140Gal (4x2 Footprint) DIY Stand

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japes

Blue Tier VIP
MFK Member
Some of you may have seen this posted in my worklog thread a while ago that was in the CA/SA Section. This stands been under my tank for a couple of months now but I've only really just discovered how useful this part of the forum is for ideas so here's my input, hope someone can take something away after reading it.

Copy pasted from a full log so some of it may not make perfect sense! Let me tell you, having a father who's a carpenter sure comes in handy ;)

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Stand building commenced early today. Progress has been great. The old man is a carpenter, so wood and experience weren't a problem. He took it upon himself to source everything and do what I can only describe as a fantastic job.

Still incomplete but we're getting there, should be done tomorrow.

Final measurements were based of a mates, Holo's 4x2 stand. 700mm high, with a 50mm lip to cover glass bracing, silicon and styrofoam.

Early progress from this morning.

stand1.jpg


Start of production when I got down there. Stand is in it's side there. Using solid pine pergola for the legs.

stand2.jpg


Little more completed. Center brace is in and the solid ply background is nailed on. As you can see we haven't used a traditional brace in the center, instead opting to have the brace centered with the vertical support off to the side to allow for a reasonably sized door. Plenty of heavy strong screws were used keep the structure solid.

At this stage I went out for a bit, dropping into an LFS and picking up this bit of driftwood.

On arriving home, I was gone for about 2 and a half hours. Stand is definitely looking a lot more homely. All of these shots were taken at the same time.

stand3.jpg


Cedar exterior almost complete.

stand4.jpg


Single door on the left size with false floor. As you can see, we've cut some of the sections of the top and base out to allow for a higher door for 400mm high canisters.

stand5.jpg


Open side to show bracing.

stand6.jpg


Interior of door and flooring. Bad photo.

stand7.jpg


Front. Needs to be stained yet, obviously. Will also have a towel rack on it, which will be ultra handy.

stand8.jpg


Back. As boring as you would expect.

stand9.jpg


First coat of stain/varnish on.

towelrail.jpg


Towel rail and where it's going to go (the drill holes directly below the legs on the face). Going to be finished up on the day so that moving the stand is easier as it's going to have to go through the window as well. It's actually from a handle from a revolving door that some people get for their front doors on houses. Turns out it's worth about $120, score.

doorknob.jpg


Doorknob that I picked out this morning to match. First booboo as you can see with the drilled hole above it, that will just have a nice looking bolt installed into it to cover it up and make it look somewhat necessary rather than bogging it. Speaking about bog, I still need to clean up the holes around the top rim section with a blade and do another coat of the varnish. Tomorrow morning.

standalmost.jpg


Stand basically complete other than the towel rail. Handle and special 'showy' bolt to hide bad drill planning. It's been moved up onto the patio and isn't too far off being as heavy as the tank. Fortunately due to it being an absolute brick, we can just carry it into my room through the door vertically.


stand%20in.JPG


Stand in where it's currently sitting, with a mate of mine screwing in the towel rail while I supervise with the camera. We managed to get it in the door quite easily by laying it carefully onto a huge blanket and just dragging it in. I have two steps right below the doorway though, so it had to be carried most of the way.

standin2.JPG


Stand complete, big ups to the old man. I'm very happy with it.

And.. that a full shot of the tank it supports as of April 15.

fulltank1.jpg
 
If I built a stand that nice for my kids they'd never get it! :ROFL:

Now do something nice for your Dad :thumbsup:

Dr Joe

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JonF;1720335; said:
Very nice! The water looks very clear! What eheims are you running on that tank?

Water is crystal clear other than the floating particles. Running a 2217 and a 2215 on it currently so it's adequately filtered for the time being. 2500lph~ sump is half way complete though so the specs will be gone when thats done (Much love for 50micron filter wool).
 
Excellent, outstanding job. I'm glad you understand and appreciate your dad's skills.
 
japes...

Well done!

I notice a few things in the photos..
First, you own a sailboat?

You have a rug in front of the fridge in your shop?...My dad learned to use a rug there to help catch the glass bottles us kids would drop.

You have the tank stand handle to go with the bed headboard, I like that , not many of us would think to do that.

There is one problem however, and you HAVE to fix it....
Its the power cord.
You have to hide it under the wall's kick board.
It gets in the way of the look of the finished tank/stand...

Oh and I got to ask: What does "YWURR!" mean?
 
kumdoalan;1720896; said:
japes...

Well done!

I notice a few things in the photos..
First, you own a sailboat?

You have a rug in front of the fridge in your shop?...My dad learned to use a rug there to help catch the glass bottles us kids would drop.

You have the tank stand handle to go with the bed headboard, I like that , not many of us would think to do that.

There is one problem however, and you HAVE to fix it....
Its the power cord.
You have to hide it under the wall's kick board.
It gets in the way of the look of the finished tank/stand...

Oh and I got to ask: What does "YWURR!" mean?

Haha, you've got a keen eye.

We've got a few small yachts, my old man enjoys building boats in his spare time, but the one pictured is a small racing one, I don't know any of the technical terms but it's light and quick :p

The rug in front of the fridge is actually just a non slip rubber style mat, I don't know why it's there really :p

Regarding the power cable, that's running to my computer and we simply couldn't be bothered hiding it as only that part pictured is visible and the rest disappears into a cupboard.

It's actually YWURRI, read "Why Worry", it's the name of my dads shed, I think it's an Aussie Bloke thing :p
 
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