Acrylic Bonding: Pin Method Question

CatsnClownfish

New member
Hello,

I am working on assembling a 50 gallon (roughly) tank using 0.5" acrylic. I'm using Weld-On 4 and 28 gauge steel wire for the pin method. I have bonded a few tanks before, but never using the pin method until now.

Following some advice in another thread, I have bonded one long wall to the two short walls. I plan to bond the second long wall to the two short walls soon, at which point I'll have the whole exterior bonded together except for attaching the top (which is a routed-out brace) and the bottom piece. Here's my question:

- How would I use the wire method to attach the walls to the top or bottom since all the walls are bonded together?

If I put wires in on only one end (say one of the short ends), how will I get the wires in for the other three walls when I bond them"”won't it damage the bond on that short end when I lift the other walls to insert wire?

If, on the other hand, I put all the wires in and then bond one wall at a time, the one I'm bonding won't sit totally flat because the other wires will still be in.

And lastly, if I try to put all the wires in and bond all the edges in a row, taking the pins out as I go, I'm pretty sure I'll fail to get them out before the Weld-On 4 gets into setting.

So, what's my best option? Like I said, I was following the advice in another thread and I thought of this situation a bit too late (three cheers for my awesome pre-planning skills on this).

Thanks!
 
Thanks. I found the part of your thread at the end where you described the build order and method. I'll check it out. I'm also going to check out the main thread for a while. My top and bottom pieces of acrylic have natural warping that really bow up the middle, so the shimming and camper foam advice will help with that, too.
 
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