Acrylic Fabrication Q & A

[Shayeh]

I will contact weld-on to see if they have distributor in europe or i will order it from america. If you have a better cement than Weld-on 4 please let me know.
Yes i will inform him that i need perfect square pieces.
So i will calculate the eurobrace for 4.5-5'' perimeter and 8-8.5'' crossbrace.
When you have them ready please let me know in here or with a pm. Don't worry i will start the project in one month or a little more.
Do i need clamps or the weight of the pieces is enough for the bond?

Put very light downward pressure on the top edge of vertical panel, then carefully release each of the clamps one at a time - just for a fraction of a second.

I didn't understand this

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

Do i need clamps or the weight of the pieces is enough for the bond?

The clamps I am referring to in this statement you quoted are the clamps that hold the panel to a right-angle bracket. Go back to that post and look at the photo above that section, you can see the clamps I am referring to (in the pic below, the one with the green handles)

I usually add weights on top of every joint, but for a single free-standing panel, this is tricky. When building a sump out of lightweight material, this is where you need to make sure the joint is in full contact prior to pinning - then it's usually not an issue.

When I'm putting together a sump with multiple baffles, I'll leave the first end panel free standing to cure for a few hours, then add the next baffle, and place a board spanning over the 2 panel ends and put weight on that. This works well as long as your front/back dimension isn't too large (long panels with weights on them will sway back and forth). In cases like that I get creative and use masking tape to hold the panels still (I run tape from the edge of the table, up over the panel ends, back down to the table)

With a larger tank build, the weight of the panel should suffice.

 

[Shayeh]

I have these to hold the right angle of the pieces..

Now they have weld on 4sc its new with low VOC. so i ordered that.
How far from the edges i can drill to put the sump return and the overflow box? I don't want only to take water from the surface but from bottom too if possible. Any ideas how to make it and not drain all aquarium in power failure?

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

I would not recommend using this tool for building an acrylic aquarium. You need to have the joint area of the flat panel (front or back) supported 100% with the end panel standing on it, you cannot perform this with a right-angle tool like this. You need a bracket that forms the right angle, like show in my pics in my previous post (or something similar)

I'm not familiar with 4SC but it appears to be OK, just a lot of extra filler (the methyl acetate). Looks like this was Scigrip's answer to the EU requirements.

 

[Shayeh]

I'm not familiar with 4SC but it appears to be OK, just a lot of extra filler (the methyl acetate). Looks like this was Scigrip's answer to the EU requirements.

Probably yes because it is only available in europe and asia. The tool i have leaves 1'' gap so i can see all the joint from both sides. i will give it a test first with water to see if it is good.if not i will go your way.
How far from the edges can i drill the panel? 2'' from the sides and 1'' from the top is ok?

 

[KustomAquarium]

Looking to make a rimless frag tank that's 8'Lx 3'Wx14"H what would the recommended thickness for the acrylic be?

 

[Shayeh]

Looking to make a rimless frag tank that's 8'Lx 3'Wx14"H what would the recommended thickness for the acrylic be?

1'' should be good

 

[KustomAquarium]

Sounds good, I'll post pics for the build!

 

[Shayeh]

Sounds good, I'll post pics for the build!

Wait for Turbo's aquatics to confirm it. He knows better!!!

 

[KustomAquarium]

@Turbo's Aquatics do you think 1" will be sufficient?

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

The rule of thumb is 2.5x the normal thickness for rimless. So for 14" tall at 8' long, normally I would build that out of 3/8" just due to the length (the height only really calls for 1/4") so .375 x 2.5 = approximately 1", should be ok.

 

[KustomAquarium]

Here's some pics, the tank is fully built out just needs to be polished and filled with water!

 

[KustomAquarium]

Used my router to clean up all edges now I'm sanding with hopes to have it polished by tomorrow afternoon

 

[Cabinetman]

Th

Here's some pics, the tank is fully built out just needs to be polished and filled with water!

those look like the same brackets I designed a few years ago to build tanks... let me guess you watched joeys video.....

 

[Shayeh]

@Turbo's Aquatics What is the best order to build the sump? The baffles at the end? or i build the back and 2 sides after the baffles and then the front piece and all of them to the bottom? What do you think?

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

I hit "post" too fast - basically it's the same as for a tank, just bond all the baffles in to the front (or back) and then wait a day, flip it and bond to the back (or front). Then prep for euro and bottom

Acrylic Fabrication Q & A

Attached is a .zip file with the Cyro calculator. You can also get this from their website but you have to register I think http://cyro.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/133 I will stand slightly corrected, the thickness of the sheet depends on the length of the longest side and the...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Shayeh]

Thank you. I saw that you suggest at step 3 to bond the first end then each baffle at a time and last the other end. You think it is better to bond them all together at the same time?
You managed to upload the video that you talked about bonding acrylic?

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

I saw that you suggest at step 3 to bond the first end then each baffle at a time and last the other end. You think it is better to bond them all together at the same time?

One at a time. If you try to pin and weld all those joints at the same time, that would be very difficult. You need to bond the first end while keeping the rest relatively lined up, then let that joint cure for a bit. If your subsequent joints don't require you to manipulate the alignment too much, then you can proceed to the next joint. But if you have to "twist" or force things to line up, then you want to wait 4-8 hours between joints to make sure you allow them to cure long enough so that you don't pull them apart with the torsion force you have to apply. This is where edge prep becomes more critical, specifically, making sure all the baffles and ends are square (or at least oriented the same - if they are all slightly off square, make sure they are all aligned the same).

It rarely works out that all pieces are perfect, so once you have the main frame together, that's where you sand/scrape the top/bottom to prep for the euro & bottom (to make sure they are planar)

 

[Shayeh]

@Turbo's Aquatics Thank you very much.. If the edges are not perfect and in a spot we have half millimeter gap, is that gap going to fill up with the weldon 4 or we need something else? And for welding is better to sand or scrape it?
Thanks for your time

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

You need zero gaps, Weld-on is not a gap filler. A half millimeter gap is way out of range, you can't correct that much of a gap with shims.

If this gap is on a router-finished edge, that's a problem with your routing process - that edge should be dead on flat, square, straight. If the gap shows up when you have bonded all the vertical panels together and are prepping the top or bottom joint, that's likely related to the assembly process or squaring process, but you can fix that with enough sanding and scraping (though it is still harder than just simply making things planar)