Skimmer tube thickness

[Silicone]

Hi all

How high a skimmer body can I build in extruded acrylic tube? I'm thinking of 6" diameter tube, I can get it in 5mm wall thickness. Can I go all the way up to 6' without it popping or being unstable?? if not whats the max height of body you experienced folks would reccomend in this type of tube.

Also... (sorry) I can get this tube in 8" diameter with the same wall thickness, how high could I build with it??

Thanks!

 

[bklinefelter]

not sure about hight tall you can make it but where can you get it and for how much $?

 

[Silicone]

I'm not US based so I cant really help with the supplies, sorry

Somebody must have some experience with this, can you help please!!

 

[AcroSteve]

5mm is a little bigger than 1/8".

The tube should be fine, but you need to make sure your construction methods are sound. The joints could be the weak link.

 

[Silicone]

AcroSteve Thanks!

I'm thinking that I'll have to rout out a groove in the bottom piece of acrylic and glue the body into that and then maybe I'll cut a second base piece with a hole the same size as the OD of the tube and slip it over the top of the tube, slide it down to the bottom and glue it to the first base piece and the tube to give it some re-inforcement at the highest pressure point.

Any thoughts on that or how thick the acrylic should be for the base piece???

I also wondering if I should shorten the skimmer say 6" and make a stand for it then try and plumb as much of the pipework through the flat skimmer bottom as possible to try and avoid weakening the tube with lots of holes in it.. hmm

Thanks for any help!!

 

[AcroSteve]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7421070#post7421070 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Silicone
I'm thinking that I'll have to rout out a groove in the bottom piece of acrylic and glue the body into that and then maybe I'll cut a second base piece with a hole the same size as the OD of the tube and slip it over the top of the tube, slide it down to the bottom and glue it to the first base piece and the tube to give it some re-inforcement at the highest pressure point.

That would be perfect.

Any thoughts on that or how thick the acrylic should be for the base piece???

3/8" minimum, but I would use 1/2" with a 1/4" deep groove.

 

[Silicone]

AcroSteve

Many thanks for your help, a little bit of advice goes a long way on a project like this.

Cheers!

 

[kgross]

With the 1/8 wall I would suggest not putting any of the plumbing through the tubing, run it all through the bottom if at all possible. The 1/8 wall is not very strong and has quite a bit of stress already, so if you start gluing fitings into the sides you could have lots of crazing issues.

 

[BeanAnimal]

The thicker the base, the less warping you will get.

Instead of gluing the plumbing, why not use unieals? The stress problem will be somewhat mitigated.

Plumbing through the bottom is not a bad idea either....

 

[Acrylics]

With tube, wall thickness makes little difference as far as tube strength goes due to the even distribution of stress. The joints are the weak spots. Done correctly, you can easily go 6' high. The main problem with extruded tube however is the propensity to craze esp with lots of solvent in there and secondary applications.
As for the base thickness, it kinda depends on the size of the box but the tube itself doesn't have that much weight which is all that the base has to support and water pressure itself within the box will help with that as well. For practical application though, I'd have to agree with Steve though I'd say 1/2" minimum as I prefer to overbuild whenever possible.
Uniseals can work but are limiting IME.

HTH,
James

 

[BeanAnimal]

The uniseals would however keep the cement off the tube

James...
What don't you like about them? I am building my skimmer out of clear harvel PVC so that I don't have the problems associated with acryic (and for the fact that I got a 6" dia 10' section for peanuts of ebay).

Bean

 

[Silicone]

Thanks for the input guys!

I think I will go for a 10mm base piece (routed) and then a 5mm 'secondary' piece on top of that.
Thinking about the design the main tube will probably be around 65" long (plus neck/cup etc), maybe a little less - I have to measure my neck/cup assembly and work out the bottom plumbing first. Its go to go into a cabinet so the overall height cant be any higher than 76".

The uniseals arent not something I've come across here, I'm pretty sure I can plumb everything through the flat base (at a squeeze ) which should avoid any dodgy through the tube wall glueing. I'm not saying that plumbing it through the tube is dodgy but this is my first major (expensive) acrylic project and I dont want to mess it up

I'll be using pvc fittings, can I use the acrylic glue to attach these fittings or will I need something else??

Thanks!!