Acrylic Thickness help needed
- Thread starter suresh2989
- Start date
This was before It was placed on the stand. I had to build it in the house as it wouldn't fit down my stairs.
i personally wouldnt do it. but theres a few build videos out there of people using eurobracing instead of the solid top pannel. havent read of any issues. i think theres a stigma around building acrylic tanks. they are way more stout then some people think. the basic math done with psi ratings on acrylic and solvents vs glass and silicone scares me. a half assed acrylic tank fully assembled with weldon-16 ( not recomended) still has a far higher strength then glass and silicone lol
I completely agree, while I used single panel top with cutouts for my project I do think eurobracing should be enough, yours look very clean did you have prior experience building these ? Awesome job btw and did you saw your panels are saw cut ? Mine was CNCed so I didn’t have to do any edge prep.
i built the sump first. so that was my practice. knowing i could make mistakes and it not be a huge deal as the baffles act as bracing. the tank itself is my first.
i could have done better if i had my shop to work in. i have a very large well equiped shop. but being that this had to be built inside. i didnt have that luxury.
i ended up having 2 seams (front pannel to sides) not turn out as good as i had hoped. so took 1" acrylic strips and made a 45 to weld to the inner and outer front corner seams. every inner seam has an added strip for surface area with a healthy dose of weldon16 purely for added insurance.
as per scigrips website methylene chloride has a cure strength of 2500psi and weldon16 is 2200 psi. all my seams are 1" or larger in surface area. essentially making the psi rating much like 1" thick acrylic.
This is where I'm at now. I've made planters that are tied into the returns housing pothos and vines. Things get fun quick when you learn how to work acrylic and you have lots of offcuts left over LOL, ignore the cloudy water. i had the ridiculous idea to add some play sand. what a bad idea that was.
Do you have closeup pics of the seams and your reinforcement work ? That is a very good idea btw and I’m curious to learn to use it for my future builds.
