DIY Screen Top Progress

[ShakeyGizzard]

One side is complete, this one is made from acrylic. Had some 1/4 inch on hand, will see if it holds up. Had a problem with the spline slot on the right side piece, will recut another piece. Decided not to do complete polish on the edges, stopped at 2500 grit. You can see the polish level on the round piece for the feed hole lid. Tested this on the unusable right side piece, complete polish makes it look made in china. 1/4 inch white mesh from BRS and grey spline from amazon. Still have not decided to round the outside corners or not, I have a jig for my trim router to round them if needed.

 

[Troylee]

Looks good but gonna warp like crazy… you gotta use polycarbonate which can’t be polished out..

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

Looks good but gonna warp like crazy… you gotta use polycarbonate which can’t be polished out..

Didn't know for sure, but figured I would try it anyway . Just don't like the coatings on polycarbonate.

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

Looks good but gonna warp like crazy… you gotta use polycarbonate which can’t be polished out..

easy to do, its cut out with a CNC router, grove for spline also.

 

[twentyleagues]

I made an acrylic top for my dart frogs before I knew this, warped badly shortly after starting to use them and that was no where near the amount of humidity a tank full of water has. Flightless fruit flies everywhere, they cant fly but they sure can climb and jump.

 

[Troylee]

Didn't know for sure, but figured I would try it anyway . Just don't like the coatings on polycarbonate.

I hear ya… acrylic absorbs to much water and curls up… thicker makes it worse lol..

 

[The_Paradox]

Looks good but gonna warp like crazy… you gotta use polycarbonate which can’t be polished out..

What do you mean? Polycarb can’t be polished?

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

I made an acrylic top for my dart frogs before I knew this, warped badly shortly after starting to use them and that was no where near the amount of humidity a tank full of water has. Flightless fruit flies everywhere, they cant fly but they sure can climb and jump.

I knew acrylic would possibly bend under the lights, thought of ways to reinforce it. Polycarbonate will yellow and get brittle under UV lights unless its coated with a UV blocker. Didn't want to chance that coming off into the tank.

 

[twentyleagues]

I hear ya… acrylic absorbs to much water and curls up… thicker makes it worse lol..

This is such a weird thing and almost makes no sense. How do we build tanks out of this stuff? lol

 

[The_Paradox]

I knew acrylic would possibly bend under the lights, thought of ways to reinforce it. Polycarbonate will yellow and get brittle under UV lights unless its coated with a UV blocker. Didn't want to chance that coming off into the tank.

Takes a long time to yellow.

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

I hear ya… acrylic absorbs to much water and curls up… thicker makes it worse lol..

just curious why they would use it to make aquariums ?

 

[Troylee]

What do you mean? Polycarb can’t be polished?

Just what I said.. you can’t sand and polish it.. it will never look like acrylic or glass lol… the only means of even getting a shine on it, is using a solvent and melting the edges.

 

[Troylee]

I knew acrylic would possibly bend under the lights, thought of ways to reinforce it. Polycarbonate will yellow and get brittle under UV lights unless it’s coated with a UV blocker. Didn't want to chance that coming off into the tank.

No matter what you do it will curl.. been there done that! Poly has uv Inhibitors on one side of the sheet “it’s labeled” and that side would stay on the outside of the tank.

 

[Troylee]

This is such a weird thing and almost makes no sense. How do we build tanks out of this stuff? lol

It’s glued together the edges are solid! It still does bow just doesn’t curl up.. you go buy one of those sea clear tanks and fill it up it looks good for a couple days then it belly’s out..

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

No matter what you do it will curl.. been there done that! Poly has uv Inhibitors on one side of the sheet “it’s labeled” and that side would stay on the outside of the tank.

Guess I could order me some polycarbonate. 1/4 inch thick should be good ?

 

[Troylee]

Guess I could order me some polycarbonate. 1/4 inch thick should be good ?

Typically it’s 3/8” cause you wanna route down at least 3/16” for the spline.. you could get away with 1/4” and not go so deep on the spline

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

This was a good read to help with info. https://www.piedmontplastics.com/blog/acrylic-vs-polycarbonate-understanding-the-differences

 

[The_Paradox]

Just what I said.. you can’t sand and polish it.. it will never look like acrylic or glass lol… the only means of even getting a shine on it, is using a solvent and melting the edges.

You can most certainly polish polycarbonate. It’s used in optics. Even sheets are easy to work with and deep scratches can be buffed out.

 

[Troylee]

You can most certainly polish polycarbonate. It’s used in optics. Even sheets are easy to work with and deep scratches can be buffed out.

Go ahead try it… let me know how that works out for you… it will never be optically clear again.. I’ve been using this stuff for over 30 years now, daily lol..

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

I believe what troylee is saying is it is not possible to sand the polycarbonate. To get it optically smooth, you will need a special process. You can buff out small scratches but you will need to treat the polycarbonate with heat or chemicle to get the clarity such as used for RX glasses or sunglasses. Most poly and Acrylic scratch repair and such is a buffer/filler that fills in the gap. Rx glasses most have UV protection added to them. Acrylic and polycarbonate get mixed up quite a bit. Even I get confused. Was looking up video to polish. Outside of flame, vaporing, or solvent, i did not see anything that actually buff clarity with sanding for poly. Only acrylic. I could still be wrong but yet to fimd.