[quote=“jtnova13, post:20, topic:6556”]
Good to know, perhaps I won’t be putting a center brace in the front. It’s technically 48.5" :P[/quote]
48.5…best put a 4X4 in center…lol you will still be fine without one. With a standard aquarium with plastic frame, most of your weight will be on the corners anyways. 48"+ or larger than 120gl would need the center support.
Haven’t done much lately, cut the pieces for underneath the stand.
FYI, when the store says 2’x2’ square, it’s not actually 2’x2’… it ended up being 24" x 22.5" and messed up my first cut (left side).
I’m going to cut a thin piece of plywood to fill in the gap, what a pain. Measure before cutting 
yup, that’s the old carpenters rule. measure twice, cut once. I keep forgetting too.
Finally got all of the acrylic for the overflow, after doing basically nothing on the tank over the holidays…
Anyone cut holes in acrylic before?
I read that a normal wood hole-saw will work, but I only have 1 piece so I can’t mess it up.
Gotta use a fine tooth blade for acrylic, not a rough blade used for cutting wood. You might be able to get away with using a hole saw for wood, but just go slow. Depending on the thickness of the acrylic, be careful cutting / drilling it in the cold, it can shatter or chip on you. I did it just the other day, sliced my thumb pretty good.
I’ve used metal blades to cut acrylic before, but the trick with cutting it is to find the sweet spot while going so the acrylic doesn’t melt back together. They also do make blades for cutting plastic.
I read a trick that using the wood hole saw in reverse works much “safer”. It doesn’t dig in as much greatly reducing the risk of it cracking. When cutting in reverse they suggested higher speed, less pressure on the acrylic. Google time!
(see post #6-reverse the speed after pilot hole)
There you go. Never thought about that.
I have used both hole saw bits and forstner bits to drill 1/4 inch acrylic. both heat up and melt the plastic if you go too fast. and even if you dont. but the smoothness of the hole doesnt matter. you have to use a sacraficial backing board you can drill into with the center bit and to cut through the acrylic and not spawl the back side edges… the melted plastic will mound up a bit around the hole on the flat surface. but when it cools, you can shave or chip it off with a wood chissel and sand a bit to make it flat and smooth again. the bulkhead gasket will then seat well on the cleaned face surfaces. the drilled hole will be about a 1/16 to 1/8 inch larger in diameter than the OD of the bulkhead anyway. so smoothness is not an issue.
Thanks for all of the advice people. I got one of those white milwaukee bi-metal hole saws. It says it’s good for cutting plastic. I have a template made already from when i drilled the back glass of my tank, do i need to use the pilot bit? Or can I cut it just like i’m cutting glass?
Just 2 pics today. Finally finished wrapping the stand. Decent looking plywood IMO.
And leak testing the tank (see 40 gallon breeder sump below). I probably should have done this sooner, but i wanted to make sure it held water for a few days before I start putting the overflow together.
To Do (never seems to get shorter)
Looks great so far. My advice on staining the stand, test a good 1ft scrap piece with a few coats and let it dry for a couple days. Alot of plywood tends to blotch really bad after stained. I had problems with this on a build before.
If it does blotch bad try using a wood conditioner before hand and that will help with the stain penetrating equally ans not blotch so bad.
Good luck and cant wait to see it together
Case, good suggestion on the wood conditioner. I had planned on doing exactly what you suggested.
I want to put moulding vertically on the corners as well as around the top and bottom. Has anyone done this before?
Sure have. Done the same to mine. I put crown molding and corner molding on mine.
Case, which type did you use? Do they make moulding that will fit over the corner? My corners are flush, i didnt leave gap for filler moulding.
Also, where is a good place to buy hinges? I’m not sure if i want the hinge visible, or if i will just put moulding around the doors and have the hinges mounted inside.
I went to the lowes for hinges and handles. Knowledgeable help is hit or miss though. You can order neat ocean related stuff too like this.
If woodworkers warehouse is still around that was a good store.
Good news, bad news.
Good news: i know how to drill through acrylic!
Bad news: I cut the holes for the overflow too high so i need a new piece of acrylic.
Anyone know where i can get 3/16" cut to size or sheets for cheap?
I ordered all of the pieces cut to size from TAP plastics (which was a really good deal) but they charge an arm and a leg to ship it!
what dimensions sheet are you talking about? Home depot has acrylic sheets . you can cut it on a table saw. just use a wide tooth cross cut or rip blade. fine tooth blades melt the plastic. HD should have a bin with the glass panes with some acrylic in pane thickness and 1/4 inch or just a mm under. up to 3’ x 5’ , or at least they did last time i looked.
Thanks ken, looking for a sheet that is 13"x5-3/8"
i have a piece of 1/4 inch clear , 18 x 9 in the garage. If you are coming to the meeting monday night, I’ll give it to you. it was a cut off left over from some old tanks i made.
I have bought acrylic at lowes, they cut it for you too.