my plywood tank build
- Thread starter laura65536
- Start date
I saw mention that you were going to heavily brace it... I'm not sure how you're planning to do that, but you'll definitely need to: OSB (pressboard as you call it locally I guess) is not very stiff. The other thing to keep in mind is that since you're not using polyester resin anymore, your back will not be sealed, so spilled/splashed/condensed water will be a problem to consider. Your front structure should also be braced quite a bit - that 3" strip of OSB will not be enough to support the window IMO.
Just some other general comments in response to some ideas I saw in this thread:
1) Epoxy and polyester are NOT compatible materials. Epoxy will form a weak bond with cured polyester, but polyester will not cure in the presence of epoxy, so mixing the two is a no-no.
2) Kitty hair is a ***** to work with, and is designed for filling large voids more than being a structural element - it has a lot of low strength fillers and thickeners in it along with the fiberglass strands. If one wanted a pasty putty to put in corners, you'd be better off buying chopped strand and mixing it with resin directly. This mix would go down BEFORE the fiberglass cloth/mat so the mat would have a nice radiused corner to lay in.
Just some other general comments in response to some ideas I saw in this thread:
1) Epoxy and polyester are NOT compatible materials. Epoxy will form a weak bond with cured polyester, but polyester will not cure in the presence of epoxy, so mixing the two is a no-no.
2) Kitty hair is a ***** to work with, and is designed for filling large voids more than being a structural element - it has a lot of low strength fillers and thickeners in it along with the fiberglass strands. If one wanted a pasty putty to put in corners, you'd be better off buying chopped strand and mixing it with resin directly. This mix would go down BEFORE the fiberglass cloth/mat so the mat would have a nice radiused corner to lay in.
cvermeulen;1221714; said:
for the front, we're running 2x6's along the top of the tank, as well as several 2x6 braces going from top to back, and then also using the 2x6's for bracing the back of the tank. The entire outside of the tank has drylok over it right now, and we'll probably be coating that in polyurethane as well, to keep the plywood watertight. We're not using fiberglass at all now, it is a pain, we got the 4 corners of one sump done and that was the end of the fiberglassing idea, that's why we are using the hardi board now. So no epoxy either, we're using drylok instead. Lots of liquid nails, and silicone too.
Oh my comments about the fiberglass were more for general interest than this build. I'm curious as to why you found it to be such a pain though - there are some specific techniques for working with it... if you use them it's really not too bad - just time consuming. Anyways, glad to hear you're bracing it heavily. I'd consider running a 2x4 down the center brace between the 2 windows on one of the tanks as well. I'm interested to see how this turns out!
we are on our tank, that strip of wood is just the right size to hide a 2x4, our friend's tank is just going to have one big window, but using a 55 saved us almost $200 so that's fine with me.
when you drill into the thickness of your plywood, won't it split? the 3/4 thickness of the plywood i mean when you conenct it with your base and sides panel.
nope, it didn't split, though we did have a few 2x4's split a little while making the stand, but not with the plywood. You just have to be careful while screwing on the plywood, but we were careful because we didn't want to have the screw go sideways into the tank, not because we were concerned about it splitting.
If you drill the appropriate size pilot hole you should never get splitting. I like to keep two drills available. One with the drill bit and one with the screw driver bit.
