off, but I feel weird walking into a float center after munching 5 grams of mushrooms. Thinking this might be the way forward.
http://www.thedeepself.org/2011/02/version-2a/
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Yes I am sure somethings can be done to improve safety like boxing up the electrics.
the heaters are connected to a GFCI so there’s no risk of electrocution. And JBJ heaters come with a safety guard.
For instance the two halfs can just be glued together shut
the current design makes it easy to drain the tank and move the tank. You can use the top as the bottom and vice versa at will.
and a entry door cut out of the top, or some sort of hindge/level system.
I was lucky to run into a Lowe’s employee who suggested drawer glides:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/QEEzr-uBDNkzzYSHWx7Mzg?feat=directlink
those have been working for at least 20 floats beautifully.
The old link seen around the net for tank building plans are gone and this is all there is now. This is why I posted it here, not to argue for it’s use.
I guess Samadi is like twice the price of the Black Beauty,
well, the joy of building your own tank just cant be matched. I could never buy a commercial tank again unless there were a very specific reason.
but frankly the baggy liner isn’t as good as a solid surface.
yes, liners terrify me. I mean, I floated samadhi at Spacetime tanks and it was great. And they have been operating 26 years continuously there in Chi-town, probably all on samadhi. And no reports of electrocution. But the idea that there is just a liner between the water and a heater gives me the willies.
But I’ve been hashing over liner designs and thinking about it.
Oasis is nearly 4x the price, and it does appear to also have this liner.
I think Oasis and Samadhi are about the same price, new or used.
Sure a good 2nd hand tank would be cheaper, 1
until you have to pay them for parts/labor for a repair. The Black Beauty is 100% off the shelf.
going thru the archive there were some 5 floataway tanks going for incredible prices. With my budget it is probably best to wait for 2nd hand tank to hit the market.
may I ask where you are located? I build tanks and give them away to people who want to establish a branch of my religious order devoted to floatation. If you have the space, you have a business and tank coming your way. Just pay me a cut of your income from serving Recluses:
http://git.thedeepself.org/definitions/#recluse
Not sure but after that it appears that most tanks go over the $15k price level…ok it has some technical parts, but a top range automobile is the same price. am not in the USA, the european tank market seems to be the more Gucchi/Prada side of the tank market.
oh shipping definitely becomes a major issue for you.
Have seen big fiberglass tanks used for Fish Farming being sold from China very inexpensive, great deals on bulk epsom salts. Seems do-able, especially for the DIY inclined. Terrance’s contribution is a good foundation to work upon, as it covers the basic running parts and design extra features can be added.
THANK YOU! YOU ARE LOVED!
Its Crude not super sci-fi IPod gen float, but down and dirty and looks like it gets the job done…
I’m happy with the job it does – I’m the inventor of the tank you are referring to. I’ve floated more than 40 times in it and am learning about passive heating systems along the way. I never would’ve succeeded with this tank if it weren’t for Tim Strudwick blazing a trail along this way. And of course I never would’ve met Tim Strudwick if it werent for Frank’s list.
wondering what you all think..
I am seriously considering taking up where John Lilly left off, but I feel weird walking into a float center after munching 5 grams of mushrooms.
Yes, commercial floatation and your urge for such personal exploration dont really jibe. But they meld well with my non-profit religious organization devoted to floatation – http://git.thedeepself.org/definitions/
Any questions about the design are welcome. I’m working on version 2b as we speak:
http://www.thedeepself.org/2011/03/version-2b/
I have put out a request to archive all homebrewed tank plans and we have yet to come up with such a centralized list of links. Because floatqa is migrating right now, it might be 2-4 weeks before we actually get up the list. My friend Glenn built his for rather cheap in a different way, but there are several indy tank makers active now.
My pondmaster is not sucking up any debris in my tank. My tank is 8′ x 5′ x 16″ and has 300 gallons of water with 1000 pounds of epsom salt (specific gravity 1.25 or so — much higher than an aquarium):
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_Pu5idg9RIVo/TWwEr8_nTTI/AAAAAAAAA_c/FyE4KCUCxFE/s800/IMAG0057.jpg
This pondmaster was recommended to me by tech support, yet it is not doing any cleaning.
