Hey!
I decided to build what I hoped would be a piece of high end furniture for my new Nuvo 10. One of my other hobby’s is woodworking but I’m fairly new to it, and this was definitely a huge learning experience and the nicest thing I’ve made so far.
I took inspiration from some cabinet builds I’ve seen on the internet, as well as a couple tank stand threads on here. I decided to build the structure out of pine 1x material as a cost saving measure as well as structural concern. I felt more comfortable with the weight of the tank being held by solid wood instead of 3/4 inch plywood which was another option. I ended up building the structure out of pine 1x material and wrapping it with mitered 1/4 inch Walnut plywood, then adding thick solid walnut edge banding to add a heavy chamfer. I will say, if I was going to do this again I probably would have bit the cost bullet and built the whole cabinet out of solid plywood. Since a 10 gallon tank really isn’t very heavy this should be more than enough.
Stand Structure:
I assembled the structure of the stand using pocket holeand wood glue. If I was building this again I would have the top cross members sitting on top of the verticals and not in between to better distribute the weight, however, with the plywood on top and on the sides I’m not really concerned.
Plywood Skin:
I wrapped the entire outside with 1/4 inch walnut veneered plywood, mitered all joining edges for a seamless look. I used a full coating of wood glue and just about every clamp
Edge Banding:
I milled up some 6/4 solid walnut and ripped it down to 1” square, gave it a heavy chamfer and glued it on to the face of the 1x/plywood combination.
Door:
I made the door by laminating a 1/4 piece of walnut ply to 3/4 ply and then edge banding with more solid walnut. I ended up having to plane the back side of the door down to under 7/8 because that was the max door size for the cabinet hinges. I also realized after I assembled the cabinet with a spring door stop that the spring wasn’t strong enough to push the door out far enough to open, so I made a handle from solid walnut using a cove cut on the table saw and a bunch of cutting and sanding. I cut out a spot for it in the door, snuck up on the cut for a good fit and then sanded flush.
I attached the door using inset frameless hinges.
Equipment Mounting:
I added a plate inside with a shelf at the bottom to be able to mount equipment such as ATO controllers, pump controllers, heater controllers. All the cables will feed through the slot and hide behind the panel, and travel to the tank and such out a cutout in the back. I will have a power strip mounted back behind to plug into, and there will be one power cord exiting the stand. I attached wooden blocks with threaded inserts and have bronze thumb screws on the way to make the panel easily removable.
Final Touches:
I spent forever sanding the whole thing, taking care to be very light on the veneered plywood. The spiny between the plywood and hardwood edging turned out seamless in most places but there’s a few spots where there was some chip out or the hardwood was a touch below the plywood and there isn’t much to do there. I will be spraying the entire cabinet with conversion varnish to protect from everything. I also have leveling feet on the way that will get installed directly under the vertical supports.
Final currently:
I decided to build what I hoped would be a piece of high end furniture for my new Nuvo 10. One of my other hobby’s is woodworking but I’m fairly new to it, and this was definitely a huge learning experience and the nicest thing I’ve made so far.
I took inspiration from some cabinet builds I’ve seen on the internet, as well as a couple tank stand threads on here. I decided to build the structure out of pine 1x material as a cost saving measure as well as structural concern. I felt more comfortable with the weight of the tank being held by solid wood instead of 3/4 inch plywood which was another option. I ended up building the structure out of pine 1x material and wrapping it with mitered 1/4 inch Walnut plywood, then adding thick solid walnut edge banding to add a heavy chamfer. I will say, if I was going to do this again I probably would have bit the cost bullet and built the whole cabinet out of solid plywood. Since a 10 gallon tank really isn’t very heavy this should be more than enough.
Stand Structure:
I assembled the structure of the stand using pocket holeand wood glue. If I was building this again I would have the top cross members sitting on top of the verticals and not in between to better distribute the weight, however, with the plywood on top and on the sides I’m not really concerned.
Plywood Skin:
I wrapped the entire outside with 1/4 inch walnut veneered plywood, mitered all joining edges for a seamless look. I used a full coating of wood glue and just about every clamp
Edge Banding:
I milled up some 6/4 solid walnut and ripped it down to 1” square, gave it a heavy chamfer and glued it on to the face of the 1x/plywood combination.
Door:
I made the door by laminating a 1/4 piece of walnut ply to 3/4 ply and then edge banding with more solid walnut. I ended up having to plane the back side of the door down to under 7/8 because that was the max door size for the cabinet hinges. I also realized after I assembled the cabinet with a spring door stop that the spring wasn’t strong enough to push the door out far enough to open, so I made a handle from solid walnut using a cove cut on the table saw and a bunch of cutting and sanding. I cut out a spot for it in the door, snuck up on the cut for a good fit and then sanded flush.
I attached the door using inset frameless hinges.
Equipment Mounting:
I added a plate inside with a shelf at the bottom to be able to mount equipment such as ATO controllers, pump controllers, heater controllers. All the cables will feed through the slot and hide behind the panel, and travel to the tank and such out a cutout in the back. I will have a power strip mounted back behind to plug into, and there will be one power cord exiting the stand. I attached wooden blocks with threaded inserts and have bronze thumb screws on the way to make the panel easily removable.
Final Touches:
I spent forever sanding the whole thing, taking care to be very light on the veneered plywood. The spiny between the plywood and hardwood edging turned out seamless in most places but there’s a few spots where there was some chip out or the hardwood was a touch below the plywood and there isn’t much to do there. I will be spraying the entire cabinet with conversion varnish to protect from everything. I also have leveling feet on the way that will get installed directly under the vertical supports.
Final currently:
