DIY Lesson Learned: Go Wide, Or Go Home.

It was 9pm and I was a little paranoid that the neighbors would hear the jig-saw, but I was motivated. Besides, how long could this take? I was merely following my pen lines from the trace of my cardboard prototype. I was excited. In hindsight, perhaps a little too excited. Operation Thin-Lizzy: the creation of my super-cool 1/2" acrylic angled refugium light stands - was about to humble this DIY aquarium guy - in a big way.




The Idea:

The idea was rather simple. I wanted to build light stands, that were angled slightly higher on the far side, to direct the beam from my new horizontal refugium light away from protein skimmer and by proxy, be closer to the actual chaeto in my fuge. To be low profile. To be all the things that my current clip-on light fixture is not. It sits high on top of my sump and a lot of light spills over onto the nearby protein skimmer, creating algae in it. It has been driving me a bit nuts.




The new low-profile horizontal light from local pet store.

So my new light stands would address all of that and have a rather novel approach to do so by slipping onto the sump baffle with a notch cut in each light stand. The other side of the stand would be firm with the side glass of the sump by the downward pressure from the fixture weight.

Further strengthening ideas would wait until after the initial test. I thought these stands in themselves might be enough, but I had to test them first.



The Supplies:

• 8" x 10" 1/2" thick acrylic sheet
• 11.8" x 3.5" x 5.9" compact fluorescent terrarium canopy fixture scored from a local pet store
• Shoe box
• Pen
• Marker
• Scissors
• Measuring tape

Total Cost:

< $30 dollars


Estimated Completion Time:

2 hours

Actual Time:

> 3 hours





The Prototype:

To create my new refugium light stands, I started by measuring out marks on a shoebox. My stands were to be 3 inches high and 7 3/4" long - angled up slightly. I then took a piece of 1/2" thick cutting board I had laying around from a previous project and used it to draw a stand by tracing around it following my marks. After that was done, I drew a 1/2" notch at the bottom that was 3/16" thick for my baffle clip as shown.





After cutting out my prototype, I tested it on my sump. Requiring only a light trim on the far side, the prototype worked. "Damn," I thought. "I'm good." The fit got me fired up.




I then removed the cardboard cutout and placed it on my acrylic sheet to make the cut lines with a pen. This proved to be a bit harder than I anticipated. Holding the thin cardboard in place without moving it took effort. After a bit of a struggle, this phase was done and I then drew a small notch on the low side 1" up to hold the light in place. Now it was time for the jig-saw. Operation Thin Lizzy was in full force and I still had an hour window on my initial 2 hour estimate.





Making Cuts with the Jig-Saw:

After securing the acrylic sheet with spring clips, I took out a smooth blade and attached it to the jig-saw. One last look around the sheet I realized I clipped it on too close to the table and had to move it out a bit so I could complete my cuts. I obviously don't do this for a living. Thankfully. That done, I put on my safety glasses and fired up the saw.

While holding the table and sheet with one hand I slowly moved my saw along the trace line with the other at medium speed. I started my cut just off to the side of the mark and decided to keep it there. I realized it would be slightly thicker but I thought that was ok. At least I was keeping the cut straight. My first few cuts went pretty well. It took longer than I thought to cut through this 1/2" acrylic and my blade was pretty warm.

It was time for the long cut across the arm of the stand and I dug in. I was really holding the line so I decided to increase speed. Operation Thin Lizzy went into the high notes and the guitars were jamming in my head. Plastic chips were flying and I was smart to use safety glasses, but I probably should have covered my mouth as I was practically drooling at this point. This is fun! Yeah! The guitars were deafening and I'm hauling… and went right by my stop line - clear though the other side of the sheet. Oh no! Are you serious? How could I be so stupid? I stopped the saw. My victory song ended with complete silence. I was shell-shocked. "I am an idiot!"

Regaining my composure, I regrouped. Ok. All is not lost. I decided to take the long arm and use it as a trace. I would just move it down and line it up with the remaining side I had drawn so my stand would just be a 1/2" shorter. Not a big deal! I wanted them shorter originally anyway. Man I was embarrassed.

After another round I actually had my first stand cut out after following my lines and hitting my stop marks. My confidence improved a little bit. Then I took my first stand and traced out another for a pair. Looking back, this was another mistake. I should have traced the 2nd stand from the original cardboard prototype and not the 1st acrylic stand. By doing so, I was guaranteeing that the 2nd one would be larger than the first. You get it? I didn't at the time. It didn't even occur to me. I was moving fast.



Cutting the Baffle Notches:

After tracing the 2nd stand, I went back to the 1st one to cut the notch for the baffle. My plan was to drill a hole at the inside end of the notch and then cut lines to the hole from the outside in. Seemed easy enough - until I tried it. Wow. The acrylic was flapping like crazy at the short sides as I cut the notch. I started to get nervous. This is not good. Go slow. I was starting to think there was an issue with my design. But I buried the thought after completing the 1st notch. My first stand was done.



I moved on to the 2nd stand and cut it out rather quickly as I got increasingly paranoid about my neighbors and my late night jig-saw party. It was not as pretty as the 1st and it became apparent to me that it was larger due to my error of not tracing it from the original cardboard prototype. Oops. But no matter, as long as it worked. The top lines matched up with the 1st.. somewhat. Enough to hold the light and work. It was time to cut the final baffle notch and get this party moved back inside the house.

As I cut the final baffle notch the acrylic started vibrating again. It was obvious to me at that point that I should have made the lower arms twice as thick to handle the notch cut. I really had thought that 1/2" thick acrylic would cut like butter. While strong, I realized it was brittle when making close cuts. The design error was apparent. I noted it, but tried to move on. I still had a chance to make this work. Proceeding with my cut I surgically tried to angle toward the edge of the hole from the drill as I was a bit off with this very last cut. Unfortunately, it was not to be. One of the tabs of the notch broke off, leaving this stand with a serious DIY-killing flaw. It could not support itself.

