Tools for working with acrylic?

[thejuggernaut]

I live south of Beaumont. The one I wan't to build is on a 180 cube I just bought. The old one look like someone just cut some black acrylic with a saw and glued it together. Just going to make a new one and I like the way you have it slotted on the internal overflow. I may do that instead of the tooth style. Can you post a pic of your router table you made? I'm wanting to built one when I get a chance. Been on nights at work here for 2 month, can't really do a whole lot during days. Hopefully will start on some work on the new tank here in a few weeks.

You should post some pics of the tank and/or start a build thread. I'm planning on starting one once I get more situated. Literally have the tank sitting on my front porch to clean, since we just put it in the garage with the algae still on the glass from when I tore it down 3 years ago.

 

[ccscorpion200]

Thanks for the pic of the router table. Giving me some good ideas and advice. It'll would be a couple of month before i can start on the the new tank. My tank is sitting in the garage right now. I do have another tank that have been running for 2 yr now. It's a 280g peninsula style tank. Mostly SPS, still learning to get it growing well. I have a build thread on our local forum for that tank. This 180g cube will be a softy and lps tank, I hope. Look forward to your build thread.

 

[thejuggernaut]

Well I got the overflow mounted on my 120 and it worked perfect. Completely silent and the water rolled right over the top adhering to the walls of the overflow making no noise. I was using my old but favorite pump the Poseidon PS4. I calculated around 1200 gph. Just for fun I strapped a Blueline 40 and a Mag 12 on it to at the same time with a total calculated flow of around 3000 GPH. It still was almost silent, making less noise than the mag 12 pump. I even simulated shutting off both the open line and the full siphon, and the emergency kept up fine with all three pumps. You could have heard it from the other side of the house, but it didn't come close to being a flood issue.

 

[ccscorpion200]

Good to hear. You can start your build thread now. Following along for some ideas and tips.

 

[thejuggernaut]

Will do soon! Almost the whole system will be DIY. I could write 2 pages just on painting the stand. LOL

 

[gettaReef]

Will do soon! Almost the whole system will be DIY. I could write 2 pages just on painting the stand. LOL

Please do it! lol I need to paint the outside and inside of my stand....without taking corals/fish out. Also would like to use some type of water and salt resistant paint, and pit some type of cut pvc/plastic or mat down on the bottom of the stand that would hold water. I don't really know what I'm doing or what's advised/ the options available for this type of work bc I've never quite done anything like this. Any help or advise would be great, thanks! You do great work and I look forward to watching your build

 

[thejuggernaut]

Please do it! lol I need to paint the outside and inside of my stand....without taking corals/fish out. Also would like to use some type of water and salt resistant paint, and pit some type of cut pvc/plastic or mat down on the bottom of the stand that would hold water. I don't really know what I'm doing or what's advised/ the options available for this type of work bc I've never quite done anything like this. Any help or advise would be great, thanks! You do great work and I look forward to watching your build

I don't know about painting with fish in the tank. Just remember, if you can smell something then it is releasing chemicals. That isn't necessarily bad, but it probably isn't advisable either. Most people use water based paints these days, but most stay somewhat soft and easy to scratch. That is where oil based paints excelled. They would get hard and could be scrubbed easily. I plus with kitchen and bathroom cabinets and salt covered fish tanks for that matter. But they are allot harder to clean up, put off bad fumes, and will start to yellow over time. Most of the higher end paint brands are starting to products hybrid paints that are called Waterborn Acrylic Alkyds. It paints just like water based but turns hard like a oil based, but doesn't yellow. I specifically used Sherwin-Williams brand.

ProClassic® Interior Waterbased Acrylic-Alkyd Enamel - Homeowners - Sherwin-Williams

This is literally the best paint I have ever used. It sprayed smooth and from what I've heard, brushes smooth also. A gallon is $90, although you can find it on sale several times a year for 40% off. I haven't brushed it yet, but I read that using Floetrol will help. Floetrol slows down the paint drying time, so it the paint has more time to level out and remove brush strokes. It isn't a thinner, it is thick like paint. I haven't used it yet, so I can't comment other than what I read. Although I don't see it possible in your situation, painting with the surface horizontal makes it look even better when you don't have to worry about runs, and you can lay the paint on thick.

That should give you a little bit of guidance to do some research. But please practice on some scraps. Painting a tank in your house would be a pain, but sanding down to repaint a bad paint job would be even worse.

As far as the bottom liner. Search pond liners. That should work for ya and is relatively cheap.

