Acrylic fabrication questions? I can help!

I did as well. I glued it and basically set it sit for two-three days before I started working on it again.
 
Hello I wanted to question my insanity in front of you all before I attempted this project. I ordered an acrylic tank with 2 1" holes outside of my overflow box. These holes are in the bottom of the tank right were I want them. Only problem is I need them to be 1 1/2" not 1" , for my closed loop system.
My Plan of attack is to take some small sheets of PVC and silicone it in place over top the holes. Once dry then use an appropriate hole-saw for 1 1/2" bulkhead with the arbor bit being kept steady bye new material. the actual hole-saw will be cutting acrylic surrounding Once the 2 holes are drilled to new appropriate size the PVC sheets and silicone will be removed.
I will try to run drill slow with minimal pressure applied. any thing else?

So what are my concerns I should look out for, and will this work?
 
As long as the template material stays put, it'll be fine.

I've done it before, using plywood and double stick tape. Much cleaner to use a router, but holesaw will work.
 
Couple of questions:

Is it necessary to use the capillary method for glueing and acrylic tube to a pvc sheet?

Which weldon solvent would be better for this (16 or 4) ?

Thanks in advance!

djfrankie
 
Weld-On 40 would work best for that in my opinion. It's a thick almost rubber-cement type of mixture. However, I typically am gluing PVC pieces to acrylic (i.e. a reactor). For a flat PVC sheet, there might be a better alternative.
 
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I cant seem to find the thread i posted on a couple of days ago, :( but anyways i just cant get my cuts to be squared.... I built my first two tanks cubes to be exact 1 is 13X13X13.5 and the other is 14X14X12 both came out ok not superb like i wanted but when i went to try again my cuts came out at an angle!? lol i cant seem to get them to be square... i even got a jointer from a friend and i was amazed at first thinking no more sanding!!!! but i must not be using it correctly bc my cuts are still not square lol.... I was looking at my table saw like mark and several others told me to do but no luck..

Checked to make sure my blade was square with the fence on both ends of the blade and it is but when i cut towards the end of the cut i can see that the acrylic angles? damn craftsman! hahahah
 
jointer's wont square up cuts, shave the surface. If theres any dips they can remove those as well.

Unfortunately if youre not getting square cuts, its either you pushing the piece through wrong or the saw is set incorrectly, or both. Check to see that the piece stays against the fence the entire length, the whole way through the cut. I know sometimes the piece will want to pull away from the fence towards the end of the cut.

Until you get that right, you can easily re-square with a router, which will also leave you a better final cut.
 
yea i need to make a table for my router.... I have a table but the i have not way of telling if the one side is straight or not lol... maybe i should just buy one of those tables from HD...

Originally my idea for the jointer was to avoid the sanding process so that i would not bevel the edges like i did in the last two tanks lol... but then i got frustrated trying to fix things and only making it worst lmao!
 
here is my thing i have no idea how to adjust my table saw, i have looked for the manual online but cant find it. the blad cover is adjustable form the back, but it seems to me like the blade is at and angle but then again it could jsut be me feeding it incorrectly... :( i guess i might end up with another 13" cube lol... my plan was to make a 14" cube so that my inside dims were 13" squared, but i guess i will end up with 12" squared again....
 
Have you tried to use you miter gauge to make your cuts? The fence does not do a great job of making a 90 degree corner. That is what the miter gauge is for. Make sure you blade is parallel to the miter slot and that your gauge is at a 90 degree angle to the bar. Then use the miter gauge to run the material through the saw and the fence to hold it in place. Waht it sounds like your fence is not being locked down parallel to the blade. It could be that your fence is not straight also.

Kim
 
I am thinking that the fence is not straight anymore maybe i need to adjust it, or i need to find a way to adjust the motor, when i get home i am going to measure, from them miter slide, to one of the teeth on the blad front and back, and go from there....

figures the day i ask a question on a thread i find instructions on how to adjust a table saw(maintenance) lol i guess i was not typing the right, search phrase in google.

I will let everyone know how things go :) post pics if i still have any acrylic to make a tank with lol :)
 
as for routing them back straight, you dont need a router table to do it. Simply take a framing square, draw out how the piece should be square. Using a laminate trim bit, the ones with the bearings on the end, take something with a nice clean straight cut and line your drawn line up to this piece. Clamp it, route it. Do it till all 4 sides are square. Good thing is, you can do this for multiple pieces at once.
 
LOL I thought that would work but I guess I just need to go buy some clamps stronger than what I have.

I did measure the distance from the blade to the miter guide and its def off by a couple of mm. I just have no idea how to adjust the motor...
 
ok i got my table saw adjusted a lil today, what a pain lol....

i cut 4 8" squares.... all came out good, lo maybe i will make an 8" cube as a pico tank.

i have to re-square my 13" pieces now... i have some room to wokr so that they can become 13"since i have 2 pieces that measure 14".... i am going to use combination square to draw up a new line and hopefully that will put me back to square. Thanks for the tips :)
 
sorry if this has been asked 100 times already, but this thread is pretty big now.

Can you weld an extruded tube to a cast sheet w/ a good bond? Reason I'm asking is I'm making a skimmer and I can get a 8.5" OD cast tube and cast sheets for fairly cheap, but the 5" OD tube I want to get in cast gets up to $22 a foot or more when I can get a 6" piece of extruded for like #4. This piece is for the riser neck and obviously won't be under pressure of any kind. TIA.
 
Thanks! I've got everything on order now for the new skimmer... with exception of some kind of gasket to seal the two flanges together. Is neoprene better than silicone rubber?
 
Quick question as I know MEK has been mentioned here before, but I'm not sure if the methods are the same. I have always used MEK in the past to bond acrylic/styrene/polycarb, but I've never known how to get nice clean joints. I only have MEK right now and am wondering if the pin method works with this solvent? I know its super thin and likes to seep into any cracks and am not sure how it would fill the space between the pins.

thanks
 
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