Trying to salvage my DIY effort, I rummaged through my aquarium parts in the storage room and produced a clip that might hold the broken stand in place and went inside to test it out. Ugly is fine, it just had to work. I was trying to keep my head up.


The odd couple. Ugly too. But will they work?


I think I was trying to make rubber-band guns.


Cutting a 3/16" wide notch in a 1/2" acrylic was much harder than anticipated.




The Test Results:

Once inside I tried out the stand with the unbroken notch. Unlike the cardboard prototype it wouldn't slip on the baffle. It was a hair too narrow. Ack! I was about to throw in the towel when I realized that the notch still held it in place on the baffle and with downward pressure the stand held with the high end on the sump wall. It was actually quite strong. It would certainly hold the weight of the fixture. I was encouraged by this. This at least proved the potential of my concept to me. This refugium light stand idea could work. The new lower height actually seemed great. A splash guard would take care of any remaining concern.




The angle here might have been flush if the notch on the baffle seated correctly.


Unfortunately the stand with the broken notch would not even balance in place, it just wanted to slip into the water. The clip I brought in didn't fit right either. For a moment I pondered the perfect combination of Maxi-Jet and Tunze mount parts to pull this off, but decided against it. It was time to lick my wounds, learn from my mistakes and plot round 2.



What I Learned:

1) Go slow. My cuts were not very straight. I need to respect the task more and take my time with the jig-saw. Going fast made me miss my marks and created sloppy edges. It has to work and could do so if ugly, but the closer to the lines the better for all ultimately.

2) Go wide. My light stands were unnecessarily thin at the base resulting in the project ending issues with the baffle notches. This whole 1/2" mentality working with the sheet and the 1/2" thick board I traced with - had me stuck at 1/2" all around. I think I will double the width of the base to 1" and make the notch slightly wider on the next version.

3) Trace from the original cardboard cutout for all cutlines - do not use the 1st acrylic cutout to make the 2nd's trace lines. This should keep the pair the same size and not have the 2nd stand larger than the first.

4) Strengthen the arms to prevent spills. Although downward pressure tests confirmed this ideas would work, any good taps from the side could cause the stands (and light!) to spill into the water. Not good. I have some ideas to address this with my next attempt.





After my first mistake with the jig-saw I was beet red. "Man this was a great story for 3reef, now I have to ditch it." I really was embarrassed. I thought the great story here would be showing my novel idea work. Although I do think that will be the exciting conclusion, I think the way it went could not have been a better opener for others to learn from. This approach would never have occurred to me otherwise.

I hope you learned something from my DIY light stand project so far. I sure have.

matt


TO BE CONTINUED…

 

I cannot tell you how much this made me laugh..... not really at you, but at how true this story rings. I can't stop thinking about all the projects that I have done and wondered where I was when I was planning it out.

Great story Matt.

 

i have to agree with this, its funny reminds me on how many times i should have measured about 50 times then cut, an yes eye balling everything makes it just as screwed up as the person making in my case well lets say my first attempt at making a fish tank stand turned into a nice bond fire in the in lol

 

Oh how this rings true for almost every project I do on my system! It's so funny how we've all got that box of parts that we'll dig into and salvage from to complete a project tonight vs. getting proper supplies to make it look professional tomorrow. I'm guilty of it today actually setting up an ATO on my nano at work!

 

It's good to know I'm not alone in struggling with DIY projects.

 

What kind of stroke were you using on the jigsaw? It seems like you were a little to aggressive on it.

 

Thank you Jon. I had a similar thought.

lol Yeah the measure a lot and cut once is so key. I could have used more tools here to measure angles, etc. I don't have those but that would have been nice to have. Of course if my jig-saw skills don't improve, it won't matter much.

Hahah.. Yeah if memory serves we may have done a contest here where we shared pics of the aquarium pile in the closet. Those parts have come in handy many times for me. I am an aquarium parts horder.

hehe. Yeah I 2nd-guessed my instinct to share this a few times, but I thought it would be good to do so.

Not sure I follow you Bustopher - can you explain?

matt

 

I believe he is asking either the speed of the blade when you were cutting or asking if you were using an orbital jigsaw. When cutting the straight lines try this.Get a straightedge.This can be a simple piece of aluminum box tubing (they sell pieces at any home improvement center).Place the jigsaw blade on the line you want to cut then clamp the straightedge to the piece you are cutting up against the guard of the saw.This will alow you to simply run the saw down the straight edge and will give you a nice straight cut.I like your idea but those notches make me nervous.:-/
My new ATS has the same issue with growing algae in my skimmer, however if you lower the light into the sump what would happen if for some reason the sump were to fill up with water?Wouldn't the fixture be submerged?? The best solution for my particular setup would be to paint the bulkhead between the skimmer section and refugium section black.Not easy to do as it would mean taking the sump offline for at least a day but something to consider on my next setup.

 

Excellent recs Vinny. And great point about water height in the sump when the pump is off. Wow. That is something I think of a lot with other equipment, can't believe that didn't occur to me here. Going from memory, I think I would have dodged that bullet as I recently lowered the water height 2" to accommodate my new skimmer. I am definitely going to follow up on that one. Thank you.


The idea about blacking out the bulkhead was actually something I had a similar thought about at first. I was going to just find a way to mount the black piece of cutting board I have vertically over the baffle.


THanks again
matt

 

Hmmmm.Mounting a black strip of Lexan is a great idea.That would be very easy for me to do and not require me to take the sump offline.In trying to help you; you have helped me.Good deal!!!;D8)