Project Great Wall o' Tanks
- Thread starter Sploke
- Start date
Great idea. Love the layout. Keep it up, that is gonna look excellent.
Love the red motivational sign. Matter of fact, I think I'll have a cold one right now...
Love the red motivational sign. Matter of fact, I think I'll have a cold one right now...
Framing mostly done
Alright, spent most of today/tonight getting the framing done, after a late-night trip to Home Depot last night for the lumber. The only thing I need to add is one more vertical piece that goes from the top level up to the ceiling, just for lateral support. I just need to find a stud to latch onto up there and I haven't done that yet. On to the pics.
First, I finally banged out some drawings in AutoCAD to get a materials list, and finalize the spacing. Its going to be tight, but hey I'm young, right? They're a little blurry...
My work area and the lumber....that chopsaw ROCKS.
I built it in modules that could basically be freestanding with a little more lateral support.
First part
Second
Third
Fourth
And a behind shot, to get an idea of how much room I'll have behind. Not much, basically enough to walk.
The stands are wedged in between the two walls pretty darn tight, and I used liquid nails between the frames and the walls where they met. By building it this way, all weight is directly channeled to the ground through the supports, none of them will be supported by shear strength of screws/bolts. I used Deckmate deck screws to hold everything together. I still want to paint all the frames with the same white mildew-resistant paint I used on the walls, and then I can think about starting to transfer tanks around.
Alright, spent most of today/tonight getting the framing done, after a late-night trip to Home Depot last night for the lumber. The only thing I need to add is one more vertical piece that goes from the top level up to the ceiling, just for lateral support. I just need to find a stud to latch onto up there and I haven't done that yet. On to the pics.
First, I finally banged out some drawings in AutoCAD to get a materials list, and finalize the spacing. Its going to be tight, but hey I'm young, right? They're a little blurry...
My work area and the lumber....that chopsaw ROCKS.
I built it in modules that could basically be freestanding with a little more lateral support.
First part
Second
Third
Fourth
And a behind shot, to get an idea of how much room I'll have behind. Not much, basically enough to walk.
The stands are wedged in between the two walls pretty darn tight, and I used liquid nails between the frames and the walls where they met. By building it this way, all weight is directly channeled to the ground through the supports, none of them will be supported by shear strength of screws/bolts. I used Deckmate deck screws to hold everything together. I still want to paint all the frames with the same white mildew-resistant paint I used on the walls, and then I can think about starting to transfer tanks around.
Looks great! My question is, how are you going to access the tanks above the turtles? No room behind the turtle tank. Are you going to build a platform above the rear of the tank for better access?
Yeah, in a few of the pictures you can see the platform I built to go over the tank. I had it on legs before but I think instead I'm just going to rest it on the tank. That tank is pretty bomb proof and I can stand on it without any real problem. That way I can put the platform there to access the upper tanks on that side, or flip it up for access to the turtle tank.
Hoping, anyway. I put in the brace from the top level to the ceiling, no pictures though. But man, I can climb all over this thing and shake it around, and it doesn't budge. Good news.
