Suggs Posted February 15, 2011 Author Share Posted February 15, 2011 Ok folks..... we have a tank! Managed to get the top and base welded this weekend. What a horrible/scary job it was too! First I welded the top which involves quite a bit of prep. Every 6 inches (approx) needs a wedge to make sure there is a bit of pressure on the weld. You can see them in this photo. The hard part is applying the solvent to all 4 sides and pulling the spacing pins before the solvent evaporates. I really needed an extra person helping me apply solvent as it took too long really but fingers crossed it seems to be spot on. That was Saturday. Today I did the base which was the real scary one as if that went wrong then bye bye tank and start again Again, wedges required. What a nightmare it was! Took me almost 3 minutes to apply all the solvent (it should only have a 1 minute soak time!!) BUT it has worked spot on I hope! I'm going to leave it a couple of weeks before I test it with water but hopefully it should be good. Just need to go round some of the edges with the router and then maybe flame polish them. Haven't totally decided on that yet as you wont see any edges once the frame is on. Finished (ish) tank: Please excuse the poor photos. I just couldn't get rid of the reflections. I'm really pleased with how it has turned out. The clarity of the acrylic is truely unbelievable. Next up is deciding what pump or pumps to buy for the closed loop Link to comment
neversoclever Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 this is awesome dude. holy crap Link to comment
Phyto4life Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 this is awesome dude. holy crap Agreed, nice Link to comment
Suggs Posted February 16, 2011 Author Share Posted February 16, 2011 Think im going with either 1 or 2 sicce syncra silent pumps for the closed loop. I specifically want them to be silent. What models do you think I should go for? Link to comment
Suggs Posted February 17, 2011 Author Share Posted February 17, 2011 Well i went for 2 syncra 3.0's Hope they are as good as people say. Link to comment
Suggs Posted February 25, 2011 Author Share Posted February 25, 2011 Water test this weekend Link to comment
quickfinger Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 wow is that thing awesome. Nice work! Link to comment
tymanzz Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Water test this weekend Pics, pics, pics! Link to comment
Suggs Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 woohoo..... wetness was successful Plumbing it (temporarily) was a nightmare! In action: I've decided I need a third pump to help ease the plumbing and increase flow. Other than that I'm really pleased. Link to comment
Suggs Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 Not an update as such but I played on sketchup during my lunch break today. These are the shelves I'm going to use: Dont forget everything will be hidden with the frame! Link to comment
Suggs Posted April 16, 2011 Author Share Posted April 16, 2011 Update time…. I’ve been somewhat slow with progress on the tank lately, partly down to spending my time on the frag tanks but I’ve got quite a bit done recently on my led build. Rather than buy sticky thermal pads I decided to use the cnc machine and have the led’s sat within the heatsink. This may slightly improve heat transfer but the main reason for doing it was purely because it’s a bit different! So, these are the heatsinks I bought: And here is the cnc machine routing the holes for the led’s: Leaving: Close up of the machined hole: Once they were all machined I drilled holes for the screws using the pillar drill. I only got 5 holes drilled before breaking the drill bit! That meant doing all the remaining 47 holes with my spare. Luckily it held up. Then, the boring & time consuming thread tapping! Wish I had a machine for this!! I used the chuck of the pillar drill to hold the tap perfectly vertical which worked a treat: Finished: Next up was the frame. I bought a large piece of timber from B&Q as this was much cheaper than buying smaller more appropriate sizes. It did mean a lot more machining though. First, cut it in half to make it more manageable. Then in half again down the middle: Then I used the sander thicknesser to get them all the same size and nice and smooth (I love this machine!): Finished pieces: Last bit of cutting was a slot for the acrylic splash guard. For this I used the circular saw: Then glued & screwed it all together: And that’s where I’m up to. Going back to the workshop this afternoon to wire up some of the led’s. Link to comment
Suggs Posted April 17, 2011 Author Share Posted April 17, 2011 Final update for a couple of weeks..... Led's all wired up and arduino complete: Link to comment
cees Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 Holy crap wat an awsome build dude ur skills are amazing! Cant wait to see it filled with water!! Link to comment
thewire Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 that is one awesome routing machine..very nice build! Link to comment
Suggs Posted May 7, 2011 Author Share Posted May 7, 2011 Thanks guys. The cnc machine is brilliant. You can do so much with it and its perfectly acurate. Link to comment
pyrocreep Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 I want your shop. Just saying. The tank looks like it's going to be amazing though. I realize your still a ways away, but do you have any specific plans of what you want to do with it for stocking? Link to comment
Suggs Posted May 7, 2011 Author Share Posted May 7, 2011 I want your shop. Just saying. The tank looks like it's going to be amazing though. I realize your still a ways away, but do you have any specific plans of what you want to do with it for stocking? It is an awesome workshop. We've only just finished building it. If you fancy a trip to england you are welcome to have a play in it! Stocking wise, I plan to keep mainly lps and a few sps. Im not sure on fish yet but probably only a few special ones. Link to comment
latteslave Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 Coming along very nice! Mad skillz Link to comment
silversurfer96790 Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 Nice shop, nice build. I got a question ? your big milling tools, like the band saw, cnc, sander, dust collector, ect. do they run on single faze 240v at 50hz ? I live in Japan and I have both Japanese tools and American tools, all my jap stuff runs on 200v and the American tools run on 110 and 220 volt at 50hz respectfully . I was thinking of adding a bigger Band saw for milling large stock. I can score a nice Chinese made saw on the cheap but it runs on 240v. I already have a 240v setup transformer but its single fazed.Sparky`s are very expensive to hire to wire stuff up here so though I would ask. Sorry full getting off topic, Nice clean shop. Cheers Link to comment
Suggs Posted May 8, 2011 Author Share Posted May 8, 2011 All the machines in the workshop run on single phase 240v. We don't have 3 phase available in the area otherwise we would have had 3 phase. Link to comment
Suggs Posted July 12, 2011 Author Share Posted July 12, 2011 Unfortunately Ive been too busy at work and haven't had time to work on the tank. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I might have some time spare. Keep checking the thread as I will update when Ive done some more to it. Link to comment
Suggs Posted August 20, 2011 Author Share Posted August 20, 2011 Ok..... boring but very important update! I have finally fixed the shelves meaning the tank can be set running soon Fitting the shelves was a mission! 18 holes 130mm into brick! My arms were dead by the end of it and I think my neighbours must hate me. The fixings are 8x120mm Fischer Frame Fixings which will hold approx. 60Kg's each. You can just make out the holes here: The brackets are a Spur twinslot system that can carry a serious amount of weight. Perfect for hanging a fish tank and led heatsinks!! And there you have it, just need some slight adjustment to get them perfectly level and then they are ready for a fish tank. Link to comment
Suggs Posted August 28, 2011 Author Share Posted August 28, 2011 Thought I'd see what the tank and lights looked like in place today. One step closer! Link to comment
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