[dennis]

Hello all,

As some of you may know I am a professional cabinet and furniture maker/designer. I was trained in the art, through an apprenticship, in th euse and skills associated with fine furniture, hand tools and all manner of related areas. I am not always much help with your fish or plant problems, but this stuff I do know and will be happy to share my knowledge and experiences with anyone. No question is to basic and will never be considered silly.

Currently I work for a company called VCA, a high end furniture and cabinet shop that has done work for people like Bill Gates's private residence and the GAP headquarters in NYC. Below is a pic of one of my own personal designs and projects.

Ask away

 

[dennis]

Tank size please

Basically, the first rule of engineering, whether for a bridge of for a small box, is to make sure that the weight it is ment to support has a direct path to the floor/ground. COrrect construction methods and proper location of sides/legs, backs adn aprons will hld the weight just fine. All materials, whether man made(plywood or MDF) or natural are strongest laterally(in the vertical) position. THis is especially true of man made sheet goods.

Generally, a tank sits on its frame which is about 1" wide and located only ar the edges of the tank. Therefore, a ggodly portion of the weight of hte tank will be transfered directly throught the sides/ legs of you stand and down to the floor. There most problems occure is with longer spans, exceding probably 2.5 to 3 feet where the top is not firmly supported in the middle. There are a number of ways to accomidate this, from torsion box construction, better jionery at the side/leg to apron (the apron is the piece that goes form each side and is designed to support the top and to keep the sides from wanting to bulge out under pressure) joints, etc.

If you tell me a littel more about your specific application I will be able to help a bit more. I also might be able to help you design something that looks nicer than 2x4's. Also, how fgamilar are you with woodworking tools and terminology.

 

[dennis]

Art,

the important thing in this situation will be to have adequate suport spaning the length of the tank. THis is not a big deal since by the time you take into account overhang and such your rails(the supports) will only be 32-34 inches long or so. Rails this short dont actually need to be that beefy to support the weight, as long as they are well supported at hteir ends.

You have many optioins here, mostly based on how you want hte stand to look. What did you have in mind? You give me ideas and I will figure out a way

 

[dennis]

Jan,

Ask away, thats why I started this

Steve,

Very nice actually. That is a very ingenious way to use the materials. Strong yet attractive at the same time. I like that the sides are not flat. Very clever indeed