If you can sketch it,
we can cut it.
Custom fabrication is our quietest service and the one we're proudest of. Nothing lights up the crew like a new challenge: a mushroom farm's hydration spine, a rooftop aquaponics gridiron, a film set's practical rain rig. Send a sketch.
Skip the phone tag. Leave a note — we'll reply by email.
Cut & fit
Top cut-offs, window cut-outs, mounted baffles, nested stacking kits. We cut HDPE with a heated knife for clean edges.
Drilling & bulkheads
Any size from ¾″ to 3″. Bulkhead fittings in brass, stainless, or composite.
Plumbing runs
Multi-tote cascades, first-flush diverters, sight tubes, pressure-regulated feeds.
Mounting & stands
Steel or aluminum stands from 12″ to 8 ft. Custom pallet adapters for uneven ground.
Painting & coatings
UV-resistant exterior paint if you need the tank opaque (algae control for water). Two colors max per tote keeps it reasonable.
Pump & sensor integration
12V diaphragm pumps, level sensors, solenoid valves, basic Raspberry Pi monitoring if that's your thing.
Three custom jobs we're weirdly proud of
- The mushroom spine. A mushroom farm outside Indiana, PA needed a gravity-fed humidification spine for twelve grow rooms. We plumbed six 275-gal totes into a cascading level-regulated loop with UV-filtered inlets. Still running four years later.
- The stunt-rain rig. A local production needed a practical rain effect for an exterior scene. We built a four-tote manifold with a diesel pressure pump and custom shower heads. The director called it "the world's most responsible rain."
- The bee yard reservoir. A commercial beekeeper asked for a reservoir that wouldn't drown bees. We built a 330-gal tote with a shallow landing shelf and wooden floats, then painted it opaque to keep algae from spoiling the water. Beekeeper reports zero drownings.
Sketch to
finished rig.
Most fabrication jobs follow a six-step rhythm. Nothing about it is exotic — it's just the sequence that keeps us from cutting a hole in the wrong place or mounting a valve that won't seal. A walkthrough for first-time clients:
Sketch & scope
Email a drawing (napkin-quality is fine) plus the plumbing schedule you're imagining. We reply with a materials list and a ballpark.
Shop drawing
We redraft the sketch as a dimensioned 2-D layout in 1–3 days. You approve or red-pen. No surprises allowed past this step.
Tote selection
We pull the appropriate grade from stock. Food-grade jobs get Grade A or a rebottle; water jobs get Grade B; art pieces get whatever's interesting.
Cut, drill, plumb
On the fab floor with heated knives for HDPE edges, bulkhead fittings torqued to spec, stainless or brass hardware as specified.
Pressure & leak test
Every plumbing joint holds water at 15 psi for 15 minutes. Air-test follow-up if the rig needs to stay sealed under light vacuum.
Delivery or pickup
Yard pickup with pre-built crate, or regional delivery on our truck. Install guidance by email if you're doing your own plumbing run.
The parts bin.
We keep a small parts inventory in-house so most common builds ship without a supplier lead time. Anything exotic — custom flanges, 316L stainless, specialty gaskets — gets ordered through a handful of local vendors and usually adds 3–5 days. What's always on the shelf:
- · Bulkhead fittings: ½″, ¾″, 1″, 1½″, 2″, 3″ — brass, PVC, and 304 stainless variants.
- · Valves: 2″ butterfly (stock), 2″ stainless ball, 1″ and ¾″ PVC ball, 2″ camlock male/female.
- · Plumbing: ¾″ and 1″ PEX, 1½″ and 2″ PVC sch 40, stainless braided flex for vibration-sensitive runs.
- · Gaskets: EPDM (general), silicone (food-grade), Viton (solvent), PTFE envelope (aggressive chemistry).
- · Stands & supports: 12″ and 24″ steel stands, 4×4 powder-coated pallet frames, custom heights welded on request.
- · Sensors & pumps: 12 V submersible, 12 V diaphragm, float-switch kits, ultrasonic level sensors, simple solenoid plumbing.
