Rumors going around Weldon is soon to be illegal so I suppose that will be another major topic here....
Been wanting to start a thread on this topic for some time but the actual interest seems to be on and off. With the thread competition going figured I'd contribute to the community a little. In more recent years we've been seeing some interesting stuff on the market like this guy
Naturally the price tag is what we DIY in part to avoid. With CNC and laser cutters becoming obtainable or more accessible I've been working with the industrial art program at a local university to get behind whether building a high end sump with the bells and whistles is something that's worth investing time into. I've also been doing work with various other engineered plastics to see the practicality ofmaterials aside from acrylic and glass in the hobby. One project I am to start soon is taking to aquaforest 980s that were thoroughly destroyed in transit and trying to salvage the pieces create one functioning song. These particular sumps are full PVC and as such this will be an interesting project, shout out to Reynolds advanced materials for helping me source weld on 40 local.
I have a few years of experience with acrylic fabrication and have been particularly interested in what and how some of the bigger names in the custom gear game have been doing. I've seen a lot of broken equipment in my time gotten a good idea of how different companies do things different ways and hope to share my opinions and experiences moving forward.
We already have some great guides and resources on this site from people much more experienced and seasoned than myself, but here I'm going to try to focus on current popular trends. I have full intentions of running an afr in my reef octo sumps. Anyway I'll update as I progress.
Things I hope to cover in more detail include working with PVC and acrylic, bonding acrylic face to face, going over some past projects I've done and complications I came across. I recently gained access to some more industrial equipment including a full size CNC mill so projects I've set aside due to the amount of time it would take for me to make all the cuts by hand or something that I can potentially mess around with and give a go.
*** Got a personal request from someone. I'm the past I have fit AFRs in sumps they had no place fitting. And these situations I personally like to use a clarissea but if you're working with something with a 7-in filter sock chamber brief mat isn't out of the question. I'll see if I can pull up some pictures from a mod I did a couple years back that's not something I would do again. Sk-5000 in a e shops af-100. At the simplest of levels you'll see how much I had to trim away from the rim of the sump just to fit it in and without the use of an extension arm in the inlet going straight into the AFR it would not have been possible. This is an extreme scenario. For anyone with a 7 inch filter sock, this modification would be just a matter of patience and some careful work with a dremel. I also had to trim away from the room a little to fit an oversized skimmer cup. In the case of a 7-in filter sock, simply turning the circle into a square will do it for you most of the time regardless of the roller though a 1200 likely would be too large. I mainly used circular sanding bits twitching between grit and occasionally using a diamond bit as I went through a good number of them. In the end the filter sock holder which is actually proprietary in this sump had to be almost completely trimmed away.
Not to mention the nylon screws to be flattened out as I was using a version 2.
Been wanting to start a thread on this topic for some time but the actual interest seems to be on and off. With the thread competition going figured I'd contribute to the community a little. In more recent years we've been seeing some interesting stuff on the market like this guy
Naturally the price tag is what we DIY in part to avoid. With CNC and laser cutters becoming obtainable or more accessible I've been working with the industrial art program at a local university to get behind whether building a high end sump with the bells and whistles is something that's worth investing time into. I've also been doing work with various other engineered plastics to see the practicality ofmaterials aside from acrylic and glass in the hobby. One project I am to start soon is taking to aquaforest 980s that were thoroughly destroyed in transit and trying to salvage the pieces create one functioning song. These particular sumps are full PVC and as such this will be an interesting project, shout out to Reynolds advanced materials for helping me source weld on 40 local.
I have a few years of experience with acrylic fabrication and have been particularly interested in what and how some of the bigger names in the custom gear game have been doing. I've seen a lot of broken equipment in my time gotten a good idea of how different companies do things different ways and hope to share my opinions and experiences moving forward.
We already have some great guides and resources on this site from people much more experienced and seasoned than myself, but here I'm going to try to focus on current popular trends. I have full intentions of running an afr in my reef octo sumps. Anyway I'll update as I progress.
Things I hope to cover in more detail include working with PVC and acrylic, bonding acrylic face to face, going over some past projects I've done and complications I came across. I recently gained access to some more industrial equipment including a full size CNC mill so projects I've set aside due to the amount of time it would take for me to make all the cuts by hand or something that I can potentially mess around with and give a go.
*** Got a personal request from someone. I'm the past I have fit AFRs in sumps they had no place fitting. And these situations I personally like to use a clarissea but if you're working with something with a 7-in filter sock chamber brief mat isn't out of the question. I'll see if I can pull up some pictures from a mod I did a couple years back that's not something I would do again. Sk-5000 in a e shops af-100. At the simplest of levels you'll see how much I had to trim away from the rim of the sump just to fit it in and without the use of an extension arm in the inlet going straight into the AFR it would not have been possible. This is an extreme scenario. For anyone with a 7 inch filter sock, this modification would be just a matter of patience and some careful work with a dremel. I also had to trim away from the room a little to fit an oversized skimmer cup. In the case of a 7-in filter sock, simply turning the circle into a square will do it for you most of the time regardless of the roller though a 1200 likely would be too large. I mainly used circular sanding bits twitching between grit and occasionally using a diamond bit as I went through a good number of them. In the end the filter sock holder which is actually proprietary in this sump had to be almost completely trimmed away.
Not to mention the nylon screws to be flattened out as I was using a version 2.
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