Scaffold stand?
- Thread starter Farmerjones
- Start date
Ummm....am I the only one who thinks that it would take a very large gun held to my head to make me use this stand?
The individual lengths of scaffold pipe are held together by those connectors which seem to use large setscrews to affix them in place. Okay...but with no diagonals to prevent it from folding at the first sign of lateral force applied to it...I would expect it to fold up at the first sign of lateral force applied to it.
The other thing that I find disturbing is the fact that as it is shown, it is resting on the floor only on the four corners and the central T in the middle of the rear piece. These fittings are all a larger diameter, obviously, than the pipes that fit into them. All the weight of the stand is concentrated on the floor at those five points of contact. Similarly, the entire weight of the aquarium is contacting the top of the stand only at the corresponding five points on top. Maybe he intends to address this in some way, but it isn't apparent in this video; in fact, he breaks down the entire cost of the stand based upon what we see here.
Does he actually have more videos showing a 400-gallon tank set up and filled on this stand? Because making a strong stand requires more than merely using strong materials; what's also required is a strong design, and I don't think this qualifies.
The individual lengths of scaffold pipe are held together by those connectors which seem to use large setscrews to affix them in place. Okay...but with no diagonals to prevent it from folding at the first sign of lateral force applied to it...I would expect it to fold up at the first sign of lateral force applied to it.
The other thing that I find disturbing is the fact that as it is shown, it is resting on the floor only on the four corners and the central T in the middle of the rear piece. These fittings are all a larger diameter, obviously, than the pipes that fit into them. All the weight of the stand is concentrated on the floor at those five points of contact. Similarly, the entire weight of the aquarium is contacting the top of the stand only at the corresponding five points on top. Maybe he intends to address this in some way, but it isn't apparent in this video; in fact, he breaks down the entire cost of the stand based upon what we see here.
Does he actually have more videos showing a 400-gallon tank set up and filled on this stand? Because making a strong stand requires more than merely using strong materials; what's also required is a strong design, and I don't think this qualifies.
Ah! So, when he built that stand in the first video, he neglected to mention that he intended to also apply plywood to it as well. That step certainly takes care of my major concern, i.e. the stand having no bracing to prevent folding up from lateral forces. A plywood skin adds vast stability and strength; it also adds considerable expense and added work to install; even more so on this design than on traditional wood. He was, I think, a bit disingenuous in the first video when he was going on and on about how fast the stand went together and how cheaply it could be made. I don't see any sped-up video with a stop-watch this time; this step took a lot of time/effort/expense, negating any advantage that he was claiming for the scaffolding design.
I wasn't suggesting that his initial design was not strong enough to withstand the weight of the tank...merely that it wasn't safe and stable.
My second concern...the limited points of contact between stand and floor, as well as between tank and stand...appears to have been addressed as well. Looking closely at the tank in this video, you can see that it is resting on some flat solid surface...plywood?...which is either notched out at the contact points with the pipe connectors or else sitting entirely inside the perimeter of the pipes; I can't tell which, and he gives no clue. I will assume that he did something similar at the bottom, between floor and stand. Again, this was a big step, which was IMHO absolutely necessary; it required even more material and more effort and time to achieve...but I don't believe that he even mentioned it.
This isn't a "how-to" video...although it certainly seems to be suggesting that it is. He cherry-picked a few choice bits of construction and presented that as a simple method for stand construction...but he did much more than he explained. He suggested that this stand design was super fast and easy to construct...and the part of the project which he showed certainly was...but the basic design required a lot more work and material than was shown.
Does the thing work? I'll bet it does now that I see the finished product. I'd also bet folding money that it took cosiderably more time and money to get it to that stage than a traditional wooden stand would have required.
Thanks for the link, P phreeflow , as I certainly wouldn't have looked for it myself and I still won't be following his stuff anymore than all the other "look at me!" video nuts out there. I can easily find videos of Oscars kept in 50-gallon tanks, Flowerhorns in communities, Piranhas eating live mice or a host of other things being done that IMHO shouldn't be...but what's the point of watching them?
I wasn't suggesting that his initial design was not strong enough to withstand the weight of the tank...merely that it wasn't safe and stable.
My second concern...the limited points of contact between stand and floor, as well as between tank and stand...appears to have been addressed as well. Looking closely at the tank in this video, you can see that it is resting on some flat solid surface...plywood?...which is either notched out at the contact points with the pipe connectors or else sitting entirely inside the perimeter of the pipes; I can't tell which, and he gives no clue. I will assume that he did something similar at the bottom, between floor and stand. Again, this was a big step, which was IMHO absolutely necessary; it required even more material and more effort and time to achieve...but I don't believe that he even mentioned it.
This isn't a "how-to" video...although it certainly seems to be suggesting that it is. He cherry-picked a few choice bits of construction and presented that as a simple method for stand construction...but he did much more than he explained. He suggested that this stand design was super fast and easy to construct...and the part of the project which he showed certainly was...but the basic design required a lot more work and material than was shown.
Does the thing work? I'll bet it does now that I see the finished product. I'd also bet folding money that it took cosiderably more time and money to get it to that stage than a traditional wooden stand would have required.
Thanks for the link, P phreeflow , as I certainly wouldn't have looked for it myself and I still won't be following his stuff anymore than all the other "look at me!" video nuts out there. I can easily find videos of Oscars kept in 50-gallon tanks, Flowerhorns in communities, Piranhas eating live mice or a host of other things being done that IMHO shouldn't be...but what's the point of watching them?
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