Show Us Your T-Slot Aluminum Stands !

MaddyP

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Here’s the basic design of the stand that I purchased from framingtech. The wood platform/paneling was done by me and attached using connectors or brackets from framingtech.
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How do you like the door mounting? I've considered a similar method of attaching the panels.
 

Reefahholic

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I like Framing Tech, but you don’t see many people skinning the stands. An Aluminum frame surely won’t be appealing to my wife, but maybe I can talk her into it. I think a lot of people never skin them due to the additional cost. I’d most probably have to skin mine so maybe I’ll just do wood again. I do like the longevity of aluminum and the ease of future modifications. If more people have some skinned...I’d love to see em.
 

BZOFIQ

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I like Framing Tech, but you don’t see many people skinning the stands. An Aluminum frame surely won’t be appealing to my wife, but maybe I can talk her into it. I think a lot of people never skin them due to the additional cost. I’d most probably have to skin mine so maybe I’ll just do wood again. I do like the longevity of aluminum and the ease of future modifications. If more people have some skinned...I’d love to see em.

It can easily be skinned. I'll try to upload some pics next week.
 

tsouth

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I wanted to bring attention to an elegant method of skinning I discovered today. I came across Button-Fix which is an attachment method seen above by user Mirkus. It uses a "button" and another plastic mount with wings that clip onto the button. We can use tslot M5 hardware and drop in nuts to mount the buttons. You must use the green buttons. Was able to pick everything up from https://shop.ecosupplycenter.com/collections/button-fix

The cool thing is that they have a variety of mounting methods. I chose Type 1- Bonded which will allow me to mount Acrylic panels. They also sell a pre-cut adhesive for these mounts. I'm so excited.

 
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Mike S

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@tsouth I’ve been talking to Framing Tech about options to skin my stand and that is what they recommended. I’m hoping to have all my order in another week or two.
 

tsouth

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@tsouth I’ve been talking to Framing Tech about options to skin my stand and that is what they recommended. I’m hoping to have all my order in another week or two.
Oh wow hahaha that would've saved me hours of research for sure! Awesome, I can't wait to see what your finished product looks like! What are you thinking? Material, color, etc?
 

Mike S

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Oh wow hahaha that would've saved me hours of research for sure! Awesome, I can't wait to see what your finished product looks like! What are you thinking? Material, color, etc?

I honestly haven’t gotten too far beyond the design of the design of the frame itself lol. My wife will probably want it skinned in a more traditional wood design. I’m leaning toward putting together something with doors that allows day to day access to the sump but using those buttons to be able to pull the panels off on all three side when greater access is needed, The flexibility of this is great. My short term goal is to get the stand built, the tank on top of it and cycling. The rest will come after that.
 

Mike S

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Put together a stand from FramingTech this past week for my SCA 150. They were great to work with and it was simple to put together. I added extrusions to hang my lights. The way it is now the vertical uprights sit right against the back of the tank. I may sandwich in some short pieces of extrusion to stand them off the tank. I’m going to work out how’ll I’ll skin in over the next month or two. Overall I’m very happy with it.
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tyguy1482

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Here is my 30"x30" DIY stand right after cutting/fitting. I had some Series 10 profile and gussets laying around from another project so I elected to use it, despite not having the rigidity of larger profiles. I doubled the vertical supports and added horizontal bracing on 2 sides. It is slightly less stable side-to-side than front-to-back but I'm not too worried. Positive to this design is I can easily detach 2 sides to fit through narrow doorways and quickly reassemble.
 

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Mike S

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A quick update on the light hangers. Definitely noticed that when I put some weight on them there was enough deflection in the vertical pieces of extrusion (45 x 45 mm) to put them in contact with the back of my tank. When I spoke with framingtech they thought that they would be good to around 30 lbs. I ended up with a much heavier ATI Power Module and wasn’t comfortable hanging it from them. I think it’s still a good option for a lighter fixture but I’d plan including something in the design to keep it off the back of your tank.
 

Janci

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Love these stands. Congratulations everyone.
I love an industrial look, but would become crazy when
I am interested in seeing how you closed the stands with panels or other solutions.
 

Oregon Grown Reef

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@tsouth I’ve been talking to Framing Tech about options to skin my stand and that is what they recommended. I’m hoping to have all my order in another week or two.
Just so I understand what this is showing...the button is mounted to the stand via a bolt and nut and the bracket is attached to the wood? This would make it so you could easily remove panels from the stand, correct? I'm having framing tech build my stand too. Skinning it was my biggest concern since I wanted removable panels.
 

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I wanted to bring attention to an elegant method of skinning I discovered today. I came across Button-Fix which is an attachment method seen above by user Mirkus. It uses a "button" and another plastic mount with wings that clip onto the button. We can use tslot M5 hardware and drop in nuts to mount the buttons. You must use the green buttons. Was able to pick everything up from https://shop.ecosupplycenter.com/collections/button-fix

The cool thing is that they have a variety of mounting methods. I chose Type 1- Bonded which will allow me to mount Acrylic panels. They also sell a pre-cut adhesive for these mounts. I'm so excited.

Thanks for sharing. This solves a lot of my future problems.
 

Mike S

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Just so I understand what this is showing...the button is mounted to the stand via a bolt and nut and the bracket is attached to the wood? This would make it so you could easily remove panels from the stand, correct? I'm having framing tech build my stand too. Skinning it was my biggest concern since I wanted removable panels.
That is correct but I have t gotten around to skinning mine yet.
 
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