3000 liter plywood tank/paludaria

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
bymoor said:
I remember that the plywood was 19mm. It's anyhow propped/reinforced every 30cm and that makes it much harder. Steel frame is 50x50mm and wall thickness is 5mm.

Tommi visited yesterday and shot some new material. He will edit some video...soonish.
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Obs.. The base plywood is actually a stack of 19+9+19mm sheets. Glued and screwed together so total of 47mm.
 
I've been looking at your build pics and they seem to skip the installation of the glass window, and this always seems to be the point I stumble on with all the theoretical builds in my head! It looks like you've put a piece of ply between the steel frame and the glass, is that right? I'm guessing that would allow you to attach more ply at 90* to the window to provide bracing against flex.
 
David R said:
I've been looking at your build pics and they seem to skip the installation of the glass window, and this always seems to be the point I stumble on with all the theoretical builds in my head! It looks like you've put a piece of ply between the steel frame and the glass, is that right? I'm guessing that would allow you to attach more ply at 90* to the window to provide bracing against flex.
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Yes there is plywood between frame and glass. This is because epoxy sticks far better on wood than powder-coated metal. and remember that all the corners were rounded with filler before laying epoxy and fiberglass. Plywood strip on metal frame was around 70mm and after epoxy and fiberglass it gives good area for making the gluing with silicone. Before started the job I inserted 5mm rubber risers on this frame, so glass won't press too near of the frame when compressed. Also plastic risers at the bottom, so glass will be almost floating all the time. Glass was lifted inside the tank, tubes of silicone applied to frame and then glass was pressed until the rubber risers were met.
 
Cool, thanks for that. Builds like this are an inspiration, if the price for all-glass comes back too high I think I'm going to give it a go!
 
bymoor said:
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[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sHZ96KLklg[/YT]
Direct link if embed is broken: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sHZ96KLklg
...to be continued...
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Hi Bymoor,
I wanted to know if the metal frame that you used for your back wall has any studs to stop bowing?
Also did you use fillet joints on all the seams on the inside of the tank where the walls meet the floor?
 
Ramesh said:
Hi Bymoor,
I wanted to know if the metal frame that you used for your back wall has any studs to stop bowing?
Also did you use fillet joints on all the seams on the inside of the tank where the walls meet the floor?
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Yes there are "studs". Those were not in place when video was shot. And fillet joints everywhere as it makes laminating much easier. I actually started all corners with 10cm fiberglass strips, before laminating the walls. Then all fiberglass sheets overlaps in corners to make sure final laminate is sturdy.
 
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