46G Bow stand/canopy construction

[Safir]

Day 1 of construction complete - My stand is complete, and the inside is paneled, Planning to skin the outside and begin paint/stain tomorrow - interior is to be painted gloss white and the exterior will be stained cherry to match my other furniture.

entire stand is 2x4's screwed and glued with gorilla glue, then the top and bottom are reinforced with 3/4" plywood - very strong and stable, even without the outside skin on it.

The stand is about 6" deeper than my tank, so the top has an extra brace to help support the back of the tank

the bottom has an extra sheet of plywood to give me a flat bottom, and the interior is covered in beadboard, so it looks pretty

There will be two doors with no center brace, simply becuse my 36" wide tank is aleady pretty narrow and I don't want to sacrifice any more accesibility than I needed to. I had two people standing on it today with no problem, so I know it is strong enough.

Will take more pictures as we finish it up tomorrow

 

[Matt Rise]

Looking Good! BTW, my wife's family lives in Exton....off of Ship Rd.

 

[Safir]

Thank you - I hope I don't screw up he outer skin, and creating the doors has me nervous, as this is the first time i've done something like this.

I live about 1 mile from Ship Rd, just the other side of hwy 100 and exton mall. Small world 'eh?

 

[Safir]

This afternoon's progress:

Detail shot - the front skin extends up 1.5" to cover the frame of the tank

And, the tank in the stand

There will be a strip of trim covering the screws holding the front skin on. Then time to stain and paint - w00t!

 

[ZC]

got any new progress pics?

 

[tptp279]

looks nice, im' surprise you didn't build a sump or anything inside of it.

 

[reeffer1]

Safir
Looks good buddy, Glad to see it comming togeather for you! With it only being a bow front that makes bending the radius alot easier. Glad to see the progress.

 

[Safir]

Reeffer - I am going to disagree simply because of the fact that your corners at the end of your curved side are still 90 degrees - mine are 135-ish, so trimming them out was a little difficult.

I have a few updated pictures, but i didn't think there were many people actualyl following this build, so I was in no hurry to post them up. not much has changed really, I finished the trim i mentioned and put a coat of stain on the outside and a painted the inside. I'll post teh pictures shortly.

Thank you for your support everyone.

 

[Safir]

no actual construction today, don't want to upset the neighbors too much, so i spent most of the day working out a plan for the hood and sitting in front of the T.V.

stand will get one more coat of stain before bed tongiht and then satin finish polyurethane tomorrow, so it will darken up a bit more.

I will build the doors and hood either later this week or next weekend, I still have to work out exactly how the hood will open, and pick out hardware with the fiance. I can't put ht ehood on with my current light anyway, my MH retro kit won't be here for a while and I haven't even ordered the supplemental T5 or PC i want to go with it.

tptp - I don't have a sump currently, and lack the budget or knowledge to set one up at this time, but i did allow room for plumbing and the opening is more than 24" wide, so i can fit a fair size sump in there, or store a fair amount of supplies in there, as I don't have too much storeage elsewhere for fish stuff.

 

[Z-ReefKeeper]

Great job so far on the project. I noticed that the back wall of the cabinet is closed. Is there a reason for this?

 

[Safir]

purely for asthetics - I left 6" of space behind the tank so I can pass any plumbing or electrical through the top of the stand (after drilling appropriate holes) and the stand could sit flat against the wall, thus I closed off the back wall of the stand so It would look nice when the interior was visible.

thank you for the compliments.

 

[raddogz]

What kind of wood and stain did you use for the skin?

Don't you love pocket screws? I am almost done with my stand, but haven't skinned mine yet.

 

[Safir]

I highly suggest spending the extra $$ for the "twin" pocket screw jig.. it took us a long time to drill 4 pockets in each of the 8 uprights.

the skin is 1/4" oak plywood. Stain is minwax colonial maple (223)

I can't believe i forgot to bring a hole saw home from work today... guess I don't get to finish wiring it up tonight.

 

[Safir]

Tonights big development: hardware

figured id share the door knobs she chose:

also picked up some self-closing hinges that are a close match in color, and a stainless piano hinge 30" long for the flip-front on the hood

 

[reeffer1]

Safir,
The reason I had said the curve on a bow is eisier is mainly because their is not as drastic of a curve. The bow has a 2-4" cuve, a corner has a 6-7" curve. Bow is esier because wood does not have to bend as far is all I was saying. Take that same piece of 1/4" veneer and and bend it more and I think you will agree. JMO

Your stand is comming along great keep the pics comming.

 

[Matt Rise]

I live about 1 mile from Ship Rd, just the other side of hwy 100 and exton mall. Small world 'eh?

Small world indeed! We are coming down for the weekend. I'm sure we'll be making a trip to Ikea...lol. The stand looks great, you should be proud.

Matt

 

[Benny Z]

wow. that is awesome!

i have a 46g bow with the standard black aga stand. love the tank, hate the stand. i can only fit a 10g underneith.

this is quite inspiring. i may have to give it a try. can't wait to see the canopy!

 

[Safir]

stained and urethaned, tank is back up on it.

sand and water have been in a tupperware container living through a diatom bloom since thursday, hence the cloudy water.

MY MH arrived today, so i guess i need to build that hood soon 'eh?

 

[Timothy01]

just curious how are you going to bend the wood for the door. Just curoius because this is the only reason i havent tried building a bow front stand. Dont you want to cut an opening in the back if you have a sump or fuge its gonna raise your temp quite a bit with no ventelation.


BTW nice job on the stand looks really nice

 

[Safir]

I can add any holes i need in the top and the back to get plumbing/wiring in and out, or to ventilate down there, as needed.

based upon reeffer1's corner stand, the doors will be framed in 3/4" plywood with the 1/4" over that frame - the 1/4" bent pretty readily with a little coersion.

thank you for the kind words everyone - hopefully the weather will cooperate and i'll be able to continue work this weekend - I need to get all thsi lumber our of my hallway!