Safe to drill holes on top of acrylic tank?

[Oughtsix]

I would recommend drilling the holes in the top with at least the width of the hole worth of material on all sides of the hole... In English: If you drill a 1" hole you should have at least 1" of acrylic around all sides of the 1" hole. This will help reduce the chance of cracking. Likewise a 1" hole should be no closer than 1" from the side of the tank.

Smoothing the hole with sand paper will also help reduce the chance of the acrylic cracking. Round over the top and bottom of the hole slightly with the sand paper... so there is a slight radius / flare on the edges of the hole instead of a really hard 90 degree angle.

The area on the top of your tank between the existing access holes and the overflow hole is already a weaker area than the rest of the top. Avoid drilling any additional holes close to this area. The area between the access hole and the back of the tank should be fine for new holes as long as you stay a good few inches away from the overflow hole in the middle back of the tank.

 

[Drips702]

I would recommend drilling the holes in the top with at least the width of the hole worth of material on all sides of the hole... In English: If you drill a 1" hole you should have at least 1" of acrylic around all sides of the 1" hole. This will help reduce the chance of cracking. Likewise a 1" hole should be no closer than 1" from the side of the tank.

Smoothing the hole with sand paper will also help reduce the chance of the acrylic cracking. Round over the top and bottom of the hole slightly with the sand paper... so there is a slight radius / flare on the edges instead of a really hard 90 degree angle.

Should I keep it wet while drilling or it doesn't matter?

 

[Oughtsix]

Should I keep it wet while drilling or it doesn't matter?

It wouldn't hurt... but I don't think it is necessary. A good sharp hole saw should cut through the acrylic with almost no heat buildup so water to cool the cut should not be necessary. Don't push hard during the cut, let the hole saw do the work. Go very slow and very lite at the bottom of the cut when the hole saw is just about the break through the acrylic. I.e. slow the speed of the drill down quite a bit and don't push at all right as the hole saw is about to break through.

P.S. I am probably making you overly concerned by making too big of a deal out of drilling a hole. You will find that actually drilling the hole will be pretty quick and quite easy and a lot less stressful than I am making it out to be!

 

[Oughtsix]

See how they positioned the holes in PlacuMomma's tank about half way between the access holes and the edge of the tank with pleanty of spacing between the holes. This is what you want to do as much as practical.

 

[Luke tomkinson]

good luck !!

 

[Drips702]

Thank you all for your help