Building My 375gal Glass Reef
- Thread starter JohnL
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EnglishRebel
Retired Rebel Reefer
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14674350#post14674350 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GlassReef
Alan - Earned a BSME 43 years ago. Never worked a single day as an engineer - unfortunately for me.
Tom
I just knew it -- a closet engineer. We just outed you. :lol: :lol:
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14671346#post14671346 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GlassReef
Well, it's obvious what we gotta do... invent the worlds first self cleaning automated filter sock, preferably with computer controlled ozone injection and phytoplankton grow out chamber. Who's up for it?
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14672862#post14672862 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EnglishRebel
Tom
If anyone can do it, it's you.BTW were you an engineer in a previous incarnation?
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14674350#post14674350 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GlassReef
Alan - Earned a BSME 43 years ago. Never worked a single day as an engineer - unfortunately for me.
Tom, here's your chance to put that BSME training to work.
I'll take care of the computer controlled/programming part of the product. I've got device driver & low level OS programming experience.
On second thought, Tom, I see what you list as your occupation, and I too would rather be enjoying retirement 43 years after graduating from college than trying to design and patent a new product.
Alan, thanks for the big welcome sign. It's the 2nd one I've received since I started posting on RC. Glad to know that some people take a few years to plan their reef systems. I guess it's a good thing to do in a hobby where mistakes can start getting very expensive. Besides, after moving into a new house one year ago today, I'm still working on the decorating to-do list that my wife and I agreed should be tackled first.
Well, I've spent a disappointing week. 
On the 23rd my computer wouldn't boot. Was a strange situation. It would boot until just after the Windows (bless little Billy's soul) Welcome Screen - then it would go black and nothing would be displayed but the mouse cursor. Of course I did the obligatory start in safe mode - no help. Then a safe mode start with command prompt - the boot was stopping at MUP.SYS! For those that know a little about these boxes from hell, when your startup stops at MUP.SYS, you're in trouble. 
Especially if you have a mix of PATA and SATA drives and you have hardware RAID configured.
I went through the normal gyrations trying to get the box to boot - unplugged all the USB devices, one at a time. Unplugged all but the boot drive. switched out the video (PCI Express) card. Of course, all to no avail.
I did the chkdisk thing - on ALL drives (I have five of them) - nothing. I then checked each drive by attaching them to my laptop via USB. As I have a mix of PATA and SATA drives I had to order a converter USB cable from Amazon (with next day delivery, of course) to allow me to hook up both kinds of drives. They all tested OK so it had to be a hardware problem - at least you'd think so. Now, at this point, I should have used my head and checked with friends to see if anyone had a PC I could use to see if it would boot up using my drive. Clever as I am, instead, I started tearing the PC apart - hoping, I suppose, to find a loose connection. Now, I have a somewhat hopped up box - it has a lot of parts. It took me a couple of days to go through this process.
Every hobby I have is PC based in some way, so my PC is very important to me - and there is a lot of data concerned. Now, I am very strict about backing up, etc. I was mirroring drives (RAID), did daily partial backups, and made monthly boot drive images using a very expensive piece of software. So I bit the bullet and decided to restore the drive image from last month. BTW - Window ASR (I think it stands for Automated System Recovery) doesn't work worth a crap - and now I find out, neither does my expensive backup program (I won't mention a name for fear of a libel suit).
I COULD NOT GET IT TO WORK!!!
So, after days of trying everything I could think of, I finally admitted to myself that I would have to do a full reinstall - It took three days. All in all, this fiasco lasted a full week! My PC is back up and running .....
I was on RC during the repair time using my laptop, but only sporadically - I had better things to do.
Sorry about this long OT rant - I just had to get it out of my system.
On the 23rd my computer wouldn't boot. Was a strange situation. It would boot until just after the Windows (bless little Billy's soul) Welcome Screen - then it would go black and nothing would be displayed but the mouse cursor. Of course I did the obligatory start in safe mode - no help. Then a safe mode start with command prompt - the boot was stopping at MUP.SYS! For those that know a little about these boxes from hell, when your startup stops at MUP.SYS, you're in trouble. Especially if you have a mix of PATA and SATA drives and you have hardware RAID configured.I went through the normal gyrations trying to get the box to boot - unplugged all the USB devices, one at a time. Unplugged all but the boot drive. switched out the video (PCI Express) card. Of course, all to no avail.
I did the chkdisk thing - on ALL drives (I have five of them) - nothing. I then checked each drive by attaching them to my laptop via USB. As I have a mix of PATA and SATA drives I had to order a converter USB cable from Amazon (with next day delivery, of course) to allow me to hook up both kinds of drives. They all tested OK so it had to be a hardware problem - at least you'd think so. Now, at this point, I should have used my head and checked with friends to see if anyone had a PC I could use to see if it would boot up using my drive. Clever as I am, instead, I started tearing the PC apart - hoping, I suppose, to find a loose connection. Now, I have a somewhat hopped up box
- it has a lot of parts. It took me a couple of days to go through this process.Every hobby I have is PC based in some way, so my PC is very important to me - and there is a lot of data concerned. Now, I am very strict about backing up, etc. I was mirroring drives (RAID), did daily partial backups, and made monthly boot drive images using a very expensive piece of software. So I bit the bullet and decided to restore the drive image from last month. BTW - Window ASR (I think it stands for Automated System Recovery) doesn't work worth a crap - and now I find out, neither does my expensive backup program (I won't mention a name for fear of a libel suit).
