Polishing Acrylic & Overflow teeth

[pishposh]

I have some scratches on my acrylic tank... will this kit do?
http://www.marinedepot.com/a_mi_rb_sk.asp?CartId=

Also, what do you guys use to make the teeth on ur overflows? What do you guys use to cut acrylic? thanks

 

[Anonymous]

It all depends on how bad the scratches are. If the tank is dry, you would be better off using some power tools to polish it. IME, the wet, hand powered kits end up making things worse.

To make teeth a table saw or router would be easiest.

 

[pishposh]

i thought of using table saw, but i was worried that it might melt the acrylic n stuff. But if you guys do it, then hell it must work rite.

thanks for the help

 

[ChrisRD]

I used a table saw to cut teeth on the last two overflow boxes I made - seemed to work fine.

 

[Christian Schwalm]

For cutting teeth in an overflow, a router with a dovetail guide is the ticket. A table saw would work, but it would look like something out of a horror film!! ; )

I've also seen a DIY'er cut an overflow box WITHOUT teeth so that water just ran over the top. He did, however, cut a piece of eggcrate to form a grate for the water to pass thru and stop larger debris from getting thru. His method actually looked pretty good.
The problem with using a table saw is that the saw blade is really thin, so you'll have to cut tons of slots to get decent flow. Then there's the problem of consistancy: slot length, and distance b/w slots.
OK, so I'm a perfectionist!!!!!

You can see the outcome of the overflows that I make using the router method on my website, if you're interested.
Either way, good luck!

Christian Schwalm
SkyLab
www.wetdryfilter.com