Need ideas for a bow front hood

[kimura]

I want to make a hood for my 12g, but it's a bow front. So I need to make it curve over in the front. I've seen the ones at petco, but I want to see if anyone here has done it, w/o using small pieces of wood across the front.

[gobies]

I can tell you how we bent wood in the theatre shop...

The sink in the paint room had a plate with holes in it that covered the bottom of the sink. We would put dowels in the holes that would bend the wood a bit and thread the piece of wood through them. We'd then keep the wood wet. We'd move the dowels daily to increase the bend. When the wood was at the desired shape, we'd leave it for another day. Then we'd take it out, let it dry, sand it, and continue with the project.

[kimura]

Thanks Gobies. I figured that it would have to be wet and then kept bent, but I didn't know how to keep it bent. That's a really great idea. Thank you.

[NaNO ReeFiN]

Where'd you buy a 12gal. bow?! I want one! My friend had set up a bowfront and we researched on how to build a canopy for it.. He just decided screw it and ordered it at Pet Kingdom.. haha. I ordered my canopy at Aquatic, they did an excellent job with it.

[glazer]

Probably the easiest way to get your curve is to make a curved "board". Basically you are going to make plywood. If you have the tools and ability, you need to mill some very thin stock, thickness will depend on how radical the curve is as well as the species of wood. You could also use thin plywood, like 1/4" or even as thick as 3/8" if you use bending luan... (species of mahogany).

You need to take these thin slices of wood OR the plywood... butter them up like bread with glue, stack them together and clamp them to either a jig that matches curve of tank or you can even use the tank itself. If using say 1/4" plywood... take 4 pieces,this will give you a 3/4" thick finished piece and most lumber you buy at Home Depot (or whatever) is 3/4 stock. Spread glue evenly along the entire surfaces of wood that will be touching each other, obviously not the very back or very front of two pieces...(gawd, I am going on so...lol We are making an Oreo cookie fer chris' sakes! Remember the cream is between the crunchy cookie!) Okay then! now lay these pieces along front glass and place quick clamps or spring clamps on them, DO NOT TRY TO CLAMP THEM TO TANK FROM BACK GLASS TO FRONT GLASS, just from the inside of front glass to outside of wood.

Just clamp lightly... no need for any extreme pressure at all! Let sit overnight and when you pop your clamps off, TADA! One curved board.

If any of you want some more info or whatever just let me know, fer some reason I got some kind of brain fart going on here...(no it's not a tumor!). Just reading back over what I wrote... I KNOW what I am talking about and not sure IF I UNDERSTAND what I just said...lol

[kimura]

Glazer, Man that sounds like it's pretty simple to do. I hope I'll be able to get it right. I wanted to use red oak, but I'm not too sure on what's the thinness cut they have. If they do have it, I'll use 2x 1/4" plywood and 1x 1/4" Red Oak. I hope it works! Wish me luck!!!

 

NaNoReeFIN: I got my tank from Pet Kingdom. I originally was there to get a 38g square tank with overflow from Oceanic but, my G/F said I should maybe start out small then work my way up. So I started to look for bowfront (since I can't have my square ) and I found the last one, It was a Jali (the light company trying to make tanks now) 12g with brushed sliver trim. It comes with a 36w PC 50/50 in an elevated hood. It looked really nice and it would allow me to startup quickly and keep very low light coral till I'm able to get my light setup. I think that they're on back order now. But they have a 7g at fountains if you're intrested.

[NaNO ReeFiN]

OoooOOoh... I know which one you're talking about now.. that's a pretty tight little tank!