"Roy Boy" > wrote in message
. ..
>
> "Sedgewick Halbritton" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Does anyone know of a product that can be applied to the outside of a
>> carboy (i.e. sticker, rub on, overlay, etc) to indicate the wine level
>> in gallon or finer divisions? I always end up guessing when blending
>> from multiple carboys into a single carboy. It would also be nice to
>> know exactly how much wine is in the carboy for more accurate chemical
>> additions. Any ideas???
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Charles
>
> When I worked with equipment that we had to know what a tanks volume was
> we would do what was called finger print the tank. To do this place the
> tank (carboy) on a level surface. Take a known amount of liquid and pour
> into the tank mark the tank. take your next known amount of liquid and do
> the same, repeat until the tank is full.
>
> Depending on how big your tank is as to how much liquid you use at a time.
> Two cups may be fine for a gallon but you may want to use a half gallon of
> known liquid for a 5 gallon tank.

I have never tried this but it should work:

for any given carboy use a separate measuring stick or device and do the
following.

Fill the carboy with water in increments of your choice - say 1 qt.
After putting in this volume, put in the stick or any other measuring
device, remove the stick and mark it with a permanent marker.

Put in another volume of water and put in your measuring device and mark and
label this level on your measuring device.

Of course, you will need separate sticks or measuring devices for each
carboy if they are indeed slightly different.

I believe this is how they measure existing volumes in storage tanks at gas
stations when the refueling truck delivers more gas.

It is also how you check the oil in your car.