HOWTO: Drill glass with dremel and durson standpipe on a 10g (pics)

Due to the noise of the overflow on my current setup I decided to put a Durso standpipe on my nano. I took the tank to several local glass dealers but the cheapest bid I got was $20 per hole. Bah I went to lowes and picked up dremel bit # 7144. http://www.dremel.com/productdisplay/bit_t...44&Color=009999 . And some 1/8" acrylic.

First thing I did was measured out the sizes I'd need to accomodate the standpipe. I used 3.25"X 3.25" for the corner overflow. In hindsight I wish I would have done 3.75 X 3.75", but it works now so I can't complain. I measure the plexi and cut two pieces 3.25" X 11 5/8". Put those two pieces in my corner clamps and used some weld-on#3 to put the together.

After they had set together I affixed some egg crate to the top to make a crude strainer and affixed it to the plexi with the weldon3. I then painted the backside black. I put the assembly in the tank and drew with a dry erase markers the outline of it on the outside of the glass to give me an idea of where to center my hole.

Onto the cutting here is the stuff I used

Dremel with the flexi shaft

7144 dremel bit

Glass of water

Dry erase marker

Small piece of 1" pipe to mark the lines to cut

Find the center of the bottom square and mark it with the marker. Then place a short piece of the PVC youre using on the center of the mark and draw a circle on the inside and outside dimensions.

That is so when you are cutting you can stay between the lines . Set the dremel to almost full speed and make a groove of where you are going to cut. Pour a little water on here and there for easy going. Once youre done it should look something like this:

Now start working on one small section back and forth until you break through. Apply water here and there you don't have to use a ton just keep the bit covered. This is where the going gets easy.

Once you do break through keep the bit on an angle like this:

Just keep moving the bit up and down and follow your groove around the circle keep applying water helps make the cut go faster and keeps down on glass dust.

Once you are through the short section of PVC comes into play again and you can use it to test fit to make sure the hole you cut is big enough:

Once you think it is test it with the piece of PVC you will be using for your standpipe:

Now its time for my DIY bulkhead. All I used were two 1" couplers and the short piece of PVC. I PVC glued one side then applied some silicone to the tank and fitting the pressed it in there and smoothed out the silicone till it squished out the other side of the tank. Then I got the other coupler and put it on the pipe that was now poking through on the inside of the tank and siliconed that into place. Let it sit for a day as this is the part that you do not want leaking.

Now on to the last part carefully insert the standpipe into the bulkhead you have made. Make sure to hold the bottom part under the glass tight so it does not wobble. If you wobble it on too far of an angle you're gonna break your glass.

Now silicone your corner overflow into place and you're done. Took me all of 1 hours work and about $20.

Parts list

Tools bits:

Dremel part 7144

Corner overflow:

plexi two pieces: height of tank - 3/8" X 3.5"

Egg crate : 1" X 7" cut to fit inside overflow

Weldon3 : enough to do the job (hardly any)

Aquarium safe silicone

Durso standpipe:

Go here http://www.rl180reef.com/pages/standpipe/s...en_stockman.htm much better job of explaining it than I can.

Bulkhead:

Short piece of PVC

2, 1" couplers

Oh yea the finished product:

I'll post more pics up and running in a while

nicely docommented.how long did it take you do cut through the glass?

3-5 minutes.

why did you use the egg crate and not just use your dremel to cut slits in the plexi instead? Dont you think it would have looked nicer? Just wondering.

sweet post dude-and good work with the dremel-didn't know that was an option-may have to try it myself!

Originally posted by nickel76

why did you use the egg crate and not just use your dremel to cut slits in the plexi instead? Dont you think it would have looked nicer? Just wondering.

I tried the slits on my old one but they didnt allow for enough

flow. With the top of the plexi only .5" below the water line you can barely see the egg crate and with my hood you can't see it at all.

Very nice BA. The Dremel is a cool tool, so versitile.

You know you can make a simple bulkhead out of pvc fittings and a rubber washer? Then you don't have to worry about that glue joint lifting and/or leaking.

Nice job on the hole Andy...

Couple questions... what type of paint did you use on the inside of the acrylic? And secondly, your DIY bulkhead arrangement, did you just stick the connector on the bottom section of pipe with silicone or did you place the bead of silicone THEN use PVC cement to place the fitting on?

Originally posted by glazer

Nice job on the hole Andy...

 

Couple questions... what type of paint did you use on the inside of the acrylic? And secondly, your DIY bulkhead arrangement, did you just stick the connector on the bottom section of pipe with silicone or did you place the bead of silicone THEN use PVC cement to place the fitting on?

Got a food safe paint from a cabinet make friend of mine not sure what its called he mixed it and put it in a can. Bead of silicone then place connector then another bead of silicone. If you can't fine the paint just use dark smoked acrylic.

really great info...

thanks

The images arent showing up....

Please fix the images so i can get my project done

yea me too Lol im going to do this to my 20 high

i cant see the pics.....

Barg! Pictures don't work! I neeeeeed them. Please try and fixem.

please repost any pics. i am going to try it this weekend. i already have everything just wanted to see it.

just following along

pics! we need pics!

I got tired of waiting for pics on this and just used the dremel. Go for it, it works fine. Trace a circle with a dry erase marker, use a diamond bit, go slow and stay in the lines.