Cuting an Acrylic sump

[marrone]

My sump is in my cabinet under my tank and because of it's hight I have a hard time getting into it unless I slide it out. I would like to cut a small square on one side so I can get my hand into it. I would either like to cut down from the top or from a hole that is located on the side.

I don't want to empty out the sump or even move to make this openning. Is there a saw or cutting tools that I could use that would do the job.

tia
Michael

 

[alrha]

how about a dremel?

 

[House of Laughter]

Marrone,

I would use a jig saw - since this is acrylic, the cuttings from the acrylic won't affect your tank health.

Although a Dremel would be more surgical and create less of a mess.

House

 

[marrone]

I'm just worried that it may crack when I'm cutting it. I have a jig saw but because I would be cut side way, with the saw on it side as opposed to the saw facing down.

Would there be less of a chance of it cracking using a dremel or a hand held saw, like a hack saw.

 

[glipper69]

depending on what size u need you may just want to just use a large hole saw. same type used to cut holes for bulkheads. if that doesnt; work a jigsaw with a very fine tooth blade will do the trick. so will the dremel for that matter as long as you are u fine blade, the larger teeth tend to catch more and may cause a crack.
good luck,
Frank

 

[marrone]

I used a small hack saw blade, the electric jig saw that I have the teeth where alittle to thick, and cut it by hand. It came out ok but I should have made the openning larger so I may have to re-cut it

 

[marrone]

I did get a bunch of plastic cutting in the sump which was throw into the tank and cause the pump tp clog up a couple of time but otherwise no problems.

 

[alrha]

how can you make nice clean cut teeth? when i tried to make the teeth of my overflow deeper, it kept catching and didnt come out so nice - i ended up just having to make a big opening and covered it with eggcrate.

 

[bad coffee]

When I cut my overflow teeth, I used a rotozip with a 1/4" straigh bit. I made a jig that was EXACTLY the width of my rotozip, and about 3" deep. I cut it out of 3/4"ply. The jig makes it so the router doesn't slide side to side and make wavy teeth. (the dots are there for spacing)

|-------| |-------|
|-------| |-------|
|-------| |-------|
|-----------------|
|-----------------|
------------------|

I clamped the acrylic to the bench. Then I made marks every 1/2" across the acrylic, on the paper.

I lined up one side of the slot, and clamped the jig to the table, AND The overhanging acrylic (as close to the slot that I could get on both sides.)

Route to the stop block, then move the jig 1/2" over. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Took a good 2 hours to slot an 11" piece.

HTH

 

[alrha]

sounds fancy for me - he he, but looks good.
you're talking to a guy that finds the easiest way to cut acrylic is scoring it with an acrylic cutter. maybe one day if i get good at it, i can make new teeth in black acrylic and just glue it on to keep the clean look. The problem is just that my water level is too high and hits the glass brace if i dont dial down my pump or if the surface waves are too big.