zozo
Member
Which lights you put in there is debatable, i did it with simple ridgid aloy shelled led strip.
But today i finished my DIY light stand.. I wanted a stand which is simply straight foreward, nothing fancy just functional. One thats not to distracting to the open view and one i can slide over the top of the tank back and fort to make room when cleaning or what so ever. Most stands are fastened with clamps to the side of the tank, actualy i do not see any benefit in that. First i made a small one like that out of wood, and it worked like i expected, good! Im not going in to much detail regaring the work, because there are already so many tutorials like that to find. It’s more to share the simple construction idea.
Because it stays an open tank i thought making one out of acrylic is the best option to go with. Its least distractive and gives a clear view from all sides. So got me some acrylic sheet material, 3 pieces. 1 x 60.5 cm x 10 cm and 2 x 10 x 10 cm. I have 3 x 50 cm ridgid aloy LED strips fastened with stainles steel clamps. In the near future there will be 5 strips, this to cover some shady spots in the scape.
Anyway this is what i needed
And a drill, thats obvious.
Drilled some holes,
taped some M3 thread..
Now the fun part is coming, that is i found it funny and laughed loud about it. The cement to weld the acrylic like Weldon *. Here main land Europe, there seems to be something rather mysterious about that stuff. Nowhere to find, where ever you go they try to send you home with a tube of UHUH or something. I asked the acrylic provider and they said “We don’t sell that, dangerous stuff. Via internet only could find supliers selling it only by the gallon. Contacted an UK suplier, they said, we can sell it to you but!? Dangerous stuff, it has to be shipped in a seperate container, the shipping costs will be huge and much more than the product. So i thought what’s in that darn stuff, why is it so difficult to get. I found the Weldon Data Sheet and it said “80% Dichloromethane, 10% Trichloromethane and 10% monomers for the strongest bond. All supossed to be very unhealthy disolvers X rated cant be shipped over seas they say. Safety regulations! You might think? Now i'm kinda hardheaded and a strange figure but, i did some researching for alternatives and lo and behold.. I found the same darn stuff in an other branche. LOL! In the beautyshop where little blond girls play together with their lovely shiny acrylic nails. If you want to sell it as a form of industrial cement you’re bound to strickt safety regulations and when you sell it to little girls as beauty product its OK..(???) And they ship it to you for free from China, for half the price than a canister of Weldon..
Anyway it’s this stuff
Acrylic nail Brush cleaner: content 100% Dichloromethane
Acrylic Liquid: Content 100% Monomers
Forget the Trichloromethane, thats Chloroform, these 10% you dont realy need for bonds like this. And you will not fall a sleep during the work.
Now aint that funny? Or just plain stuppid! Regulations??
What so ever mixed 10 % monomers to the Dichloromethane (this is to get a stronger molecular bond) , welded the whole together and it stands like a rock in minutes.
Unfortunately i didn’t take pictures of the procedure routing the slots with the dremel tool and router table to make it slide and not fall off the tank. Did this a few weeks ago and (fortunately for you) didn’t know UKAPS back then.
The end product looks pretty straight foreward as expected. Nothing fancy just a simple lightstand you can rock back and fort. It was my first time working with acrylic.. There are some minor flaws in it and working acrylic is a bit more difficult as all youtube tutorials make you believe. But still it isnt rocket science.
Still got to hang that electronic stuff to the wall later on..
I hope this maybe is an inspiration for you as well, to make you something nice, functional and not at all that expensive. It was less then € 20 Acrylic, € 10 beautyshop and some elbowe grease.
Actualy i would like to hang it on cables so i can slide it side ways, away from the tank. But made it anyway because had the material in the house. The Light hanger will be the next project. This was a nice piece to practice on.
Cheers
Marcel..
But today i finished my DIY light stand.. I wanted a stand which is simply straight foreward, nothing fancy just functional. One thats not to distracting to the open view and one i can slide over the top of the tank back and fort to make room when cleaning or what so ever. Most stands are fastened with clamps to the side of the tank, actualy i do not see any benefit in that. First i made a small one like that out of wood, and it worked like i expected, good! Im not going in to much detail regaring the work, because there are already so many tutorials like that to find. It’s more to share the simple construction idea.
Because it stays an open tank i thought making one out of acrylic is the best option to go with. Its least distractive and gives a clear view from all sides. So got me some acrylic sheet material, 3 pieces. 1 x 60.5 cm x 10 cm and 2 x 10 x 10 cm. I have 3 x 50 cm ridgid aloy LED strips fastened with stainles steel clamps. In the near future there will be 5 strips, this to cover some shady spots in the scape.
Anyway this is what i needed
And a drill, thats obvious.
Drilled some holes,
taped some M3 thread..
Now the fun part is coming, that is i found it funny and laughed loud about it. The cement to weld the acrylic like Weldon *. Here main land Europe, there seems to be something rather mysterious about that stuff. Nowhere to find, where ever you go they try to send you home with a tube of UHUH or something. I asked the acrylic provider and they said “We don’t sell that, dangerous stuff. Via internet only could find supliers selling it only by the gallon. Contacted an UK suplier, they said, we can sell it to you but!? Dangerous stuff, it has to be shipped in a seperate container, the shipping costs will be huge and much more than the product. So i thought what’s in that darn stuff, why is it so difficult to get. I found the Weldon Data Sheet and it said “80% Dichloromethane, 10% Trichloromethane and 10% monomers for the strongest bond. All supossed to be very unhealthy disolvers X rated cant be shipped over seas they say. Safety regulations! You might think? Now i'm kinda hardheaded and a strange figure but, i did some researching for alternatives and lo and behold.. I found the same darn stuff in an other branche. LOL! In the beautyshop where little blond girls play together with their lovely shiny acrylic nails. If you want to sell it as a form of industrial cement you’re bound to strickt safety regulations and when you sell it to little girls as beauty product its OK..(???) And they ship it to you for free from China, for half the price than a canister of Weldon..
Anyway it’s this stuff
Acrylic nail Brush cleaner: content 100% Dichloromethane
Acrylic Liquid: Content 100% Monomers
Forget the Trichloromethane, thats Chloroform, these 10% you dont realy need for bonds like this. And you will not fall a sleep during the work.
Now aint that funny? Or just plain stuppid! Regulations??
What so ever mixed 10 % monomers to the Dichloromethane (this is to get a stronger molecular bond) , welded the whole together and it stands like a rock in minutes.
Unfortunately i didn’t take pictures of the procedure routing the slots with the dremel tool and router table to make it slide and not fall off the tank. Did this a few weeks ago and (fortunately for you) didn’t know UKAPS back then.
The end product looks pretty straight foreward as expected. Nothing fancy just a simple lightstand you can rock back and fort. It was my first time working with acrylic.. There are some minor flaws in it and working acrylic is a bit more difficult as all youtube tutorials make you believe. But still it isnt rocket science.
Still got to hang that electronic stuff to the wall later on..
I hope this maybe is an inspiration for you as well, to make you something nice, functional and not at all that expensive. It was less then € 20 Acrylic, € 10 beautyshop and some elbowe grease.
Actualy i would like to hang it on cables so i can slide it side ways, away from the tank. But made it anyway because had the material in the house. The Light hanger will be the next project. This was a nice piece to practice on.
Cheers
Marcel..
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