 

[gettaReef]

Awesome, great advice! Thanks. I thought re-painting the stand with livestock in it would probably be too risky and make it difficult to do a good job, especially since I have little experience. I think I'll plan on moving the livestock to a temporary tank, should be much easier and less of a headache

 

[thejuggernaut]

Sounds like a much better plan. Just do your prep and practice on a few pieces. It isn't rocket science, but does require some technique to make it look professional level.

 

[thejuggernaut]

I started a build thread for my system. Anything relating to acrylic building I will also post here. However, the most of it will be in the build thread. On a related topic, I made a short little video showing the overflow starting up and simulated blockages at different flow rates.

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/member-tanks/196206-my-120-rebuild.html

[video=youtube;oya6X3aLUOo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oya6X3aLUOo[/video]

 

[thejuggernaut]

Ok, so since I completed the overflow, I decided I wanted to polish it up like one of those high dollar custom tanks. So after a little trial and error, and some input from other acrylic guys, I got a pretty good system. Although it was kinda expensive getting everything I needed, I should be able to polish up every acrylic project I have from now till the end of time.

This is what a box looks like after being flush routed.

I started out by sanding it. I started with a DA sander at 120 grit. I went up to 320 grit with the power sander.

From there I switched to hand sanding using 3M wet/dry sand paper. Went from 400 to 600 to 800 to 1000 to 1500 to 2000.

 

[thejuggernaut]

I wanted a nice little buffer for doing detail work and since my truck wheels haven't been cleaned since I bought it, I bought a little buffer at Harbor Freight for $36. It works great, but uses allot of air. It even taxes my huge 80 gallon, 240V, 13CFM compressor. So those little nail gun machines aren't going to feed this beast. Buyer beware! LOL

I used two different compounds to buff the acrylic to a mirror shine. I started with 3M Super Duty. This is their old school, gonna take the paint off your car really fast if you don't know how to use it compound. It got the acrylic nice and smoothed out, but still had a little bit of swirl marks.

So I switched to the Meguiar's Ultra Cut. This stuff is neat. It starts out course and as the compound is worked, it breaks down and shines the acrylic up.

Sorry everything is so dirty in the picture. I had the compressor regulator turned up to 90 when I first fired it up. It slung compound everywhere. I found about 50 PSI runs the gun at a nice speed, but still has allot of torque. Air tools are so much better than electric power tools!

 

[thejuggernaut]

So after over an hours work, and having to take a shower, I went from this:

to this:

Yea, that isn't an illusion. I really can't see the seams, unless you get around 6" from the overflow.

 

[ccscorpion200]

Nice job

 

[gettaReef]

Woah...nice! Great description, thanks for sharing

 

[thejuggernaut]

Thanks guys. I have made two more this week with the extra acrylic I had, and they went allot faster than the first. I feel pretty confident that I could build a nice sump now. I think either that or a ATS will be my next project. Stay tuned!

 

[thejuggernaut]

I got a new toy in the mail today. I ordered a 1/2" solid carbide up-cut spiral bit. I still want to build several projects. An ATS, a sump, a top-off tank and maybe a 2-3 part tank. So if figured it was worth the money to invest in the bit. It cuts like a dream, and makes the un-buffed edges look good enough to not buff. That's good cause buffing is a PAIN.

A local MARSH member wanted help making an overflow that could go on a smaller tank. The catch was the tank was already drilled for another overflow he isn't happy with. After getting some measurements and making a template out of scrap to make sure that the holes lined up perfectly we got it programmed in to cut out the external box first. This time we are making this external box out of smoked. That way it will block light and keep algae from growing and won't be an eye sore from a side view, but you can still see the water level if you look. Also, we're making a lid with a little handle to further cut down on any noise. I plan on using this cut file to make my own for my 40B QT tank. CNC cutting sure doesn't make much waste!

Let's see some other people's projects, or atleast some ideas for cool projects.

 

[BlackShark087]

Very nice and clean work,Are you gonna add 1/4 airline to your modified Beananimal?

 

[thejuggernaut]

No, the top has a clean out that I just left the cap off of, so if the water level rises it can cover the hole creating a siphon. The only reason you would need the line is if you wanted to have a finer tunability for the water height, or if it was a standard bean system where the standpipe is outside the water behind the system.

 

[hjkesler]

Hi everybody,I wanna diy a ghost overflow for my 130G Tank. I wanna know, what is the best overflow dimension and drain pipe size is perfect for building it ?would you plz show me a schematic plan ?
thanks a lot ahead for your attention