Building From Scratch

[ShakeyGizzard]

Got beat up by R2R members about the acrylic warping. Since I knew acrylic was not the material of choice for these and I made it anyway, I decided to see how it would do and look with reinforcing the top acrylic. If it crashes and burns, I will go with the polycarbonate.

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

Working on the right side, setting up the reinforcements that add strength. Trust me its stout with these in place, its acrylic and trying to overcome its weakness. Also have pics of where the left side was notched for the weir and powerhead cable. Not seen is notches for the cable in 2 places, not sure what way I'm going with that yet.

notched for the weir

appearance has changed due to my novice level with weldon 4 and acrylic

right side is still getting improved strength wise, not set with weldon 4 yet just checking fit. Had to much beer to tackle it tonight.

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

Made a big Boo Boo with the r/side top. Had the vertical supports prepped and cut, and started to bond them to the top with weldon 4. The major problem was i had the top up side down and was bonding to the top of it. Realized to late, peeled the 2 supports off before hardened. This damaged the top, so had another cut ($16 loss). pic of the top after sanding and attempted to polish. could not sand all the damage out because to much material needed removed.

 

[Rjukan]

Got beat up by R2R members about the acrylic warping. Since I knew acrylic was not the material of choice for these and I made it anyway, I decided to see how it would do and look with reinforcing the top acrylic. If it crashes and burns, I will go with the polycarbonate.

I'm confused. Why is acrylic not the right choice for this? It looks amazing btw

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

I'm confused. Why is acrylic not the right choice for this? It looks amazing btw

Supposed to be weak and warps badly. i supported the left side and its stout. Everyone seems to use poly carbonate.

 

[Rjukan]

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.

The toes tho.. lol

 

[Rjukan]

Supposed to be weak and warps badly. i supported the left side and its stout. Everyone seems to use poly carbonate.

Idk, I was under the assumption that it's the opposite. Cell cast acrylic is the best, poly is meh and will warp and discolor.

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

The toes tho.. lol

Fused set of toes runs in the fam, we built for saltwater swimming

 

[Rjukan]

Bro, that piece is awesome and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Makes me want to go buy a table router and see what I can do!

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

Bro, that piece is awesome and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Makes me want to go buy a table router and see what I can do!

Hang on ! its possible to do it with a table router, but a friend from work wanted to do it with his CNC router. I let him do it. The acrylic one I made is basically a test of durability. Everyone, even widely respected folks have said that the acrylic will warp. that's why i added the support.

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

Working on putting ideas to task with the Marco rock, Wife and I are still working out the design we want. Nothing tree looking but want to NSA it. needs to be functional for fish and coral. 40 lbs. of marco, with E marco mortar to make it permanent.

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

I actually have 2 left side lids, this is from early mistake and recut. I sat the other one on the tank (no screen) and the wife says she liked it that way since the feed port is over the sump return . I don't like it, but maybe she will like the correct one on there when its done. But did change the feed opening lid design a little, it has more weight to help stop jumpers.