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Question:

I was doing a clean-out job the other day and I sucked in the side of my 3,800-gallon steel tank on the top passenger side. Does anyone know if there is a way I can pull it out? I tried a jack from the inside and no luck. The jack keeps slipping out of place. Any advice would be helpful.

Answers:

I hope you know that it is unsafe to be inside the tank. Most people die when they go in without a fresh-air respirator. I'm sure it can be straightened, but it won't stay. Is this a vacuum tank? Are the baffles intact? Tank is rusted thin? Pulled a greater vacuum than tank was designed for?

Air the tank out, have a welder go in there and brace it with a beam. I did that with my old tank and it lasted about three years before it eventually sucked in. Then I bought a new one.

I aired the tank out and pressure-washed it. I got inside with a jack and tried jacking it out with no luck. I'm going to cut a small hole in the side where the dent is and put an eye bolt through it with a steel plate on the inside and try to pull it out, then brace it from the inside. Do you all think that might work?

I think pulling would be good, with about 5 psi pressure on the inside of the tank. This is dangerous to say the least. I'm no expert but 5 psi would be the maximum. I'd start with 1 or 2 psi while pulling and beating around the edge of the buckled area. A collision body man would know how to straighten metal.

Question:

I need some advice on credit card processors for phones, processing companies and so on. I worked with a local bank for some time, and the monthly rate and processing fee continued to go up, so we dropped them. I understand there are process companies now that charge a percent with no monthly fee. Any suggestions?

Answers:

We were using a company for credit card processing that charged a small percentage (I think it was 2 percent) on every transaction, but we aren't using them now because their swiping system didn't work with my Blackberry phone. When I upgrade our phone we'll get the iPhone. Everyone I know that has one says their swiper works great. We made several attempts to make it work with Blackberry with no luck.

If you don't already have an iPhone, get one pronto! You can run the cards straight through your QuickBooks and they will send you a card swiper that will plug into the iPhone.

The old type of credit card processor we had sat on the desk, and the secretary swiped or entered the info. The machine connected to our bank and made the deposit. Any idea how the deposit is made to the bank? You're right about the iPhone. I've seen a number of swipers that work with it.

I don't have much call for plastic yet. But I just updated to a smartphone and had to get the reader that drops into the earphone jack. It's pretty straightforward. We just pay a 2.7 percent swiped/3.7 percent keyed fee with no monthly fees. I have to see if I get much call for it. But at least now I can take plastic.