So far I'm not completely happy with how things have turned out. Things just didn't go exactly as planned, but I think the results will still be good enough for me. For prepping the edges of the acrylic I used grade 000 steel wool. It smoothed out the saw blade marks OK I guess, but I should of used a router instead. Next time I'll definately get a router.
A little problem that I had-
The Weld-on 3 Acrylic cement I used was not filling the seams very well. I guess there was too much pressure on the seams. So I removed each sheet of acrylic as I went and applied a bead of Weld-On 16 to each end of the bottom joint, then re-installed the sheet of acrylic to the tank. Next time I might use the "pins method" as described in this article or just apply Weld-on 16 to all the seam directly. What I should of done is bond the bottom seam on the side pieces first, then apply a bead of Weld-On 16 to the bottom and verticle seams on the front and back pieces of acrylic.
All I have left to do is cementing the braces on the top and I'll also probably run a bead of silicone on all the joints just to be safe.
Anyways I had some fun building the tank because I built it outdoors. It was a near perfect weekend here in Michigan.
Here's some pic's I took- My tank.
A little problem that I had-
The Weld-on 3 Acrylic cement I used was not filling the seams very well. I guess there was too much pressure on the seams. So I removed each sheet of acrylic as I went and applied a bead of Weld-On 16 to each end of the bottom joint, then re-installed the sheet of acrylic to the tank. Next time I might use the "pins method" as described in this article or just apply Weld-on 16 to all the seam directly. What I should of done is bond the bottom seam on the side pieces first, then apply a bead of Weld-On 16 to the bottom and verticle seams on the front and back pieces of acrylic.
All I have left to do is cementing the braces on the top and I'll also probably run a bead of silicone on all the joints just to be safe.
Anyways I had some fun building the tank because I built it outdoors. It was a near perfect weekend here in Michigan.
Here's some pic's I took- My tank.