Kessil

Got bit by the bug, sort of...

If you have a table saw and dado blades you can make shaker style doors. Or just do a euro style cabinet and do flat panel doors. More of a modern look but would fit the style of your stand.

I scored a dado set couple months ago, Freud 8" for $20 !
I will definetly explore using the dado set.
Somewhere I have an old Sears Adjust-a-dado, used it once and that thing wobbled so bad... better safe than sorry.
 
Saw a good friend yesterday, I was impressed by the glass box, very impressed.
I borrowed his circular saw to cut some glass today and the result was way better than I had expected. I have a 30G tank from the days of the dollar a gallon sale at Petco. Why did I end up with so many glass tanks? Hey, it's a gallon/dollar 1:1 ratio, who can resist that?
I feel glass tanks are a very good option for sump or refugiums but I find the popular 20L too shallow (in case of emergency to hold water volume) and the 30G regular too tall... So this am after taking my brother for breakfast at the Alemany Flea Market, and meet a friend of ours who has a food stand there and I may say you guys should give it a try; excellent Mexican food; you should try Huitlacoche and Pumpkin Flower with Cheese quesadillas. Huitlacoche is a fungi that grows on corn and both, cooked the right way (the yummi way of course), are a "Manjar de los dioses" Also have Consome de Borrego, a soup where lamb is added; the lamb is cooked in a way called Barbacoa. El Huarache Loco is the name of the food stand. Miguel seems to be the main person; he is also into reef tanks; that's how we met and is going for the 10 year mark...
Back to the project...
Using a Makita 3"... something battery operated circular glass cutting saw, I was able to chop off about 5" off of the glass tank; I used a level as a guide and patience.
I had to recharge the battery once to complete all four cuts; used some 100grit sandpaper on a rubber block to dull the sharp glass. I will use the plastic rim again but I like the clean look. Since I have to ad baffles, my guess is the plastic is not needed but I have an Oceans Motion (old little thing) that can manage the return in a 4-way sequence or just use it for a closed loop; anyway those are just ideas.
When Gusty upgraded his tank, he removed the internal overflow box and I asked if I could keep it (that's how you hoard properly) I thought it would be handy some day. After cutting two sides of the tank and in-between charge of the battery, I took the OF box out and started removing the silicon; carefully cutt-off the top plastic "comb" piece so I can re-purpose it later for some other project. Still needs the bottom glass piece and three holes drilled on it.
Now I have an OF box that is looking to be resurrected... What to do with it, what to do...



007.jpg

006.jpg
011.jpg
008.jpg
010.jpg
 
Thank you, I take that as a compliment.
I just need a frag of glass for the time being... someone beat me to the 36x36 tank but I'm not in a rush. Still have 4, maybe 5 tanks that need a place. If I don't find a home for the 100 plexi, I might frag it for spare acrylic since is 1/4", pricey stuff.
 
Like fallen from heaven; I picked a tank today (yes I know... please don't lecture me) that is saying "Did you mention you have an overflow box to build and a donnor tank to put it on?"
Will be just another much entertaining thing for spare time or a rainy day or two...
 
I sold a ton of anemones to a guy who sold Mexican food at the Alemany flea market (or was it farmers market)... but I guess there might be a few of those.
 
Like fallen from heaven; I picked a tank today (yes I know... please don't lecture me) that is saying "Did you mention you have an overflow box to build and a donnor tank to put it on?"
Will be just another much entertaining thing for spare time or a rainy day or two...

Couple hours to kill, couple holes to drill and a straight line to cut.
Nice older tank 3/8" glass; don't think is low Iron glass but it's from the good old days of Oceanic Systems, serial number and date of manufacture on the sticker. I believe from before Oceanic was sold/relocated. 36x18, no center brace/glass, just the ABS plastic trim piece on top. The trim is not a one piece molded rather mitered at 45 and that made it a bit easier to remove instead of the whole piece. Silicon is hard to take off but doable...
Width of the cut is ~12.5" and cut-out for the overflow is ~1.25" from the top of the glass.
I was hoping by removing the trim piece, to find if the glass was nice and smooth as to say "rimless" but no, a bit sharp so sanded the sharp edges before any work continued.
Few years back, Matt Wandell modified an old Oceanic cube and Anthony ended up with that tank. Matt cut the back glass and plastic trim piece to fit an external overflow box. This was one of the things I wanted to try on one of the 37G Oceanic cubes I once had but never came to be; I opted for the false back and save the trouble. Now, having a spare tank, a donor overflow (formerly internal), a borrowed glass cutting saw and the "still doing a good job" diamond hole saw; heck, why not?
I'm still thinking about drilling five more holes on the back for a closed loop; just an idea.
Might have two drains; it's a 58-60-ish gallon tank so two 1" are more than enough IMO.
Now some images or it did not happen.
020.jpg

023.jpg

024.jpg

026.jpg

027.jpg

028.jpg

029.jpg

031.jpg

032.jpg

033.jpg
 
Last edited:
Last week I had afternoons to work for a couple hours with one of the "hacked" projects; cut some glass kindly donated by one of the 20G glass tanks wich BTW, had a bad seam. Who'd knew?! it was at the very bottom, just pushed a blade with no effort. It was a brand new (NOS) tank; just imagine if the tank had been put to use...
Anyway, went to HD to get some silicone to add the baffles for the sump and fuge sections and this is the result. Don't know if add the top plastic piece of leave it as "rimless". Back when I was "active" in the hobby, I used some skimmers as footprint sample to put together sumps; based on ER skimmers and a nice BM200, still have the ER CS6-2 !! For the return section, I liked big footprint pumps, a Sedra-5000 was the guide but a Mag-7 is shown in the image.
Lots and lots of things show up when one is no longer in search of.
Now to find hinges for the next step...

CAM01464.jpg
 
Wow that's some crazy glass work! I would never have thought to cut a tank down like that but the results worked out awesome!!

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top