Standard upcycled builds
The catalogue versions of the most-requested customs.
Service 06 · The bay at the back
Custom
fabrication
Half the interesting work in this yard starts as a phone photo and a sentence beginning "can you make one of these but…". The fabrication bay exists to answer that.
Order desk
Book this in
Counts, ZIP and what the containers last held. That is enough for us to come back with a real number rather than a range.
The short answer
We modify IBC totes to order: cutting and capping, bulkhead fittings, manifolded arrays, frame extensions and stands, insulation and heat jackets, secondary containment, agitator mounts, sight gauges, and stencilled or plated branding. Work runs from a single prototype to production batches, and everything is built on reclaimed containers unless you specify otherwise.
- Cut, cap, bulkhead, manifold, gauge, agitate, insulate, frame, brand
- One-off prototypes welcome — most production runs start as one
- Built on reclaimed stock by default; new components where specified
- Send a sketch, a photo or a dimension and we will quote from it
What comes out of the bay
- Manifolded arrays. Two to eight totes bottom-linked with a common draw point and isolation valves, so a site draws from one tap and fills from another.
- Sight gauges. External tube gauges with a graduated scale, because guessing level through a hazed bottle is how people run pumps dry.
- Agitator mounts. A cut lid plate and a braced frame for a drum-scale mixer, for anything that settles.
- Heat jackets and insulation. Silicone blanket heaters, insulated covers and thermostat mounts for products that gel below 50 °F — a real problem in a Texas January and a real surprise to people who move here.
- Frames and stands. Cut-down cage stands from 12 to 48 inches, giving gravity head for drip irrigation or bucket clearance for decanting.
- Secondary containment. Bund pallets and welded steel trays rated to 110 % of a single tote.
- Branding. Stencilled cages, plated asset tags, colour-coded valve handles for multi-product sites.
- Cut and cap. Open-top conversions, split beds, hatch cuts and hinged lids.
How a custom job runs
- Send anything: a sketch on a napkin, a phone photo of the thing you are trying to replace, a dimension, a CAD file. All four have started jobs here.
- We come back with a fixed price and a build note describing what we understood — read the build note carefully, that is where misunderstandings live.
- Prototype if the run is over ten units. You approve the first one before we build the rest.
- Build, test and photograph. Anything holding liquid gets the same leak test as a resale tote.
- Delivery on our own trucks, or collection from the yard.
?Common questions
Questions people actually ask
Can you cut a tote for me if I supply it?
Yes. Customer-supplied containers are fine as long as we can identify the prior contents. We charge for the work only, and we will refuse anything whose history we cannot establish.
How much does a manifolded array cost?
A four-tote bottom-linked array with isolation valves, a common draw and a frame runs roughly $1,100–$1,900 depending on the container grade and the valve specification. It is almost always cheaper than a single tank of the same volume, and it dismantles for transport.
Do you weld plastic?
We hot-air weld HDPE for bulkheads, patches and hatch collars. It is a real repair, not a hack — but a welded bottle is not a pressure-rated container and we will not certify it as one.
What is the lead time?
One to two weeks for most jobs, longer if a specified component has to come in. Prototypes are usually quicker because they jump the queue.
»Keep reading
Fittings and hardware
The parts drawer these builds are assembled from.
Inside the fabrication bay
What is in the shop and what it can do.