A
Anonymous
Guest
Started on this a few weeks ago. Basically brought a tank with stand along with a bunch of other craps, and the stand is so ugly that there is no way my wife going to let me bring it in my house. So instead of paying to buy a commerical stand, I decided to break the old one into pieces, and reuse as much of the lumber as possible.
The original stand is 60X18X40. It is too tall for my taste (I am not that tall, and I like my boys to watch the tank without looking straight up). I also want to reuse a 60 gal tank as sump. The 60 gal is 15 inch deep.
Some of the lumber smells due to water/fungus damage, so I end up usning the four legs and two of the cross bars that go lenght-wide. I cut the legs down to 24 inch, and make the stand 24 inch front to back.
Here are some pics. I end up using some red oak and stained it, and currently waiting for the urenthane to dry. 4 coats.
The first pic is stand with top off.
The second pic is with the top (plywood) on.
The third pic is after it is stained and vanished.
I still need to add panel to one side of the stand, doors, and drill holes on the top for return and drain. The sump will go thru the right side of the stand (half of it inside the stand, the other half outside).
Lesson learnt:
1, particle board is never good near water
2, don't use cheap hair brush for vanishing, since the hair will falls off and get embedded in the vanish
3, don't use stain+vanish combo and think that you can save time.
4, solid hard wood is expensive.
The original stand is 60X18X40. It is too tall for my taste (I am not that tall, and I like my boys to watch the tank without looking straight up). I also want to reuse a 60 gal tank as sump. The 60 gal is 15 inch deep.
Some of the lumber smells due to water/fungus damage, so I end up usning the four legs and two of the cross bars that go lenght-wide. I cut the legs down to 24 inch, and make the stand 24 inch front to back.
Here are some pics. I end up using some red oak and stained it, and currently waiting for the urenthane to dry. 4 coats.
The first pic is stand with top off.
The second pic is with the top (plywood) on.
The third pic is after it is stained and vanished.
I still need to add panel to one side of the stand, doors, and drill holes on the top for return and drain. The sump will go thru the right side of the stand (half of it inside the stand, the other half outside).
Lesson learnt:
1, particle board is never good near water
2, don't use cheap hair brush for vanishing, since the hair will falls off and get embedded in the vanish
3, don't use stain+vanish combo and think that you can save time.
4, solid hard wood is expensive.
