Sean : EbN
New member
Hello everyone,
mpomfret : Thanks for checking it out! This is something I've wanted to do for a long time. If this one works out it definitely won't be my last. But from here I can promise to only go BIGGER!
mille239 : AWESOME!! Feels nice to not pay the LFS $25-50 to drill a hole huh?!? I was so close to buying a glass drilling machine and bits for my shop but now I'm not so sure! Which bit did you use? The TC1? I know you can use it in a Dremel because I read somewhere that someone did. Maybe it was earlier in this thread? Anyways... congrats! Glad it worked out!
UPDATE: Sorry no pics
been really busy with the tank and work! Yesterday I mounted the guide rails for the canopy to ride up and down in. Then I floated the canopy and brought the actuator up through the ceiling. This is my first MAJOR problem with the design. The guides bind just enough to throw the balance off and the canopy won't ride up and down straight. So I cut them off and left the canopy just floating from the actuator out of the ceiling. I left the lower portion of the guides in place to serve as a resting rack for the canopy when it is lowered all the way. So if you think of a benchpress bench with hooks for the bar, that is similar to what I have now. The canopy sits in very snugly when in its lowered state. Flip the switch and it raises and moves a little but is fairly well balanced and doesn't look that bad. It is a little less fluid and smooth as I would have liked but it is perfectly functional. After all the goal was to have the canopy effortlessly (on my part of course) lift out of the way along with the canopy door so that I could have ample room to work in the tank. I will have about 16-17" x 96" to access the tank from the front as the tank will be surrounded by walls on each side but the front.
So after messing with the canopy situation yesterday and this morning I am pleased with how it is working. It will require more tweaking once the tank and trim are in place but overall it will function. I will give a little more thought and a lot more space next time to make this robotic canopy work like it did in my brain. R&D... I guess that's what its all about!
This morning I took a ride to the glass shop and picked up my killer piece of glass. By killer I mean KILLER! Don't drop this one on or near anyone you love... it is DAMN heavy! I have no idea how some of these people on RC handle these huge glass tanks! We put the tank on the stand this morning as well. So of course I have the tank and this piece of glass staring me in the face all day. Tonight I decided to go ahead and glue it in. So we laid the tank face down and inserted the glass rested up on supports about 20 inches high inside. So I made these supports out of 2x4's and just set them on the stand stood up vertically inside the tank to hold the glass up so I could spread the silicone.
I squeezed out this HUGE bead of silicone around the perimeter of the hole, using about 5 caulking tubes full of silicone. Once that bead was complete two of us got under the stand and supported the glass as the 2x4 stands were removed and then lowered the glass in place causing the silicone to gush out everywhere. There were very few air bubbles and a good solid contact area all the way around the tank. I then followed a friends advice and used the other 5 tubes of silicone to go around the glass so that I could make a fillet between the top bottom and sides to the glass, just like you would in an all glass aquarium. I used an empty caulking tube turned backwards as a filleting applicator. So the end that you DON'T squeeze silicone out of is the end I used for the fillet. It worked GREAT! The bead came out very nice and clean. Not quite Oceanic quality but very neat. There is much excess that need to be razored off once cured but that is to be expected. I was really happy with how the glass went in! Now I just have to be patient enough to let it sit for a few days so it can all cure right. There are some areas where the slicone is 3/4" think so it will take a while to cure out properly. That will give me some time to mount the angle for the front support as well as glue in all my CL and Sump feed drain fittings to their prospective bulkheads.
I'll try to get some pics tomorrow (Thursday) and post them for all to see. Sorry I couldn't get a step-by-step but we had all hands working and covered in that fun silicone goo!
I'm off to bed... LATER!
mpomfret : Thanks for checking it out! This is something I've wanted to do for a long time. If this one works out it definitely won't be my last. But from here I can promise to only go BIGGER!
mille239 : AWESOME!! Feels nice to not pay the LFS $25-50 to drill a hole huh?!? I was so close to buying a glass drilling machine and bits for my shop but now I'm not so sure! Which bit did you use? The TC1? I know you can use it in a Dremel because I read somewhere that someone did. Maybe it was earlier in this thread? Anyways... congrats! Glad it worked out!
UPDATE: Sorry no pics
been really busy with the tank and work! Yesterday I mounted the guide rails for the canopy to ride up and down in. Then I floated the canopy and brought the actuator up through the ceiling. This is my first MAJOR problem with the design. The guides bind just enough to throw the balance off and the canopy won't ride up and down straight. So I cut them off and left the canopy just floating from the actuator out of the ceiling. I left the lower portion of the guides in place to serve as a resting rack for the canopy when it is lowered all the way. So if you think of a benchpress bench with hooks for the bar, that is similar to what I have now. The canopy sits in very snugly when in its lowered state. Flip the switch and it raises and moves a little but is fairly well balanced and doesn't look that bad. It is a little less fluid and smooth as I would have liked but it is perfectly functional. After all the goal was to have the canopy effortlessly (on my part of course) lift out of the way along with the canopy door so that I could have ample room to work in the tank. I will have about 16-17" x 96" to access the tank from the front as the tank will be surrounded by walls on each side but the front.So after messing with the canopy situation yesterday and this morning I am pleased with how it is working. It will require more tweaking once the tank and trim are in place but overall it will function. I will give a little more thought and a lot more space next time to make this robotic canopy work like it did in my brain. R&D... I guess that's what its all about!
This morning I took a ride to the glass shop and picked up my killer piece of glass. By killer I mean KILLER! Don't drop this one on or near anyone you love... it is DAMN heavy! I have no idea how some of these people on RC handle these huge glass tanks! We put the tank on the stand this morning as well. So of course I have the tank and this piece of glass staring me in the face all day. Tonight I decided to go ahead and glue it in. So we laid the tank face down and inserted the glass rested up on supports about 20 inches high inside. So I made these supports out of 2x4's and just set them on the stand stood up vertically inside the tank to hold the glass up so I could spread the silicone.
I squeezed out this HUGE bead of silicone around the perimeter of the hole, using about 5 caulking tubes full of silicone. Once that bead was complete two of us got under the stand and supported the glass as the 2x4 stands were removed and then lowered the glass in place causing the silicone to gush out everywhere. There were very few air bubbles and a good solid contact area all the way around the tank. I then followed a friends advice and used the other 5 tubes of silicone to go around the glass so that I could make a fillet between the top bottom and sides to the glass, just like you would in an all glass aquarium. I used an empty caulking tube turned backwards as a filleting applicator. So the end that you DON'T squeeze silicone out of is the end I used for the fillet. It worked GREAT! The bead came out very nice and clean. Not quite Oceanic quality but very neat. There is much excess that need to be razored off once cured but that is to be expected. I was really happy with how the glass went in! Now I just have to be patient enough to let it sit for a few days so it can all cure right. There are some areas where the slicone is 3/4" think so it will take a while to cure out properly. That will give me some time to mount the angle for the front support as well as glue in all my CL and Sump feed drain fittings to their prospective bulkheads.
I'll try to get some pics tomorrow (Thursday) and post them for all to see. Sorry I couldn't get a step-by-step but we had all hands working and covered in that fun silicone goo!
I'm off to bed... LATER!
At least it was on this project! Are you using the epoxy resin or polyester resin? With the Sweetwater on top? Consider those fillets, a friend of mine uses body filler to make the fillets then fiberglass over it. 