I did have to put rocks in the input tray of the pondmaster to weigh it down:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_Pu5idg9RIVo/TXeUCNYheCI/AAAAAAAABAo/A9sI-JvVDMs/s800/IMAG0075.jpg
So I’m not sure if that is reducing the input suction significantly.
Any help on getting this to work is appreciated,
Terrence Brannon
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_Pu5idg9RIVo/TWwEr8_nTTI/AAAAAAAAA_c/FyE4KC…
The longer story is a Lowe’s employee was very nasty to me as I tried to pick his brain about how to solve my problem. I began to review my Advaita Vedanta teachings that I am just a character in a dream and what happens to this body doesnt matter. I began to contemplate reporting him to his boss. I decided to talk to him heart to heart but he was busy. So I began to look at sliding doors and windows trying to figure out how to do this. Then Carlos comes sauntering by:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_Pu5idg9RIVo/TWwEm0ywQbI/AAAAAAAAA_Q/ABb_-4…
and he says “hmm, maybe try drawer guides” … and that was just the ticket.
I suppose by remaining neutral instead of going on the offensive when attacked, I managed to find the neutral space where all creation begins and manage to make lemonade out of lemons 🙂
I never knew how to do this. But this will be necessary to build a float tank.
I am still experimenting with the inflatable neck pillow. You can get a setup which elongates the spine quite a bit and tucks the chin — Alexander Technique stuff. Or you can pull it down near your shoulders and get a serious S-curve going in the spine. All in all, this float did not take me anywhere though. I did a lot of meditation this morning with Buddhism Central Ohio and my mind has been expanded all day. That being said, the physical benefits of floating are tremendous and not to be scoffed at 🙂
I bought the Oasis that was advertised a few weeks ago here. Our first angle on shipping was to separately crate the tank, the spa pack and the 8 50 lb. bags of salt and then use Fedex. But using Fedex for delivery from Chicago to Columbus was 850.00 with a 55% new customer discount…. and that price was without the additional 400 pounds for salt. So, the ideal thing would be to have a mover who has a truck and has a more flexible way of charging. I first posted an ad a uship.com – this would’ve let one person handle the whole pack/crate, load, drive and unload job. The bids on shipping Maria’s tank from coast to coast were excellent compared to the Fedex rate – http://moving.uship.com/shipment/Floatation-Tank/505105010/ Of course, the problem is you are dealing with people you dont know. But usually the rating system will tell you how good a shipper is… which brings us to the choice I opted on. I decided to simply use https://movinghelp.emove.com/ I had to rent a 17 foot u-haul. This cost 329.00 The labor broke down into: * Gas – 280 * Tolls 6.00 * Rental car to return home: 80.00 * load help in chicago – 235.00 * driving from Chicago, IL to Columbus, OH – 410.00 * unload help in Columbus, OH. – 120. It only took 2 people to unload in Columbus, even though they recommended 4. So the labor total was 834.00 The movers I used (Good Day Movers, Harvey, IL) had 1200 5-star ratings. They have 5 years of rock solid history. I was a bit upset at the terms of delivery. I had to send money via Western Union or Moneygram to a person (not a business) for all estimated labor expenses in advance. I was upset at this and after discussing what I was doing with Moneygram they asked: why cant you handle a business transaction by paying a business? Eventually moneygram refused to send the money electronically (because the description of what I was doing sounded like fraud to them), so I had to go in-person to send it, knowing full well the risks involved. I wanted to use Paypal so that the money could be taken back if I had issues. But it would’ve taken 3-5 days to clear and they had already loaded the truck. So I crossed my fingers and took the plunge and it worked out. So basically emove.com is just a website which allows you to pick an independant shipping/packing company. So each time you use it, you will encounter different terms and different levels of professionalism. Total shipping cost – 1160.00. I think that is a pretty good price. What do you guys think? The big damage was the drive. And again, the way to reduce that cost is to find a mover who has his own truck because Uhaul will murder you with their per-mile charges… not only that, but you are also paying the moving crew per mile as well.
The total shipping cost was:
so the total was 1500 bux for moving.
