Finally, I’m one month into curing on the bottom seam reinforcements!
I decided that I should probably start getting going on the remaining parts for this tank, and have not had any luck sourcing a ~58”X2” strip of 12-19mm glass for anything resembling a sane price…
So, I’ve decided to pull the trigger on breaking down the R525XL’s panes to what’s needed:
— the 14.7mm short side panes will yield right pentagon profile seam reinforcement rods, center braces, eurobrace sides, and possibly stacked glass around overflow box base…
— the 15mm bottom pane is identical in width to the R450, so it will work beautifully for that long euro bar; it’s already at the target length! This will be by far the heaviest pane, the longest cut, and the thickest glass I’ve cut on this saw…
I plan to part 1/4-1/3 of the bottom pane off as a long strip, then cut that down as a significantly lighter strip to make several eurobrace bars for 5’ (technically 59”) wide Red Sea tanks… (if anyone with a 5’ rimless G1-G2+ Reefer is able to do local pickup, I’ve got a much-need front eurobrace strip for you!)
14.7mm symmetrical right pentagon profile rods, profile view:
14.7mm, 12.7mm, 8mm rods, profile view for bulk comparison:
I ended up cutting two rods today, and will likely cut a handful more so I can pick my best set to install…
I then turned my attention back to edge finishing; getting rid of micro fractures in my ground edges… a dedicated lapping machine for long straight glass pane edges is not only thousands of dollars, but would consume a sizable chunk of garage space…
So, I decided to get creative… technically, I already have a rather powerful, precise grinding assembly in my wet saw… what if I adapt a lapping disc onto it?
I had to machine out the 1/4” arbor hole on this Covington Engineering 325 grit diamond lapping disc to 5/8”, then mated it to an existing continuous rim blade on the wet saw’s arbor…
The results are honestly quite impressive! — I think I need a bit more water flow for the raw surface area being ground to avoid excessively “milky” slurry, but that’s an easy fix!
This is not something I’d recommend a hobbyist try to cobble together unless they’ve really thought things through and double checked all the safety specs… this lapping disc would happily explode in every direction if one managed to catch a glass corner on the rim of the disc! (Or, if it wasn’t rated for the RPM your saw is spinning)
In fact, if I use this setup for more than the occasional, carefully set up sliding bed grind, or hand-grind; I’d look into actually toeing out the blade by a fraction of a degree via eccentric alignment dowels, making the blade’s trailing face half be the only part contacting the glass edge… this would reduce the risk of accidentally catching a pane corner on the disc rim when using the sliding bed repeatedly for production, but would also create a minute concave in the glass edge being lapped…
I’ll call it a tentative success… it will work for my needs, and tell me if it’s actually worth pursuing the tedious multi-step process required to bring a ground edge back to optically clear via coldworking!
Next up? More pentagonal rods, euro bars, center braces, and assembly of the laminated, stepped seam overflow box glass!
