Help, How do I get a flat surface?

[Corsec]

Hello all,
I have built a stand for my 150. I used a piece of 3/4 plywood to top the stand. How do I get rid of the gaps between the bottom of my tank and the top of the stand. I have between 1/32 and 1/16 gap in places. I want this tank to be supported properly, but I don't know how to true the stand. I am new to wood working so any suggestions would be appreciated!
Thanks

 

[rottface4]

I believe a lot of people use a large sheet of foam to help level the stands. But I don't know a lot about it, so hopefully soe can chime in more details.

 

[SciGuy2]

Assuming that the stand sits well on the floor (no teeter-totter), you probably could put a temporary frame around the edges of the stand top and use a pourable leveling underlayment compound. When the compound is set you could remove the frame.

I've never tried it, but it should work for surface inconsistancies of 1/8" or less. It will be interesting to see what others have to say in this thread.

 

[GSerg2]

I have used shims under the plywood to level it. I always have a pack of the wood shims they sell at Lowes for installing door frames. These work good for all kinds of things. I don't like the idea of using foam although a lot of people do I guess.

 

[areze]

shims, self leveling cement, or sanding. those are your 3 options.

 

[Adam]

Corsec,

DO NOT use shims between the stand and the tank. Doing so creates pressure points that are very likely to break the glass.

The simplest solution is to use pink insulation foam from your local home improvement store. It is cheap and compresses just enough to take up any irregularities between the tank and stand. It is easily concealed with a strip of moulding.

Adam

 

[Corsec]

Thank you all for the replies. I have decided to attempt to shim the top plywood sheet. The I will install some of the thinner blue foam to take out what little inconsistencies that remain. There will not be any shims between the tank and the stand, I believe the tank itself needs to set perferctly flat all the way around. Wish me luck.

 

[GSerg2]

I should have put emphasis on my remarks. I think you still read it correctly though. Shim UNDER the plywood as you stated not under the tank. I have done this several times most recently on my 215 gallon.

 

[Corsec]

Agreed

 

[areze]

yes, assuming the top peice of plywood is sitting on some sort of rail or frame, then the shims go between the rail/frame and the board.

IMO, and this may be vary depending on how you interpret it, foam is meant to remove the natural "bumps" in the surface. like things as small as a grain of sand, or perhaps a fastener poked up through it a tiny bit, or a grain in the wood is extruding from the surface. stuff like that which would cause the entire tank to sit up on the point.

however some glass tank makers are very very clear NOT to use foam, as the tank is designed to sit on the outer frame, and the use of foam puts pressure on the tank bottom. this varies by maker it seems.

thus why I said shims, self leveling cement, or sanding. foam IMO is for a different purpose and may not be right at all depending on the tank type, or atleast only place around the outer frame and the center open.

 

[Corsec]

I understand what you are saying about the foam putting pressure on the bottom pane, that will not happen in this instance. However, I have realized something that may be a more significant problem I have cut on the plywood for the drain pipes. Not thinking about it I cut the side rail out as well. Will this span with no support cause a problem? here is a pic.

Am I totally messed up and time for a new top?

Thanks

 

[GSerg2]

Hey Corsec, I just noticed you are in Owasso! Me too. Would love to see that 150 when you get it set up.

As far as the gap created by those cutouts, if it were me I would make a new top. However, it may be ok without it, maybe someone else will comment.

I always over-build things so I can sleep at night. Another sheet of plywood is cheap compared to lost sleep. You could cut a piece of plywood and fill the gap if you can get it to set perfectly flush and tight.

 

[itZme]

Can't you just cut off a piece of plywood that is 1.75" (the 2x4 frame width) wide and fits into the cutout area for the tank to set on? If you still have the cutouts you have the perfect size scrap of wood to cut from.

You could countersink the screws and it would rest only on the wood scrap in the cuout area. I see no problem with even having the gaps there. They only appear to be 6" wide or so.

Good luck.
-- itZme

 

[areze]

Id imagine youd be fine as well.

what I dont like is that the legs are inside the outer frame rail. even if the legs go all the way up to the top board(which they had better at very least do) you are going to be suspending SOME of the weight on those few screws. all weight in this application should be stacked on top of each other, vertical joints at all times so the weight is resting on the wood, not hanging by screws. screws dont have that great of a shear strength.

also by being inside, that stand looks like it has a somewhat narrow platform, might be prone to knocking over. that mostly depends how tall it is.

 

[KevinM]

Areze is right (wow...this feels like Deja Vu...hmmm) about the stand legs. You could go one of two ways to fix it easily.

Scratch that, I just reread your post and this is for a 150. Jeez...only one way to support that. I would sister some more lumber to the two outside faces of all legs. You need something to transfer the weight of the top frame to the ground besides the screws, like Areze said.

If it was acrylic, it would likely suffice to add a second sheet of 3/4 ply, laminated (really laminated, with waterproof glue) to the existing top.

Kev

 

[Corsec]

sorry, I should have mentioned that photo was from middle of construction. Here is a pic showing the legs added that are under compression to support the tank. You can tell that the outside legs are compressed between the top and bottom headers all the way around. I did build it wrong originally and someone pointed out what you guys did, so I fixed it. Thanks for looking out for me though!