jjdsplace;1784466; said:
Well jjdsplace, here's my transcription of my written plans. Note to self: stop drinking when drawing plans out on paper! I hope I was able to make sense of my chicken scratch! Anyways, here they are:
I broke away from traditional stand building in that I did not make a separate top and bottom 'box' connected by support beams. I opted to make two separate sides connected by braces.
The front can be seen in the first photo. The three legs have been notched to accept the two 2x4s. Bottom and middle members were also notched a 3/4". The 2x4s were then glued and screwed together. I kept the bottom 2x4 approximately 2" off the floor so I would be able to make French curves on the bottom face plate.
I then made an identical side for the back. Once I had completed the front and back, I connected 9 braces (I know the photos only show 8, I forgot to put one in the very middle). All braces were connected with glue and pocket holes.
Once the front and back were all braced up, I checked for levelness and had a beer (or two) in celebration. Now it was on to the panels. I used 3/4" cabinet grade plywood. Those were glued and air nailed onto the sides. For the front, I used Grade AA Select Pine to cover the 2x4s. For the end pieces I made Cove moulding with a 1/4 cove router bit. I then made a pilth with a small block of 13/16 pine and used a Roman oglee bit for the bottom of each piece.
In the center brace where the shelves are, I curved the piece out for no other reason than to break up the squareness of it. Next came the doors. They are simply 3/4" plywood with three pieces of pine glued to them. The "drawers" were cut with a 20 degree tilt on the blade for edging. I then used European hinges to mount them. The bottom piece is one long piece with two French curves cut into them with a band saw.
The final piece was the trim to hide the bottom moulding on the tank. It is a large cove piece that I made on my table saw with a 1 1/2" piece of pine on top that has been rounded over.
Inside the stand, I installed an adjustable shelf on one side (although I forgot to show that in my drawings. It is on the side that does not show a door). I took a piece of pegboard for my template and made several 5/16 holes on all four braces. I then used brass pegs to hold the shelf.
Everything was then stained and heavily poly'd over for protection. Everything was purchased at my local Home Depot and Lowes. The total cost was around $125. (that cost includes the canopy too). I hope this makes some sense! This was also my first time trying to use Google Sketch It for the drawings below. They are a lot neater than my drawings although I have no idea why it started turning some parts of it blue! Feel free to PM me or post away if you have any questions. Thanks for all the feedback guys!!
I didn't take too many pics during the building process, but I still do have my plans if anyone is interested. I wanted it to look like it could stand on its own without the tank and still look normal. The tank for that stand is a 55g. I will still take any and all comments and suggestions!