- · Finishes: UV-stable exterior paint (moss green, slate grey, iron oxide red), algae-block opaque primer, food-contact epoxy on rebottled inners.
- Single bulkhead fitting install
- Valve swap (butterfly → ball)
- Top cut-off with reinforced rim
- Two-tote cascade (plumbed)
- Opaque exterior paint job
- Custom steel stand, 24″
- Level sensor + float + wiring
- Full rain-harvester kit (1 tote)
Base tote is not included. Quotes are fixed once a shop drawing is approved; scope changes mid-build get re-priced before we cut further.
Honest limits.
Fabrication is where ambition outpaces materials science most often. We say yes to weirdness and no to physics. A list of jobs we'll politely turn down, along with where to send you instead — because the goal is a rig that works, not a rig with our name on it that fails.
HDPE is not a pressure material. We won't cap a tote and pressurize it, ever. For anything positive-pressure, we refer to a stamped-vessel fabricator in Latrobe or a 316L tank shop in Lawrence County.
HDPE softens around 180°F and deforms long before that. Brew kettles, steam coolers, and boiler make-up tanks don't belong in a tote. We'll happily sell you a tote for the cooling line after the heat exchanger.
We will only certify potable service with a virgin HDPE rebottle. The wash bay is excellent, but prior-contents risk on reused bottles is real — and the FDA letter we back stands only on a new inner.
Cage verticals hold up stacked tanks. We won't cut them without replacement structural steel. If your build has humans walking on top of the tank, the frame has to be engineered, not improvised.
A three-tote
rain harvester.
The most frequent build on the fab floor. A homeowner in Mount Lebanon asked for a 825-gallon system off a 1,200 sq ft metal roof, first-flush diverter, pressurized irrigation feed, algae-resistant finish. Here's the breakdown of the actual job.
- 3 × Grade B 275-gal totes
- Opaque exterior paint (all three)
- 3 × 2″ bulkhead, 3 × 2″ ball valve
- First-flush diverter (PVC, 4″ riser)
- Interconnect plumbing + overflow
- 12 V demand pump + pressure switch
- Labor (cut, paint, plumb, test)
- Delivery & on-site level-set
- Quoted total: by quote
- Tank prep: Grade B totes (prior: vegetable glycerin) caustic-washed in the reconditioning bay before paint. Adds a day, prevents the first fill from smelling like glycerin.
- Paint sequence: Algae-block primer → two coats moss-green UV-stable topcoat. Cured 48 hours before plumbing install.
- Interconnect: 2″ PVC manifold at tank base, pulls each tote down evenly rather than draining one-at-a-time. Small thing; owner noticed it works.
- First-flush diverter: 4″ riser holds back the first ~4 gallons of roof rinse, drains slowly between rain events. Keeps the worst sediment out of the main tanks.
- Delivery & level-set: Our box truck with liftgate, cribbing blocks supplied, total time on site about 90 minutes. Owner watered the garden that evening.
Fabrication Q&A.
Can you ship a finished rig?
Yes, up to about 400 miles on our own trucks; beyond that we can crate and ship freight LTL. Most single-tote builds fit a standard 48×40 pallet with 72″ height overall.
How long do custom jobs take?
From approved shop drawing: 5–10 business days for single-tote rigs, 2–3 weeks for multi-tote plumbed systems. Rush work available at a 20% premium if the parts bin supports it.
Do you do small runs for product companies?
We've built short runs (10–50 units) of repeatable designs for a mushroom-grow startup and a cold-brew coffee company. Ideal for products that need small-batch tooling rather than injection molds.
Will a custom tote keep its UN rating?
The moment we cut a hole in the bottle, the UN31A rating is voided by definition. That's fine for water, irrigation, fermentation, and any atmospheric storage — but a modified tote cannot legally re-enter packaged-liquid transport.
Can I send my own tote?
Yes, with documented prior contents. We'll inspect at intake and let you know if anything is a no-go. Customer-supplied totes save the cost of the base unit.
Do you offer installation on-site?
Inside roughly 40 miles of the yard, yes — usually a two-person crew for a half-day. Beyond that, we'll ship the finished rig and walk you through install by video call if you need it.