Hey all, I'm in the process of building an all glass lid for my JBJ RL 30. I currently have the glass sitting on top of the tank with some rubber adhesive window insulation as a barrier between the tank and lid. It's regular old single pane glass from Lowe's cut to 24x16. It works pretty well as is honestly but I wanted to give it more support and make it look just a little nicer.
My idea was to brace the top using 2 - 24" x 2" strips of across the front and back, and 2 - 12" x 2" strips on the sides creating a glass border on top. I am considering frosting/etching the border glass to give it a different texture and appearance but I may leave it clear also, depending on how it looks. I'll be adding clear plastic border pieces to protect the edges when it's all done as well.
The problem I need help with is prepping the glass strips, I had them cut at home depot and the guy made a valiant effort and did OK but there's tons of ridges and waves in the cuts. I spent 2 hours this past weekend trying to sand them (mostly with a dremel diamond tip bit) and got the shorter ones to look pretty good but the longer pieces started chipping heavily. I was stopping every 10 seconds or so to squirt water on it and dropped the rotation speed but they just don't look as good as I'd like.
Does anyone have advice on how to smooth out the chips on the cut ends? I don't feel like the sand paper I was using (not sure what to buy, I got a sanding foam block to use and had some paper from awhile back laying around) had much effect and I don't trust going at it with the dremel again.
My idea was to brace the top using 2 - 24" x 2" strips of across the front and back, and 2 - 12" x 2" strips on the sides creating a glass border on top. I am considering frosting/etching the border glass to give it a different texture and appearance but I may leave it clear also, depending on how it looks. I'll be adding clear plastic border pieces to protect the edges when it's all done as well.
The problem I need help with is prepping the glass strips, I had them cut at home depot and the guy made a valiant effort and did OK but there's tons of ridges and waves in the cuts. I spent 2 hours this past weekend trying to sand them (mostly with a dremel diamond tip bit) and got the shorter ones to look pretty good but the longer pieces started chipping heavily. I was stopping every 10 seconds or so to squirt water on it and dropped the rotation speed but they just don't look as good as I'd like.
Does anyone have advice on how to smooth out the chips on the cut ends? I don't feel like the sand paper I was using (not sure what to buy, I got a sanding foam block to use and had some paper from awhile back laying around) had much effect and I don't trust going at it with the dremel again.
