How is everyone building a stand so cheap?

[Caseyoidae]

Nice sump Niterunner!

 

[Alazo1]

I bought the steel stand for the 40 breeder at Petco and put a skin on the sides and added the doors.
https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/imagitarium-brooklyn-metal-tank-stand-40-gallons

Albert

 

[Hitmans reef]

This stand was built out of 1 1/2" box tubing by me and wrapped with 3/4 cabinet grade oak trimmed in oak and the shelf on the front is full oak still have doors to make but all in all stand is about $650 once all the hardware is bought as well

 

[Niterunner77]

Nice sump Niterunner!

Thanks so much!

 

[cnmcalpi]

I made my stand for about $50 lol
I nailed some 2x3 together to make the top.
And bought some inexpensive sawhorse legs from IKEA .

LOL, thats awesome. Industrial minimalist style.

 

[redfishbluefish]

This thread has peaked my interest in what I'm spending on a current stand build. I never gave it much thought since I needed a stand, and building one, with the five thousand plus dollars I've spent on tools, just seemed like the right thing to do, with little regard for the material costs. In addition, I've always wanted a taller than commercially available stand height. The stand I'm building now is for a 35 cube and measures 21 x 19 x 39 1/2 inches.

Here's what I've spent so far (with what you see above)

3----1" x 3" x 16' finger jointed / primed boards (HD)-----$10.44 each-------$31.32
1----1" x 6" x 8' finger jointed/ primed board (HD)--------$11.22 each-------$11.22
1----4' x 8' x 5mm Poplar plywood (Lowes)-----------------$13.98 each-------$13.98

TOTAL-----------------------------------------------------------------------------$56.52

Wow! More than I would have guessed. I liked it better when I didn't know!

I've used about half the plywood and have about ten feet of 1 x 3 left over. The 3/4 furniture grade plywood on the top and floor were left over from another project, as were the eight 12mm Neo magnets (holding the door closed) that were purchased from China in large quantity for cheap. I haven't included costs for polyurethane glue, epoxy cement, nails and screws. Still need to fill screw holes (putty), prime and paint the stand....and then build the canopy.

 

[cnmcalpi]

So, I have analyzed an approximation of the stand that I built that's shown earlier in this thread.

The body is contiguous, IE. no joints analyzed. From experience, I know that proper joints are stronger than the material itself. You will see the major components of stress are contained in areas with no fasteners.

The bottom of the stand is fixed in all directions (Could be friction in the planar floor and fixed in vertical to be more accurate but insignificant.)

There is a load of 700 lbf in the -Z direction (down). This is 78 gallons of water +50 lbf for conservatism. (Static loading scenario)

The image deflection is magnified by a factor of 2200 so that you can see whats going on. It is not deflecting like what you see.

Fig. 1. Equivalent Strain. Maximum strain occurs in the upper corners of the front opening @ approx .000049 in/in.

Fig. 2. Equivalent Stress. 57.22 psi, located in the same area as max strain.

Fig. 3. Total deformation. Just over one thousandths of an inch deformation in the red area shown.


The material used is isotropic (Plywood is isotropic due to manufacturing method, solid wood IS NOT due to grain direction.)

Ultimate Tensile Strength of Oak is 770 PSI

770/57.22 = Safety Factor of 13.45

Conclusion: Given sufficient and properly implemented fasteners (Properly sized dowel holes, glue, proper size pilot holes for screws, sufficient number of fasteners) A 3/4" Oak plywood stand is more than sufficient for this application. I would even venture to say that under disturbed conditions (Small seismic event) That this stand would have no problems with a safety factor of 10x +.


I don't even see a reason why to move forward to analyzing a 2x4 constructed stand, as it is overkill and unwarranted. Costs space money and time.

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any damage occurring in relationship to this information, use at your own risk.

 

[Christopher Waterman]

I purchased a restaurant grade stainless steel table for my 150g, bolted to the wall supported the center with a 6 x 6 covered with faux stone and mounted two led accent lights underneath. I think I'm in @$350.

 

[_badger]

I used 1/2" ply supported by a 1x4 frame. But I'm only supporting 25 gallons. Including appearance boards, hinges, and paint I'm right around $175. Not crazy cheap, but still cheaper than most of the weak particle board stands.

 

[Tim Olson]

I build all of my stands with 3/4"oak plywood. I use pilot/screws alternating with spec sized holes for dowel and glue. Between the screws and the glued dowels, there won't be a problem. I am a mechanical engineer and have a good intuition on loading and such but if you are reasonable.... I have 100 bucks in plywood and a little bit of glue/hardware/paint in this....



The first pic is upside down, notice the floor is fully boxed and attached from all sides.

The second pic is reinforced in the for aft direction and boxed above the large opening in the front to mitigate loading around the front opening.

Its solid as a rock for under $150 and a few afternoons by the time its painted.

What do you think about using Baltic Birch Plywood? I'm thinking about using it, since it's beautiful and stronger than normal plywood. Although, it's a lot more expensive.

 

[Scott.h]

The price list doesn't sound bad to me. Maple boards are expensive. You won't need $40 worth of paint though.

 

[Txdragonslayer]

This is what my stand uses

https://www.amazon.com/80-20-Inc-T-...rd_wg=huVCi&psc=1&refRID=C3R5R0NKD085CEV5CA82

Just note if you buy through Amazon you will pay full list price. Go through the Tslot website and find a distributor, the process take a little longer but will save you tons of cash. For example a connector I needed was 9.97 on Amazon and through the distributor the same piece was 3.47, so it's worth going through the distributor.

 

[Txdragonslayer]

My slightly over sized peninsula stand (2x4 & 2x8 frame) for my 180 which includes a sub floor 5 doors and a pull out shelf $148.

The molding you have on that alone is a 148

 

[Gmj4409]

Does anybody have favorite stainless hinges? I got 4 years out of my original custom build but need to replace all of them.

 

[Wh00pS32]

Mine is made from scrap fence posts, scaffold boards and pallet wood.

Then i added the pallet wood for the sides and door and a piece of oak counter top.

Added adjustable feet and waxed and it's more or less finished.

In total it cost me around £80 which is about $105 the biggest part of that was the oak top which cost me £50.

 

[DeepBrew]

What a cutie, I love baby in tank pics!

 

[Reef man 89]

Use 2x2 or 1x1 it's only a 40b. The only time I would use 2x4 is if the that is over 1000 pounds.

 

[Coastie Reefer]

I lucked up and found a cabinet that was being tossed. So mine was free. ;Smuggrin I still have to put a solid top on it and paint it though. Looking into getting a granite remnant for the top so it may still end up cost me well over hundred bucks...

 

[David Mc]

Seeing all these over built stands is starting to get me worried. Here's the original stand for my 240. I used it from 1985 until 1995 when we did some home remodeling and it ended up in storage. It is made of SYP and nailed together.

I am no engineer but recently built this stand using no metal fasteners. Just box joints, dovetails, rabbets, splines and dowels. The top and bottom plate is SYP construction cast offs and the uprights are 1 1/2" Cypress. Titebond 3 and epoxy were also used. I still have doors to make and once the sump is made I might add a couple uprights between the long spans.

 

[Rufus’ goofs]

2x4s, 1x2s, plywood and screws.

I only bought the paint, plywood for the outsides and 1 x2s. I think I'm about $115 (the $115 includes the conduit for hanging the lights, as well as a handful of plumbing parts) in so far, but I still have to make doors.