Plywood Tank Questions and sealers Need help

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ray777

Jack Dempsey
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May 5, 2005
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I have looked and looked. Got lots of good ideas. But I want my own thread. What do you think is the best sealer for a plywood tank. I want to make two of them both 8ftx30inx30in. Front glass panel. What sealer should I get and what type and thickness of plywood should I get. Also what thickness of glass for the front or is Acrylic cheaper?
 
ray777;3852811; said:
I have looked and looked. Got lots of good ideas. But I want my own thread. What do you think is the best sealer for a plywood tank. I want to make two of them both 8ftx30inx30in. Front glass panel. What sealer should I get and what type and thickness of plywood should I get. Also what thickness of glass for the front or is Acrylic cheaper?
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I'll leave the glass question to others or to the stickies above.

As far as what sealer, IMO there is no perfect sealer. All of them have tradeoffs between cost, ease of application, silicone adhesion, repairability and long term durability.

At 30" tall I believe you're at the threshold where you either need some external framing or fiberglass reinforcement.

If external framing is out of the question then I'd recommend you use polyester or vinyl ester resin to get a good thick coat of fiberglass reinforced resin. It takes a lot of resin to wet out that much fiberglass so polyester or vinyl ester will save you some money compared to epoxy.

If you'll have sufficient external framing then your choices are wide open in my opinion and you'll need to decide among the five tradeoffs listed above and decide what's most important to you. And you may have additional tradeoffs that are important to you.
 
ray777;3852811; said:
I have looked and looked. Got lots of good ideas. But I want my own thread. What do you think is the best sealer for a plywood tank. I want to make two of them both 8ftx30inx30in. Front glass panel. What sealer should I get and what type and thickness of plywood should I get. Also what thickness of glass for the front or is Acrylic cheaper?
Click to expand...

I used glass for my front, for 30" tall you have to use 1/2" glass. In my opinion, a epoxy resin based paint is what seems to be the best to seal with. Here is what I used.
http://www.uscomposites.com/epoxy.html
 
ray777;3853374; said:
Thanks for the info so far. How much epoxy resin do you think i will need for the two i am going to build?
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It depends on whether you'll be using fiberglass or not.

If you'll just be using plain epoxy without fiberglass then each tank will have about 65 sq. ft. of interior depending on what you have for top braces and how big your window cut out is.

So about 130 sq. ft. for both.

One gallon would coat both tanks to a final thickness of 12 mils which is about the absolute minimum and also assumes a smooth surface. Since some plywoods are rougher than others you might need a bit extra to even it out.

If it were me and I wasn't using fiberglass I'd get three gallons and apply all of it. And since I'd probably at least use fiberglass in the corners and seams I might even add a fourth gallon. I'd use the leftover with a thickener to form fillets in the corners.

And to clarify one thing, the epoxy linked in a previous reply is not an epoxy paint. It is a 100% solids epoxy resin.

Epoxy paint is basically the same stuff but with solvents and pigments added. Similar final result but not the same from an application standpoint.

I have used other products from that company. Good technical department and good prices. And $65 for a 1.5 gallon kit is a VERY good price.
 
smichael;3853346; said:
I used glass for my front, for 30" tall you have to use 1/2" glass. In my opinion, a epoxy resin based paint is what seems to be the best to seal with. Here is what I used.
http://www.uscomposites.com/epoxy.html
Click to expand...

When I talked to that company about building a plywood tank they felt the West Systems epoxy they carry was worth the extra money over their regular resin. But they did say that either would work. Did you talk to them about this or did you select based on other characteristics? Just curious.

Also, the products in the link above are pure resins, not epoxy paints. Epoxy paints leave a similar epoxy membrane once cured but in most other ways are different from epoxy resins.

Regardless, I have used their Kleer Koat on some woodworking projects and have ordered other stuff from them, IIRC. Great company to deal with.
 
I based my decision on reading what others have used, and I did talk to the company and he said this would work. I agree with other that resin and paint are different from an application stand point.
 
CJH;3853777; said:
When I talked to that company about building a plywood tank they felt the West Systems epoxy they carry was worth the extra money over their regular resin. But they did say that either would work. Did you talk to them about this or did you select based on other characteristics? Just curious.

Also, the products in the link above are pure resins, not epoxy paints. Epoxy paints leave a similar epoxy membrane once cured but in most other ways are different from epoxy resins.

Regardless, I have used their Kleer Koat on some woodworking projects and have ordered other stuff from them, IIRC. Great company to deal with.
Click to expand...

I've done alot of research on plywood tanks, but am still new to this. I've seen many people coat with epoxy paint and many use epoxy resin, do you have a preference?
 
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