I COULD NOT GET IT TO WORK!!!
So, after days of trying everything I could think of, I finally admitted to myself that I would have to do a full reinstall - It took three days. All in all, this fiasco lasted a full week! My PC is back up and running .....
I was on RC during the repair time using my laptop, but only sporadically - I had better things to do.
Sorry about this long OT rant - I just had to get it out of my system.
Last edited:
EnglishRebel
Retired Rebel Reefer
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14736860#post14736860 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GlassReef
Well, I've spent a disappointing week.
Tom
I have one word for you:
<br><b><i><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>APPLE</b></i></big></big></big></big></big></big></big></big></big></big>
:rollface:
I switched a year ago and never looked back. Perhaps you had the April Fools Day virus.
Well, I was finally able to get back to the important things in life. I'll continue on my little documentary on how my frag and fuge tanks were built.
I cut all the sheet acrylic used for the tanks on a table saw. That leaves a decent edge:
But not good enough for what we need. Using the pin method of solvent welding requires a very smooth edge so that the solvent wicks easily and evenly into the space between the pieces being welded. So, the edge has to be smoothed. There are two tools that can be used for the smoothing: a jointer or a router. A jointer works well, but if you aren't skilled in it's use, you can end up with work pieces that aren't square. I prefer to use a router. Almost foolproof, and leaves a perfect edge:
When finishing the edge, I use the router to shave a very thin layer of material. I made a special setup for this on my table saw. I drilled a hole in the extension table to the right of the blade and mounted a router below the table so that the router bit could protrude through the hole:
That is a double bladed straight bit - a big one. It has a 1-1/2" diameter. You don't really need that big a bit - a normal 3/4" diameter bit would do just fine. I like the bigger bit because it makes absolutely perfect cuts. If you use such a large bit, remember to turn down the speed on your router to about 10,000 RPM!
To make the cut, I make use of the table saw's built in rip fence. Normally you would use the left edge of the fence when cutting stock with the saw. When edging with the router, I use the right edge. I move the fence until the right edge is the correct distance from the router bit. That means, so that the router bit will be shaving just a little from the work piece - less than 1/32". That looks like this:
DISCLAIMER - at this point, I should explain that you should never use a fixed router with the work piece placed between the bit and the fence. This situation lends itself to the work piece being caught by the bit, forced into the fence, and thrown off the table at very high velocity! A dangerous situation - so don't do what I'm describing here. I do it because it gives perfectly parallel edges - and I take every precaution so that nothing bad happens.
Once the edges have been completed, I remove a strip of the protective paper that covers the acrylic sheet. This allows viewing the edges that are being welded and keeps the paper from interfering with the welding process. I normally just use a straight edge for this:
After removal:
Now we can do some welding ....
I'll continue on my little documentary on how my frag and fuge tanks were built.I cut all the sheet acrylic used for the tanks on a table saw. That leaves a decent edge:
But not good enough for what we need. Using the pin method of solvent welding requires a very smooth edge so that the solvent wicks easily and evenly into the space between the pieces being welded. So, the edge has to be smoothed. There are two tools that can be used for the smoothing: a jointer or a router. A jointer works well, but if you aren't skilled in it's use, you can end up with work pieces that aren't square. I prefer to use a router. Almost foolproof, and leaves a perfect edge:
When finishing the edge, I use the router to shave a very thin layer of material. I made a special setup for this on my table saw. I drilled a hole in the extension table to the right of the blade and mounted a router below the table so that the router bit could protrude through the hole:
That is a double bladed straight bit - a big one. It has a 1-1/2" diameter. You don't really need that big a bit - a normal 3/4" diameter bit would do just fine. I like the bigger bit because it makes absolutely perfect cuts. If you use such a large bit, remember to turn down the speed on your router to about 10,000 RPM!
To make the cut, I make use of the table saw's built in rip fence. Normally you would use the left edge of the fence when cutting stock with the saw. When edging with the router, I use the right edge. I move the fence until the right edge is the correct distance from the router bit. That means, so that the router bit will be shaving just a little from the work piece - less than 1/32". That looks like this:
DISCLAIMER - at this point, I should explain that you should never use a fixed router with the work piece placed between the bit and the fence. This situation lends itself to the work piece being caught by the bit, forced into the fence, and thrown off the table at very high velocity! A dangerous situation - so don't do what I'm describing here. I do it because it gives perfectly parallel edges - and I take every precaution so that nothing bad happens.
Once the edges have been completed, I remove a strip of the protective paper that covers the acrylic sheet. This allows viewing the edges that are being welded and keeps the paper from interfering with the welding process. I normally just use a straight edge for this:
After removal:
Now we can do some welding ....
