DIY Group Project-Invisible rock lifts

[Fly Guy]

1/4" no way. Not for relying on whatver rock you happen to want to lean on it. 1/4" is what i use to peg some of my larger corals with.

1/2" can work, but i dont like it as much as the 3/4. . It flexes some, and the teeth arent nearly as effective.

hth


edit...wait a minute....not sure im following your plan there........can you elaborate a little on what exactly you are meaning to do??

[jamessp01]

Originally Posted by Fly Guy

1/4" no way. Not for relying on whatver rock you happen to want to lean on it. 1/4" is what i use to peg some of my larger corals with.

1/2" can work, but i dont like it as much as the 3/4. . It flexes some, and the teeth arent nearly as effective.

hth


edit...wait a minute....not sure im following your plan there........can you elaborate a little on what exactly you are meaning to do??

sure, i knew my post was a tad confusing.

im talking about drilling 1/4" holes in the hdpe. then drilling 1/4" holes in the 3/4" rod and useing the smaller rod to dowl the larger rod to the hdpe.

leaving the 1/4" a bit short so it does not protrude from the bottom of the HDPE.

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by jamessp01

sure, i knew my post was a tad confusing.

im talking about drilling 1/4" holes in the hdpe. then drilling 1/4" holes in the 3/4" rod and useing the smaller rod to dowl the larger rod to the hdpe.

leaving the 1/4" a bit short so it does not protrude from the bottom of the HDPE.

i dont really like how that sounds. Im not going to go as far as saying it wont work.

But you have several things fighting you here.

1. that 1/4" can flex and snap if yo put very much torque on it

2. drilling less than 1/2" deep isnt going to hold the rod assembly you created very stable. I think it is more likely that it will slip out before it snaps in the first place, especially with the 1/4' dowel idea. if it could be glued to the hdpe that could change things....but acrylic cannott be glued to it as far as i know...at least not in a situation that is going to have some serious torque on it like a 15 pound rock on a 3/4" rod with a 1/4" dowel protruding 1/3" pout the bottom...........

You very well could play with this and prove me wrong. Ive always used 1/2" deep holes as they hold withouit question. less seemed shaky to me but if you drilled the hoels really tight 1/3 of an inch may bery well work just fine.

I do think you need to eliminate the 1/4" rod out of the picture no matter how you slice it


if you really want to do the hdpe and acrylic rod thing......you could throw that piece of hdpe up here or on reefcentral for sale, even if you have to take a little monetary hit on it, and get yoruself the 3/4" necessary for the job. 5/8 would actually suffice as well.....or simply play with it and make shallower than 1/2' holes hold with the 3/4' rod.

those are really the two options that make sense to me

GL

[chrischris]

those look cool

[Fly Guy]

jamesp.....i am actually messing around int he garage and i just went and played with something for you.

You can do this with less than a 1/2" deep hole and use the 1/2" hdpe you have and simply the 3/4" rod. Lose the whole 1/4" rod concept and just go with the 3/4"

get 2 drill bits. a 11/16 normal bit of any kind and a 3/4" forstner. the 11/16 is just to start the hole as the forstner will finish the job. this will give you a nice tight fit. you will need to break the tip off of the forstner so it wont go through the bottom of the hdpe and you can get the hole as deep as possible.

you could do the entire holes with the forstner, but you will want to start them all before you break the tipo off of the forstner as it is difficult to start the hole without it walking all over the place

the reason you want to drill most of this hole with the forstner is it is a truer hole than a regular bit and you can get it deep as possible with as much penetration by the rod as possible. a regular bit will be rounded at the bottom and you will lose some depth that you need every bit of

make sense??

[jamessp01]

Originally Posted by Fly Guy

jamesp.....i am actually messing around int he garage and i just went and played with something for you.

You can do this with less than a 1/2" deep hole and use the 1/2" hdpe you have and simply the 3/4" rod. Lose the whole 1/4" rod concept and just go with the 3/4"

get 2 drill bits. a 11/16 normal bit of any kind and a 3/4" forstner. the 11/16 is just to start the hole as the forstner will finish the job. this will give you a nice tight fit. you will need to break the tip off of the forstner so it wont go through the bottom of the hdpe and you can get the hole as deep as possible.

you could do the entire holes with the forstner, but you will want to start them all before you break the tipo off of the forstner as it is difficult to start the hole without it walking all over the place

the reason you want to drill most of this hole with the forstner is it is a truer hole than a regular bit and you can get it deep as possible with as much penetration by the rod as possible. a regular bit will be rounded at the bottom and you will lose some depth that you need every bit of

make sense??

yep, makes sense, although, is it really necessary to not penetrate the HDPE? I assumed the reason to not go through was to not have the rod pushing directly on the bottom pane of the tank.
The 1/8" hole left from the center on the fostner bit should not hurt anything? Or does it chip out and whatnot if you leave the center of the bit intact?

Or i can use my plunge router and 1/2" spiral upcut bit and a template to drill the holes too, not sure of that would be faster though with all the messing with repositioning the template. I think i have a 3/4" flush trim bit i could plunge to cut the holes, its not really designed for that though.

i have some scrap hdpe from cutting out for the overflow, ill have to try the 3/4" bit and see how it cuts.

I definatly appreciate your help with this, thanks again!

[Fly Guy]

its probably not necessary.

heres the thing though........you will probably end up changing your mind or moving rods around and not be using all of yoru holes. (i did) these open holes would just allow for flow and detritus to get under the starboard. a little bit will get under there anyway...but the less easy you make it the better. I dont know if you have an acrylic or a glass tank....mine is acrylic so i had the luxury of being able to cut my piece of hdpe dang near flush on all 4 walls...se very little can get under mine

is it a huge deal??? not really lol

[Sndwave80]

Very Cool!

[sly fox]

haha....well im planning on making these for my tank, but have run into a problem... well a couple...found it very hard to get weldon... but finally drove a good way to somehwre to get some...

biggest problem though = accent, im from london and live in texas, and was trying to get acrylic... offcuts and rods ... put in an order for over $50.... ended up with the following... think things got lost in translation... they cut the acrylic piece custom.. um i was a bit surprised at what i got haha

[Fat Tony]

not to be rude... but they really ripped you off... that's about $20 worth of supplies....

[sly fox]

haha...no i know i got ripped off, you arent being rude... was my fault partly cos i assumed they understood what i was talking about, and after waiting for the order, i was in a rush to be somewhere and was late..

i posted it because i thought people could have a good laugh

[Fat Tony]

LOL... here's a link if you need more stuff..
http://www.rplastics.com/plac.html?g...FQQjPAodKCyKPA

[sly fox]

haha, thanks funnily enough i need a bit more

[aquasalt]

****, after reading this I'm going to have to overhaul my tank in the near future!

[Fly Guy]

slyfox...ouch. I missed your earlier post. The plastic supply place in my town ios prettymuch the same way. I remember the first pice of 6' 3/4" acrylic rod I boought. $38 from Bend Plastic Supply. Same piece is $10 AFTER shipping from mcmaster-carr. lol Many plastic supply places who do any kind of fabrication on site wil usually have a scarp bin in which they will sell their scrap for 1-3 bucks a pound. That is the best place o get the 1/2" for making the frame, or if you call a tankmaker, they will usually sell you their leftover scrap for cheap and you can get some bigger pieces of it. You could actually make this frame super simple by simply using one big piece of 1" and drilling holes 1/2" deep into them...or get some 3/8 or 1/2" and glue little strips of 1/2" withholes drilled out where you want the rods to go. This would be extrememly cost inefectiver though if you couldnt get that slab by the pound.....