DIY Stand

[jabber]

Well last weekend I  finally got off my butt and made a stand for my 55 gallon tank (it had been sitting idle for quite some time).  

I just thought I would share this so that others may get some ideas about home built stands.

The top and base are 5/8 MDF with a routered edge.   It is stained using a walnut oil stain and topped with 2 coats of polyurathane on the top and bottom of each piece to make it water proof.  The panelling is home depot tounge and groove also stained with the walnut stain.
The supporting frame (that you can't see) is made out of 2x4's and lag bolted & glued together.

[Nelson]

Very nice job :wink:

[NjOyRiD]

yep..nice one dude!

[dannypd]

How long did it take you to build?

The way you mentioned it, is that you just decided to build it the same day, and completed it right away??

[az]

very nice.

[Iceman]

Did you put support rails under the mdf top or is just resting on the rectangular frame of 2x4s? I'm about to build a stand as well.

[jabber]

How long did it take you to build?

The way you mentioned it, is that you just decided to build it the same day, and completed it right away??

It took me about 1.5 days to build the stand (not including stain drying time).   When I bought the MDF at Home Depot I had them cut it to my dimensions.  So all I had to do was router the edge and install it onto the frame.
The tounge and groove paneling comes in 6ft lengths (a good deal at $2.77 each) and once cut simply slides together.
After fitting everything together I disassembled it so I could stain/polyurathane the pieces (in the garage that is,  the stain stinks really bad until it dries). And after it dried it was a simple matter of reassembly.

[jabber]

Did you put support rails under the mdf top or is just resting on the rectangular frame of 2x4s? I'm about to build a stand as well.

It is sitting directly on the 2x4 frame.  The frame dimensions are exactly the dimensions of the tank bottom so all the wieght is carried on the frame rails.  

There is also a middle support piece between the top rails.  I can draw the plans if there is any interest.

[Jackdempsey]

i have some intrest

[Iceman]

Sure, toss a drawing our way.

[jabber]

Here is a drawing of the frame.  The frame is made completely out of 2x4's (remember though that the actual dimension of a 2x4 is 1 1/2 x 3 1/2).

The top and bottom (mdf) is just a 15" x 51 1/2" rectangle. I used a 1/2" Beading bit to route the top and a 1/2" corner rounding bit for the base (the top and bottom are routered on the front and side  edges only).

The tounge and groove panneling is cut to 31" and brad nailed into the frame with 1 1/4" nails.

I just noticed that in the bottom 3D drawing the I did not draw the center member as shown in the top drawing (but it is there).