NasotheHutt
New member
After a 7 year break from the hobby I'm jumping back in. I have finally settled on an AGA 180 with corner overflows. I'm going to have a basement sump located in a small fish-room I've built under the stairs leading down to the basement. In order to save room down there, I'll probably have the tank drain into a 40B under the stand that houses the skimmer, from there it will drain down into the sump.
I've elected to build my own stand as none of the commercially built ones meet my taste. Woodworking being another hobby of mine I decided it shouldn't be a problem. After reviewing the many 2x DIY stands here and looking over the commercially built ones I became conflicted. I have a tendency to overbuild and thus the DIY stands made from 2x fit the bill over the seemingly sparse construction of the commercial stands. I rarely use anything but solid wood for my various projects. Solid lumber has one specific flaw though with regard to its dementional instability. In furniture construction this is compensated for in various ways. In an application such as this, where the immediate environment is humid and warm this problem is important to recognize. So I've decided to combine the two worlds and use plywood like the commercial stands and sufficiently overbuild like most DIY's. The process I'm using also 'skins' the stand in one step, and the lack of 2x legs and supports intruding vertically into the inside on the stand yields a clean final product.
I'm using 3 sheets of 3/4" ply. 2 Birch and 1 QuarterSawn White Oak. The plan is to laminate three pieces of ply together to yield a thickness of 2.25". I will incorporate woodworking's strongest joint in the process, the mortise and tenon. I cut all pieces ahead of time to their final length except the outer portion of the legs, which were left oversize for ease during glue-up. The top rails and legs will essentially be 2.25"x6" and the bottom rails and vertical supports will be 2.25"x3".
Here is all the wood milled up and laid out for the front.
Here I have laid the oak face down and the birch over the bottom rail, you can see the gaps that will become the mortises.
The overhang on the end will become the tenons going into the legs.
Here is a shot with the longer middle piece for one of the braces that is acting as a tenon.
And a shot of the inside bottom rail completing the joinery.
Here is the inside of the completed back, the screws are strictly for ease of assembly and not structural at all. By using them I did not have to worry about clamping, and could go from one piece to the next.
Here's the bottom edge showing the completed through mortise and tenon on one of the supports on the bottom rail.
Here's a bottom corner, this is one of the legs still a little oversize that I will cut flush later. This is a blend of a lap joint and a mortise and tenon.
And the customary FTS.
I've elected to build my own stand as none of the commercially built ones meet my taste. Woodworking being another hobby of mine I decided it shouldn't be a problem. After reviewing the many 2x DIY stands here and looking over the commercially built ones I became conflicted. I have a tendency to overbuild and thus the DIY stands made from 2x fit the bill over the seemingly sparse construction of the commercial stands. I rarely use anything but solid wood for my various projects. Solid lumber has one specific flaw though with regard to its dementional instability. In furniture construction this is compensated for in various ways. In an application such as this, where the immediate environment is humid and warm this problem is important to recognize. So I've decided to combine the two worlds and use plywood like the commercial stands and sufficiently overbuild like most DIY's. The process I'm using also 'skins' the stand in one step, and the lack of 2x legs and supports intruding vertically into the inside on the stand yields a clean final product.
I'm using 3 sheets of 3/4" ply. 2 Birch and 1 QuarterSawn White Oak. The plan is to laminate three pieces of ply together to yield a thickness of 2.25". I will incorporate woodworking's strongest joint in the process, the mortise and tenon. I cut all pieces ahead of time to their final length except the outer portion of the legs, which were left oversize for ease during glue-up. The top rails and legs will essentially be 2.25"x6" and the bottom rails and vertical supports will be 2.25"x3".
Here is all the wood milled up and laid out for the front.
Here I have laid the oak face down and the birch over the bottom rail, you can see the gaps that will become the mortises.
The overhang on the end will become the tenons going into the legs.
Here is a shot with the longer middle piece for one of the braces that is acting as a tenon.
And a shot of the inside bottom rail completing the joinery.
Here is the inside of the completed back, the screws are strictly for ease of assembly and not structural at all. By using them I did not have to worry about clamping, and could go from one piece to the next.
Here's the bottom edge showing the completed through mortise and tenon on one of the supports on the bottom rail.
Here's a bottom corner, this is one of the legs still a little oversize that I will cut flush later. This is a blend of a lap joint and a mortise and tenon.
And the customary FTS.