I always start a tank by welding the ends to one side. Here you can see I've placed an end piece on top of a side. It's being held in place (and square) by a home made jig and spring clamps:
Here's a close up of the joint. Note that the jig has a corner removed at a 45deg angle. This keeps the jig from interfering with the solvent. You can see that the side piece - on the bottom, in the pic - extends about 1/8" past the end piece. This provides a lip or shelf, on which the solvent needle can be rested when squirting solvent into the joint:
These strange looking things are furniture/cabinet shims. I use the plastic ones because they don't swell if they get wet. You can find them at most big box stores:
Here you can see that I've placed a shim under the bottom piece of acrylic (the shims are approx. 6" apart) and a needle in the joint above each shim. The point here is that we want the space between the two pieces that was created by the needles to be the same height along the entire joint. A crooked work surface, etc. can cause problems here. First the shims are inserted only about 1/8" under the bottom work piece. Then the needles are inserted into the joint about 3/4 the thickness of the acrylic. The shims are then adjusted until each needle is being held in the joint by approx. the same amount of pressure. Inserting a shim further increases the pressure, backing it out lessens the pressure.
Once this procedure is complete we can get to the fun (and hectic) part. The welding. I use Weld-On #4 solvent. It has a watery consistence and dries fairly quickly. Because of this you have to move right along when you are working with it. I take the solvent bottle (that's been filled 3/4 full), place the tip of the needle at the beginning of the joint and rest it on the little ledge created by the overlap of the bottom work piece - then I squeeze the bottle and watch for the solvent to begin emerging.
Once I see the solvent, I draw the needle along the joint. I try to put a constant and even squeezing pressure on the bottle. You can't really see it in the pic, but as you're moving the bottle along the joint, you can see the solvent being drawn into the joint due to capillary action. Watching this, I can make sure that entire joint contains solvent and ensure no voids exist.
Once I have completed a joint, I wait until 30 - at the most 45 - seconds have passed, then I begin removing the needles. I make sure to steady the vertical work piece a little with my left hand while I pull the needle out with my right. This helps prevent the workpiece from slipping due to the force of the needle being removed.
As soon as the needles have been removed, I check for bubbles (voids) in the joint. If I find one I try to remove it by increasing the pressure at that point by pushing the closest shim in just a little. This increase in pressure will often cause bubbles to disappear. When that step is complete, I place weights (bricks wrapped in duct tape) on top of the vertical work piece. This helps press the joint together and stops voids from forming while the solvent dries.
Here you can see the beginnings of both the frag tank and fuge. The farthest one has a temporary divider and top piece added to support the weights.
Here is a closer view. Both ends have been welded in the pic:
To be continued ....
Here's a close up of the joint. Note that the jig has a corner removed at a 45deg angle. This keeps the jig from interfering with the solvent. You can see that the side piece - on the bottom, in the pic - extends about 1/8" past the end piece. This provides a lip or shelf, on which the solvent needle can be rested when squirting solvent into the joint:
These strange looking things are furniture/cabinet shims. I use the plastic ones because they don't swell if they get wet. You can find them at most big box stores:
Here you can see that I've placed a shim under the bottom piece of acrylic (the shims are approx. 6" apart) and a needle in the joint above each shim. The point here is that we want the space between the two pieces that was created by the needles to be the same height along the entire joint. A crooked work surface, etc. can cause problems here. First the shims are inserted only about 1/8" under the bottom work piece. Then the needles are inserted into the joint about 3/4 the thickness of the acrylic. The shims are then adjusted until each needle is being held in the joint by approx. the same amount of pressure. Inserting a shim further increases the pressure, backing it out lessens the pressure.
Once this procedure is complete we can get to the fun (and hectic) part. The welding. I use Weld-On #4 solvent. It has a watery consistence and dries fairly quickly. Because of this you have to move right along when you are working with it. I take the solvent bottle (that's been filled 3/4 full), place the tip of the needle at the beginning of the joint and rest it on the little ledge created by the overlap of the bottom work piece - then I squeeze the bottle and watch for the solvent to begin emerging.
Once I see the solvent, I draw the needle along the joint. I try to put a constant and even squeezing pressure on the bottle. You can't really see it in the pic, but as you're moving the bottle along the joint, you can see the solvent being drawn into the joint due to capillary action. Watching this, I can make sure that entire joint contains solvent and ensure no voids exist.
Once I have completed a joint, I wait until 30 - at the most 45 - seconds have passed, then I begin removing the needles. I make sure to steady the vertical work piece a little with my left hand while I pull the needle out with my right. This helps prevent the workpiece from slipping due to the force of the needle being removed.
As soon as the needles have been removed, I check for bubbles (voids) in the joint. If I find one I try to remove it by increasing the pressure at that point by pushing the closest shim in just a little. This increase in pressure will often cause bubbles to disappear. When that step is complete, I place weights (bricks wrapped in duct tape) on top of the vertical work piece. This helps press the joint together and stops voids from forming while the solvent dries.
Here you can see the beginnings of both the frag tank and fuge. The farthest one has a temporary divider and top piece added to support the weights.
Here is a closer view. Both ends have been welded in the pic:
To be continued ....
edandsandy
Active member
Very nice Tom.
