10g acrylic tank I made today

[broncofish]

It's 10X10X24, and is going to be my refugium under my 29g. I still need to sand short side tops a little, and I will be adding the dividers tomorrow. I ended up cutting the acrylic with a razor, becuase the jig saw was a pain in my a$$

 

[broncofish]

another pic

 

[broncofish]

and yet another

 

[overanalyzer]

ROCK ON - is it water tested?? When is my triangular 'fug going to be finished???

 

[broncofish]

I will water test it tomorrow, and I will be building your triangle fugethis week, or weekend.

 

[richard rendos]

Are you going to brace the top around the edge? If not, it may bow and cause stress on the sides. I cut some one inch strips and glued them around the top edge to support mine. You may not need to on a small one like that, but when you make larger ones you will really need to.

 

[broncofish]

I figured when I did the water check today if it bowed a little I would brace it, but if not I would leave it.

 

[heyoo]

I made some acrylic dividers for a sump recently- and while in the process of cutting and welding, I got the idea that I'd make a tank. Who knows, it could have been the weld-on fumes making my brain do wierd things.
I got a fine-toothed blade for my table saw that makes very nice cuts. However, if you look at the edges, there are lots of little diagonal ridges. If you assemble a tank with those raw cuts, will it seal? I wasn't sure if you had to take any additional steps to get a perfectly smooth edge before applying solvent cement.
Can you offer any advice?

 

[broncofish]

I used a cutting tool from lowes. I got a big blister on my index finger, but it worked. I just scord along a straight edge over, and over,and over and the break was clean. I want to build a 240g tank but I will order those pieces pre cut. With the weldon since it actually melts the acrylic together it should be no big deal if there are gaps. Just fill the glue in with a little of the shavings and you will be fine IMO.

 

[broncofish]

Hey Dvs, with the 1/8 stuff you can actually keep scoring it till you go all the way through, thats a real clean cut. just makes sure you do it on a soft piece of wood, so you don't ruin the blade when it cuts through, and yes thas 1/4 inch thick, I got 2 4ftX8ft sheet for free.

 

[overanalyzer]

And he is building me a nice little sump for under my tank - what a nice little brother he is

 

[broncofish]

I figure I owe it to ya, god knows how many times I spit in your food(just kidding or am I )

 

[overanalyzer]

yes well - remember you hada favorite green cup and I was in charge of doing dishes ....
Seriously - you are braver than I ever would ... I sit and stare at the acrylic and be afraid to make that first cut .....

 

[joez]

Bronco...so how do you cut your actylic? I've done jigsaw which proves to be less-than-straight, dremel with same results, and have yet to find a good means for cutting 1/4"
I'm going to also build a 240 in acrylic hopefully, but I certainly won't make cuts for that!

 

[josh]

looks good! I have a fellow reefer in the area building me a little sump/refugium for my 29 gallon. I wish I was the DIY inclined.
I got a slimline lifereef overflow and I am using a mag7 to return the water to the tank.
Good job

 

[broncofish]

Jigsaw sucks for cutting acrylic IMO I tried it and blah. I bought a cutting tool from lows $1.30 and just pushed down really hard. It flipped over and did same thing on opposite side, applied a small bit of pressure an voila' clean, very clean line. I am also planning a 250 but I will order those pieces to the cut length. We will see how DIY inclined I am when I build a tank in the shape of a triangle for my brother(OverAnalyzer) He wants to be able to save space under his tank, and building a triangle fuge just seems like fun. If I can talk GrumpyOldMan into letting me borrow his Digital Camera for a couple of days I will document the whole thing, from tools(cutting tool, 2 c clamps, a cooking syringe, and a medical syringe) to the way I tape and brace the thing for cementing and drying.

 

[joez]

My question is how will you make 60 degree cuts into the acrylic w/o a table saw or similar for a triangle tank...and we know how well those work on acrylic.

 

[broncofish]

I've actually thought of that, and tried it out tonight. I have a straight edge with a slight, maybe not 60 degrees but damn close angle on it. I will keep scoring with the cutting tool until I go all the way threw, It took 3 minutes on a 1/4" piece that was 16" long. I had a piece of lam pine underneath so I would not mess up the blade.(man I hope my bro aprreciates the quality craftsman that is his brother)

 

[joez]

only 3 minutes? Geez...that's extremely fast. What are you using exactly?

 

[broncofish]

Acrylic cutting tool @ lowes, basically a razor with a yellow handle. I score very lite along straight edge to make my mark, the push down very hard with left hand over right as to dig blade in deeper(I figure this blade will be crap after I finish this next one) I got one hell of a blister from it also check it out.