193 gallon plywood build thread

lovely work there horkn

Its nice to see that you think and plan everything ahead (even the 45angle stand !)
keep the pictures coming

 

Hogwash!! Let's have 'em!!

 

I stopped over at Tom's last night to check the wood tank out and help him move it... It looks better in person. The workmanship is phenomenal and the depth of it will be great for aquascaping...
The stand and tank are a fraction of what just my empty 180 weighs... I look forward to more updates and can't wait to see that bad boy filled!

 

Ok then, but I will add pics of what I got done so far today as well

How about some pictures then?

Here is the overflow I epoxied last night.


The tank on its back bottom 45

Notice the 3/4 plywood that was needed to shim the tank to level? The garage floor has that much of a slant. The stand is square, but sitting on the garage floor it just has that much of a lean.

You can't see much in this picture, but this is after I layed a thin coat down (4oz) to hold the 3" wide fiberglass tape down and get it wetted in, and after that dried enough, I put down an 8oz double coat and it seems as thick as it needs to be. If you have an 1/8th inch you are golden, but as little as a 16th works too I see.
This is the back bottom 45, and the right side of the tank is on the left of the screen.

Here is a pic of the center of that back bottom 45, with the fiberglass under 12 ounces of epoxy total.


Here is the left side of the tank looking from the top down after a 4 oz wet out coat and the fiberglass tape wetted out.


Here is the right side of the tank in the same state as the left side..


I had extra after both bottom side 45's so I coated what I could on the bottom of the tank with the brush. You can't waste this stuff.


I will get more done tonight, but I have to let what i have done set up another 3 hours or more, but no more than 8 to get another coat over each part that i previously coated without a light sanding. Not really a big deal, but if I can leave out as much sanding as possible, I will.

I will need to sand the entire epoxy job before I coat the tank with epoxy paint. Like I said, it only needs a light scuffing, but I am a man who hates doing extra work.

 

Looking good. Thanks for the pics!

 

looks great, this thread has been a great help for the planning of my tank. Keep up the good work and keep the pictures comeing

 

So how much epoxy resin/hardener and tape will you blow through by job's end? What's the cost in just those 3 components, please?

 

This is a really interesting thread
I also look forward to seeing it filled - but am also intrigued as to how the viewing panel is fitted?

Steve

 

The glass is held on by a few tubes of silicone, which I will use GE 1 for. Basically you lay the tank face down after the epoxy and epoxy painting has been completed, and you put the glass on the silly cone, and put a couple 50 lb weights of sorts on top (with something to keep the weighted items from scratching the glass), and let it cure. It is a compression seal, and it works well. Apparently the silly cone sticks like a mofo to epoxy or epoxy paint.

Before you put the silly cone on, you use little rubber bumpers, like these
Picture Frame Protective Rubber Bumpers
around every couple of feet on the glass in the middle of the seal and those will keep too much silly cone from oozing out.

 

Well, I have 2 gallons of epoxy, and 84 ounces of hardener, so about 2.75g of epoxy with pumps and fiberglass and shipping was $144, then the gallon of epoxy paint is around 70 dollars plus shipping. Tape will be minimal, a 4 dollar roll will leave me plenty left over for packing up boxes or hog tying neighbor kids. Unless you meant fiberglass tape, which was included in the epoxy and shipping costs of $144.

The 3 sheets of high grade birch plywood were like $43 a piece, so about $130.

I spent 40 dollars on 2x4's and 2x6's,and the pieces I used for the 45's, plus many other supplies like disposable latex gloves, and a few brushes. I spent under 7 dollars today on spreaders and brushes today. The bumpers were like 2.50.

I have spent like 15 dollars on screws, and 5-6 on a bottle of gorilla glue, and 13 on a new saw blade.

So then the glass will be 80 dollars at most, I got one quote, but I know I can do better, and 5 -6 tubes of silly cone at 5 bucks each will be around 30 dollars.

I should be well under 400 dollars at the end, and a glass cages tank would be 750 for a similar sized one without overflows or shipping. With those added, the GC 5 foot long 180 would be around 900.

Then the really cool thing is that it is 100% custom, and I built it!