building a tank

slick

slick

Active Member
I have read many posts on people bbuilding a tank out of plywood and fiberglass. My question is why cant you build the tank out of plywood and instead of messing around with fiberglass couldn't you just buy some thin plexi glass or acrylic and silocone it or glue it to the inside of the plywood and silicone the corners and stuff. Just a general question it seems that it would be easier.
 
melbournefl

melbournefl

Member
slick, I toyed with the same idea when I first started planning my current project. It would work fine, the only drawback would be that the "raw" plywood would have to be coated with epoxy paint anyway to prevent any rotting if there should be a pin hole leak of any kind in the thin sheets of acrylic. Other then that, I see no reason why it wouldn't work, just costs more than using epoxy paint (I didn't use any fiberglass on mine).
Later,
Paul
 
gregzbobo

gregzbobo

Member
I don't see whay you can't use thin sheets of acrylic to protect the plywood. As long as you seal the corners with silicone and cut the sheets to fit very tightly within the plywood box, you should have no problems. You should not even have to glue the acrylic to the plywood at all as long as the sheets are fitted within the plywood tightly enough.
 
melbournefl

melbournefl

Member
Regarding sealing the corners ... I just ran a 1/2" bead of silicon around all the "joints" ... also regarding the acrylic "lining", I'm far from an expert in this area and may be very wrong but it's my understanding that acrylic and silicon are not a match made in heaven. One other note, when I first embarked on my adventure I wrote to GARF and asked if they had ever heard of/experienced building a tank using formica over the plywood. Although they had never done it, they saw no problem except again, silicon might not produce the bond desired and might have to be "re-sealed" every couple of years.
Just my thoughts,
Paul
 
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