Hi, Im planning to build a hybrid plywood + acrylic tank but am a bit stuck on how to bind the acrylic to plywood. More specifically, I'd like to have an acrylic top and plywood base. I hear silicone does not bind well to acrylic and have google searched alternatives. There were suggestions about using Dow795, epoxy, or perhaps ruber and silicone but frankly, none of the solution gave me confidence it would hold long term. If anyone here has experience with this combination, would appreciate to hear any suggestions!
Bonding acrylic to plywood?
- Thread starter billybobjoel
- Start date
- Tagged users None
redfishbluefish
Stay Positive, Stay Productive
Staff member
Super Moderator
Reef Squad
Partner Member 2024
Excellence Award
Article Contributor
NJRC Member
Hospitality Award
My Tank Thread
First off, welcome to R2R! #WelcometoR2R
There is an aquarium safe silicone that is made to bond to acrylic, and can be found at HD. Here's a picture of this silicone:
Now you won't find this with the other caulks in the Paint Department. You have to go to where they sell acrylic sheets and you'll find this silicone there. For my HD, this is where they sell windows. I have successfully used this multiple times with DIY glass sumps with acrylic baffles.
There is an aquarium safe silicone that is made to bond to acrylic, and can be found at HD. Here's a picture of this silicone:
Now you won't find this with the other caulks in the Paint Department. You have to go to where they sell acrylic sheets and you'll find this silicone there. For my HD, this is where they sell windows. I have successfully used this multiple times with DIY glass sumps with acrylic baffles.
reef lover
It's a reef thing....
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Hudson Valley Reef Keepers
Hospitality Award
518 Reefers
My Tank Thread
Welcome to r2r!
AlexG
Valuable Member
Welcome to R2R. Bonding acrylic to surfaces other than acrylic is difficult. When you say you want a plywood base and an acrylic top do you mean you want 4 sides of acrylic and the bottom made of plywood? or are you just using acrylic for viewing panels on the sides of a plywood tank?
Silicone products will not bond to acrylic like they do glass so even the product mentioned above has lots of limitations on its use. When a product is a sealer it is not intended to be used as a bonding agent. Typically a pressure seal is utilized with acrylic and that pressure seal could utilize silicone as a gasket. While it might not sound like a durable method it does work. Trying to find someone willing to share their methods on pressure seals is not easy as the experts on these typically run in the circles of building high end aquariums or public aquariums and will not share methods for trade secrets/legal purposes.
I have two plywood tanks and I went with glass viewing panels to avoid a pressure seal that would be needed for acrylic. Its much easier to bond glass to a plywood tank covered in an epoxy using an RTV 108 adhesive.
Silicone products will not bond to acrylic like they do glass so even the product mentioned above has lots of limitations on its use. When a product is a sealer it is not intended to be used as a bonding agent. Typically a pressure seal is utilized with acrylic and that pressure seal could utilize silicone as a gasket. While it might not sound like a durable method it does work. Trying to find someone willing to share their methods on pressure seals is not easy as the experts on these typically run in the circles of building high end aquariums or public aquariums and will not share methods for trade secrets/legal purposes.
I have two plywood tanks and I went with glass viewing panels to avoid a pressure seal that would be needed for acrylic. Its much easier to bond glass to a plywood tank covered in an epoxy using an RTV 108 adhesive.
Similar threads
-
- AMS: Article
-
- AMS: Article
