New Fully Custom Double Stacked 4x2x2

The stand should be the easy part. Before I took the plunge, I spent a few weeks haunting the local Habitat for Humanity ReStores, etc. They didn't have the size kitchen cabinets or other furniture I was looking to refurb into an enclosure, but they had plenty of inexpensive tables.

OTOH, if your heart's set on DIY, you've got that fancy-schmancy Keg jig. :lol:
2 x 4s may be overkill. What's the approx. weight of the Double Stack?

I'm not so much concerned with structure as I am with aesthetics. I want this to look furniture grade but I wont be trying to convince the wife to let me buy hardwood lol.

It is decently heavy actually. And once the tile is in, and the rocks and decorations it will be a good weight. I'm already planning on earthquake strapping to the stud behind it to prevent toppling, but the stand was to serve 2 or 3 main purposes.

• 1. Bring the two enclosures up a bit higher for viewing pleasure
  2. Create a place to store supplies/electrical connections
  3. For aesthetics

But, it does have to be structurally sound. I'll probably go on youtube and copy someone's design for an aquarium stand. They are usually built strong and some people try to make them look good.

-Brandon

claudiusx":2g5n84hd said:

It is decently heavy actually. And once the tile is in, and the rocks and decorations it will be a good weight.

Click to expand...

Oh, that's helpful... NOT! :lol:

• 1. Bring the two enclosures up a bit higher for viewing pleasure
  2. Create a place to store supplies/electrical connections
  3. For aesthetics

Click to expand...

That's why I suggested a 2nd-hand table, desk, dresser, etc. Most I saw were in good enough condition, and you could get lucky with maple (and/or not having to refinish). There's also (now that I think of it) Craig's List

Yeah I know, but it just doesn't fit what im envisioning.

Im picturing something along these lines:




My wife would kill me if I "bought" a piece of furniture after all the money I spent on my "shop" LOL
She's still waiting for me to start working on our bedroom set... shes about ready to go to costco and buy one from there :laughing6:

-Brandon

Got it all designed out and my cuts and plan basically figured. I did end up buying some maple hardwood but I'm so cheap I'm going to try to get away with using as much of the maple ply as I can instead lol!

-Brandon

I keep coming back to this. It's not what I settled on but something deep inside me is telling me to attempt something like this.. Crud.. maybe my design isn't finalized.
I'd have to buy a new router bit... :mrgreen:

-Brandon

Day off, started working on the stand this morning. I basically finish the frame of it. I go to measure its halfway point to know where to put my 1 center support. Somethings wrong..

I made the whole stand 4'10.5 instead of 3'10.5........

Well, at least i'm long instead of short. Lets see how long this takes to fix.. LOL (i'm really not actually laughing.. :roll: )

-Brandon

Did you forget to measure twice, cut once?
(In my case, it's measure umpteen times, then stop cutting to measure again, then measure again after cutting, then swear a blue streak because it still doesn't fit... )

Lets just say I may or may not have made another mistake... :mrgreen:

Experience (and failure) is my best teacher lol. Everyone knows the saying. But you don't really know the saying until you have caused multiple needs for said saying.. LOL

I will say though, never in my life have I mis-measured as much as I have on literally one of the simplest builds I've done... a 2x4 stand!
I'd imagine it's because I figured it would be so simple, it wasn't as intimidating to me as other projects. The intimidation factor is what keeps me on my toes lol.

Anyways, half of it is fixed as of now.. But I need some lunch.

-Brandon

claudiusx":19t4xais said:

Everyone knows the saying. But you don't really know the saying until you have caused multiple needs for said saying.. LOL

Click to expand...

...Or you're married to a quilter. :roll:

Well I got the stand basically done. Frame fixed and finished, wrapped in maple ply. All there is left to do really is cupboard doors for it, finish trim to tie it in with the tank, and stain it all.

-Brandon

Still chuggin away at the stand. I'm only getting an hour or two a daily to work on it, and it's pretty complicated. A lot more complicated than I originally thought it would be. I know my last updated stated I was almost done.. HA. Cabinet doors are taking quite awhile. Anyone who has ever done them will know what I'm talking about lol.
Lots of learning experiences happening on this one. Luckily any mistakes I've made so far are of no real consequence.

But at this point I think for my next build I'll just build a 3 stack instead of a 2 stack on top of a stand like this one is. It really adds a couple extra levels of complexity to it all.
Plus... that will give me 1 empty tank..... :mrgreen:

-Brandon

Yeah I know this thread is useless without pics.. but progress is still being made. I'll see about getting some pics up soon. It's been hard because this stand has been kicking my butt, design and technique wise. But, what makes a good woodworker is one who knows how to cover up his mistakes.. LOL
So far, everything is looking like any mistakes won't be visible, but there has been design change after design change to make that a reality.

This is my second set of cabinet doors, I wasn't happy with the initial design or mechanics of the first one. This new design is much better, and it should mount nicely with my zero clearance hinges.

Anyways, I actually have 2 days off this week for once lol.. I needed it after all the stress we've been going through this week. So hoping to get lots done today on it.

-Brandon

Got the Cabinet doors V 2.0 done yesterday. I am so much happier with these. It was a good design change choice and just adds that little extra detail that makes a piece look good. I have like 2 more piece of trim to glue up (gluing and clamping as opposed to mechanical fastening) and that will be done today.

Actually, I'm going to do all the electrical work today. All the lights will connect to one junction box that will be inside the stand. That way I can use only 1 plug end for my 4 different lights.

And after that I will wrap the project up. Going to finish my finish sanding. Already did everything with 180. Gonna work up to the 300~ range and call it good. Then it will be wipe on oil, which means that the tanks will probably go into use sometime this week.

Looking forward to it.

-Brandon

Got 2 shallow boxes to mount the porcelain sockeet to. Decided to paint them white real quick to blend in with the interior paint.


Here is how the fixtures will be wired up.
Black cord is the plug end for the sunblaster fixture. I could have just bypassed their weird connection type and hardwired directly into the fixture, but they send you a foot long section of extension with your fixture, so that you can connect multiples. So I just snipped one end off and left the end that connects the input of the bulb. (they made input and output plugs different...)

And with the help of my wife... LOL I have placed the tanks ontop of the stand. I had to make sure it all lined up after all this work!

You can see I'm still gluing up trim pieces, and where the tanks meet the stand will have a trim piece wrapping around just like at the bottom of the stand.

In an hour or so I will start my final sanding, and start applying finish. :mrgreen:
The end is in sight!

-Brandon