Can I become a Master Acrylic Craftsman, sump and rocklifts...

tashier · 10-27-2006, 05:06 PM

So I'm thinking of trying my hand at acrylic. I've got plenty of access to table saws and any fancy equipment I need. I want to build:

36x14x16 sump with bubble baffles and some other bells and whistles

Fly Guys super cool rock lifts for a 48x24 tank.

I'm thinking of doing the sump in 3/8"

Fly, I'd like to be able to use similar materials for the two. Will 3/8 work for the rock lifts? What size of rod do you recommend?

Welding (or glueing) Acrylic:
Is it just silly easy or should I be paying someone to do this?

Any good threads or info would help.

Fly Guy · 10-27-2006, 06:14 PM

For a sump you will be fine making it yourself. Notice Ive made a few sumps but i paid James at envision acrylics to make my custom tank. There is reason for this. From ten feet away you cnat tell james didnt make my sump. From two feet away James would be insulted(or just outright laugh) at any comparison. ; )

AS far as the 3/8" for a sump that size it will be fine. I recommend eurobracing it or simply bracing it like i do mine which is less obtrusive than a lip all the way around. i simply bond both sides and the center baffle with a 2" strip of acrylci and then a 3" triangle on each corner.
Works great and you dont have the lip all the way around to deal with.

As far as using 3/8" scrap for my rock lifts.........not really. The 1/2" is kinda mandatory to really hold the rods well and still have it interchangeable and not have to glue the rods in place. Im not sure i would want to go with 3/8 even if you did glue them to be honest. You COUOLD use 3/8 for the cross braces and the 1 1/2" pieces that go under the rods, but the 1 1/8" strips that hold the rods needs to be 1/2". Call James at Envision......hes local to you and he will either be able to sell you some scrap 1/2" or you can just call some local supply place for their scrap. If you have no luck PM me and i can give you some for my cost + shipping. You shouldnt have a hard time locating it in your area though.

3/4" rods

Here is a bunch of info on how to do it.

http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html

personally i dont like any of his sump designs becasue i hate refugiums and dont use them. But he has a ton of great info there regardless of how exactly you configure whats inside the box.

tashier · 10-27-2006, 06:30 PM

I've been pricing acrylic and even if I get it wholesale (supposedly) it doesn't seem to save much money. How does $186 for a 4x8' sheet of 3/8 acrylic sound? You can buy a sump for ~$250 already made. Not a lot of savings there is it?

Geoff · 10-27-2006, 09:19 PM

that seems a bit high for a price of 3/8" acrylic. a 1/4" thick piece at HD is around $75. acrylic does not get super expensive ( as in non linear priceing) untill over 1" thick i think.

G~

tashier · 10-27-2006, 11:02 PM

Home Depot sells it? 4x8' sheets?

Fly Guy · 10-27-2006, 11:24 PM

Ive never seen whole sheets at HD, not saying they dont carry them, ive just never seen them. That price you mentioned sounds right to me for extruded acrylic .375" sheet. You can add $50-75 to that for cast acrylic. The higher quality stuff usually comes in 50x100" sheets. Not that HQ is required for a sump. I built my last 100 gallon sump out of 1/2" plexiglass G and i got a great deal on the sheet at $250....they usually retail for about $350.

If you can get the sump you want made how you want for $250, and arent way into the making it yourself part, i think youre right about the its not really worth it part.

Geoff · 10-28-2006, 10:02 AM

you can get 4X8 sheets of 1/4" at HD. nothing thicker than that though.

i thought you could get 3/8" cheaper than that, but looking around it looks like i was mistaken.

G~

Tasher80 · 10-31-2006, 01:02 AM

I'm thinking of making this monster but in a 60" long not 48" like it shows. I am going to make it out of 3/8" Cell cast. I am going to have the acrlics company cut all the acrlic so all I have to do is glue and router.
http://www.melevsreef.com/acrylics/s.../80g_sump.html

tashier · 10-31-2006, 02:36 PM

Well, so much for becoming a pro at acrylic. I just ordered my sump from Steve on ebay. About $230 for a 32x14x16 (the absolute biggest I can get under my stand) with 3 baffles. The front and back pieces will be 3/8", the rest in 1/4". Saves me a huge headache. Now onto the rock lifts. I gotta find me some scrap acrylic somewheres.

tashier · 12-19-2006, 01:17 PM

Well the most I've done on this is do a little rock lift repair.

It looks like I may need some sump modifications but we'll see. I still wouldn't mind trying to build a sump if acrylic wasn't so expensive. I think that was the real deal breaker. I didn't want to spend a ton on acrylic only to botch the job up. I'll start with little sump modifications.