Is it possible to construct a wood stand with glue only? Another crackpot theory!
- Thread starter FINWIN
- Start date
As an alternate idea, what if four walls of wood from stacked wood were braced on the inside each corner with a glued 4 x 4? Would that solve the issue of potential splitting? I'm thinking it would almost end up looking like some funky furniture piece if painted.
I know it seems like a lot of wood but I'm just thinking out of the box here.
I know it seems like a lot of wood but I'm just thinking out of the box here.
I just did a couple of very rough mental calculations regarding wood requirements, based upon one of my favourite tank sizes of 4 x 2 footprint. If I were doing a traditional MFK-style stand, I would be using 4 legs each consisting of 3 sections of 2x4 laminated together, and would easily do the stand using 7 pieces of 2x4 each 10feet long. This would leave me enough shorter scraps to add a couple of diagonal braces...very desirable if the stand is not affixed to the wall. This would be at height of 3 feet, with a bit of wiggle room in that dimension, up or down as desired.
Building a similar-sized stand according to your original photo would utilize approximately twice as much wood, to produce a stand which in the interest of efficiency would be about 1/4-inch narrower front-to-back than the true 24 inches. This would not matter if you are planning to put a sheet of plywood on top as mentioned.
Don't worry about splitting; if you simply pre-drill all screw holes you won't have a problem. A vertical column in each corner as you describe...it would be much easier to just use another 2x4 or even 2x2 rather than going all the way to 4x4...really isn't needed, although it might make the actual assembly process go a bit faster and smoother.
Your design would not look nearly as utilitarian as the "normal"...and it wouldn't be, because without major modifications you would be losing all the storage space underneath. But it would be easy to finish it in various ways with paint or stain, maybe in multiple contrasting colours, to get a really unique look. I'm very much a form-follows-function guy, but I've seen your fluorescent plastic plants and radioactive gravel, so I'm sure you have plenty of ideas regarding dressing it up.
I'm starting to hope you build this; I'd love to see how it goes. I might even try it myself, but only if I decide to set up a "display" tank in a finished portion of the house. Otherwise, I just couldn't abide taking up that much space and getting no storage room in return.
If you build this...please, please, please...buy yourself a good quality metal framing square of decent size, and then take good care of it...and use it constantly throughout construction. This will protect you from frustration-induced suicide halfway through the job.
I just did a couple of very rough mental calculations regarding wood requirements, based upon one of my favourite tank sizes of 4 x 2 footprint. If I were doing a traditional MFK-style stand, I would be using 4 legs each consisting of 3 sections of 2x4 laminated together, and would easily do the stand using 7 pieces of 2x4 each 10feet long. This would leave me enough shorter scraps to add a couple of diagonal braces...very desirable if the stand is not affixed to the wall. This would be at height of 3 feet, with a bit of wiggle room in that dimension, up or down as desired.
Building a similar-sized stand according to your original photo would utilize approximately twice as much wood, to produce a stand which in the interest of efficiency would be about 1/4-inch narrower front-to-back than the true 24 inches. This would not matter if you are planning to put a sheet of plywood on top as mentioned.
Don't worry about splitting; if you simply pre-drill all screw holes you won't have a problem. A vertical column in each corner as you describe...it would be much easier to just use another 2x4 or even 2x2 rather than going all the way to 4x4...really isn't needed, although it might make the actual assembly process go a bit faster and smoother.
Your design would not look nearly as utilitarian as the "normal"...and it wouldn't be, because without major modifications you would be losing all the storage space underneath. But it would be easy to finish it in various ways with paint or stain, maybe in multiple contrasting colours, to get a really unique look. I'm very much a form-follows-function guy, but I've seen your fluorescent plastic plants and radioactive gravel, so I'm sure you have plenty of ideas regarding dressing it up.
I'm starting to hope you build this; I'd love to see how it goes. I might even try it myself, but only if I decide to set up a "display" tank in a finished portion of the house. Otherwise, I just couldn't abide taking up that much space and getting no storage room in return.
If you build this...please, please, please...buy yourself a good quality metal framing square of decent size, and then take good care of it...and use it constantly throughout construction. This will protect you from frustration-induced suicide halfway through the job.
LOL I have no fluorescent radioactive gravel...only blue sand. But I might try this on a small scale to see how it holds up. I thought about the under storage issue but can't have everything I guess! Maybe an "L" glue inside corner bracing (2 x 4) would be more practical than 4 x4 anyway. These ideas were inspired by the cost of stands that aren't the pasteboard stuff. Even trying to get a woodworker's build is pricey! It's insane...If you want a basic stand they want to build custom furniture regardless of what you say. Blocks obviously are cheap but ugly asf without some mods. Even painted they remind me of the walls at school.
Have only built circa twenty stands so don’t have huge experience.
My rule of thumb stems around human ingenuity.
We were clever and made glue, then we got even cleverer and made screws.
Why would I use glue when I could use screws?
So my rule is screws every time and if I really, really, really feel unsure, I add some glue, ie. Never!
My rule of thumb stems around human ingenuity.
We were clever and made glue, then we got even cleverer and made screws.
Why would I use glue when I could use screws?
So my rule is screws every time and if I really, really, really feel unsure, I add some glue, ie. Never!
Right...that's what I meant...
I'm getting the impression that everyone thinks I am recommending building stands with glue alone. Far from it! My reason for telling that little tale...and my dad's reason for illustrating the idea to me...was simply to point out just how strong glue really is, and how much it contributes to a wooden structure. Please understand, I haven't messed around with glue-only stands since then; the work is infinitely easier using both screws and glue, and allowing each to complement the other. If I were to use only one...big "if"...it would be screws.
But I will say that, IMHO, the only possible benefit to not incorporating glue into the construction of a stand is the fact that, sans glue, the thing could conceivably be unscrewed and taken apart at some future point, if that should seem advisable. If it's glued...it's permanent. That's the whole point.
Aside from that, glue is ridiculously cheap...it takes virtually no time to apply...and it is so effective...that I will likely never build anything, aquarium-related or otherwise, without using it.
And when our human ingenuity came into full bloom...we realized that we don't need to make the choice. We can have the best of both!
You used regular brick, not the cinder blocks? I thought about that, but aren't they easier to shift around?
Not really sure why you don't want to use screws but if you want glue only, why don't you make your own wood glue?
Plenty of structural strength wood glue recipies (reliable) online.
It was not that long ago that we had to make everything from scratch. Wooden "nails" can still be found on older wood structures and ships.
Plenty of structural strength wood glue recipies (reliable) online.
It was not that long ago that we had to make everything from scratch. Wooden "nails" can still be found on older wood structures and ships.
