I need advice on where to get glass cut for a tank build. I have heard that scratch cut followed by edge grinding may not give linear enough edges for tank building. Do people get their glass laser cut? Where in the Seattle area? There is a place in Interbay that does water-jet cutting but it is not cheap and maybe is overkill.
cutting glass
- Thread starter mhgelb
- Start date
Help Support Reef Aquarium & Tank Building Forum:
sedrostyle
Well-known member
I heard the same thing as I cut glass everyday for work and was thinking about doing a build.
Red c aquariums. In Shoreline. Talk to Rob he's the one that have me the info to get glass cut thru them.
Also Oceans by design in Renton. They have the ability to do what you need.
Good luck
Steven
Red c aquariums. In Shoreline. Talk to Rob he's the one that have me the info to get glass cut thru them.
Also Oceans by design in Renton. They have the ability to do what you need.
Good luck
Steven
Last edited:
Yeh I spoke to Rob at Red C and he has a guy that will build tanks but the price is beyond my budget, my tank is only going to be 13 inches tall and so the pressure is minimal so I think I would take a chance and build my own. For large tanks, probably you are playing with fire with the risk of flooding your office or house.
Peppie
Well-known member
Most glass stores can cut a grind the glass to within + or - 1/16'' of an inch.
OBD can order what you want with 0 tolerance.
My advice would be to call Oceans by Design.
No need to spend the money on the water-jet.
OBD can order what you want with 0 tolerance.
My advice would be to call Oceans by Design.
No need to spend the money on the water-jet.
sedrostyle
Well-known member
True true with obd.
How big are you thinking. If your good you should be able to grind it flat.
How big are you thinking. If your good you should be able to grind it flat.
L shaped tank. 4 ft by 4 ft, 13 inches tall, 8 inches wide (so a narrow L tank for my office desk). I will checkout OBD. I will also go to Perkins glass in capital hill and see how flat they can grind. I heard you don't want any non flat spots on the edges since there will be more silicone in the bigger gaps and you want the silicone to be very thin and even at the seams, makes sense since a wider gap of silicone could blow, presumably it only has strength close to the glass surface.
Peppie
Well-known member
Silicone is rated for it strength in two different directions.
one is in shear, and the other is stretching, or pulling apart. one strength does not equal the other. You are right about wanting a constant thin bead between the panels.
Have you done any research on building glass tanks? It is not as simple as it seems. Lots of do's and way more many dont's
well there is research and there is experience. I think experience is most important. I have done some reading but who knows if the info is accurate. I am going back and forth between trying to build it and getting it build by a pro. I have a lot of acrylic laying around and I am toying with a glass tank build against an acrylic shell. I am really good with acrylic tanks but I want glass cause of all the scratching issues I had last time with acrylic. Having glass against acrylic gives me 2 levels of anti-blow protection, it gives me glass on the inside so it seems like I can't loose. This is not cheap since acrylic is expensive but I am sitting on a pile of acylic.
Don't know....
Don't know....
Peppie
Well-known member
Boy do I hear you on that subject,
There is plenty of info on the internet on the science of silicone, but try to find good solid info on the correct way to build a glass tank??? Good luck. Good builders wil not give up their secrets. You can search you-tube and Garf to find out how NOT to build a tank. LOL
I to have built many acrylic tanks, sumps, do-dads, and reactors with acrylic. I understand the process, have the jigs and tools to comfortably build a quality acrylic project.
If I were to build a tank with glass I feel I would jump right in if it were 50gals or less, anything bigger... I would be a nervous wreck.
BTW How big of stack of acrylic are you hording???? Is it Plexglas-G ? Or maybe Ploycast?
There is plenty of info on the internet on the science of silicone, but try to find good solid info on the correct way to build a glass tank??? Good luck. Good builders wil not give up their secrets. You can search you-tube and Garf to find out how NOT to build a tank. LOL
I to have built many acrylic tanks, sumps, do-dads, and reactors with acrylic. I understand the process, have the jigs and tools to comfortably build a quality acrylic project.
If I were to build a tank with glass I feel I would jump right in if it were 50gals or less, anything bigger... I would be a nervous wreck.
BTW How big of stack of acrylic are you hording???? Is it Plexglas-G ? Or maybe Ploycast?
yeh, I want to build a glass tank that is only 12" high so pressure will be on the low side. I think I will give it a try. I have a 100 gal all acrylic tank, I think it is 3/8 thick pro made tank, some scratches on the inside panels but these are easy to remove with the tank dry, the tank is big enough that you can get a powersander in there and wet sand it and then polish it with plastic polish, I don't know what kind of plexiglass it is, I had a professional tank builder make the tank. if you are interested make me an offer. I am in seattle.
mhgelb it kind of depends, its going to boil down to is the glass pieces square? are they sized correctly to work with in the construction process? As in if you get a bottom piece and its a 1/16th over and then a wall piece that is a 1/16th under?? well that can be a bear to try and build a box with?? Best thing you can do is to specify to the glass company that you want the piece exact and square and see what they price it at. On thinner glass most will be able to do it with a simple cut and grind (which is good enough).
When we order glass they cnc it to tolerance and then they grind it to perfect (well most of the time, lol), but alot of glass shops are not set up to do that, so shop around. Water jetting does get you a perfect piece of glass but the price is brutal and is out of most everyones budget.
hope it helps
Mojo
Thanks Mojo, I will try to find a cnc/grind place. One option is I have access to a machine shop and can mill the rims exactly. So for example the bottom piece can be a bit over on length and width so that vertical panels are a tad inside the edge of the bottom, then the key is to get the width of the side panels to match exactly so that front and back panels are parallel, the front and back panels can extend a tad past the side panels. The height of all vertical panels don't have to match exactly. So now the inside of the tank is a perfect box but the outside has some edges that stick out a tad. The bottom and top rims can be milled to exactly sit around the bottom perimeter and the top edge perimeter so that all vertical panels are braced and I can add some front-rim to back-rim braces in a few places over the top of the tank. The only problem is that the viewer will notice that the front and back vertical panels extend a tad beyond the side vertical panels but maybe that is not much of an eye soar. The tank should be as strong as one that has perfectly sized pieces. However this requires that the edges are flat and perpendecular to their faces and that the vertical edges of the side panels be perfectly parallel to each other, that the vertical edges and horizontal edges of the side panels be perfectly perpendicular to each other, and that these 2 side panels have the exact same width. The latter should be easily done if the glass cutter cuts these 2 pieces from a single long panel. Does this make sense? Maybe this is a way to do it and save a lot of money on CNC cutting. What do you think?
Yes if you dont mind the front panes sticking out beyond the sides panels then you should be fine. We make both the interior and exterior of the box to be perfect (darn picky customers, lol) On the bottom being inside of the walls I have never been a fan of that but that is just my humble opinion.
The big thing you need to maintain is that you have a minimum of a 1/16th of an inch gap in all seems that are going to receive silicone, that the surface is dead clean prior to caulking (use an acetone to clean and then a Denatured alcohol to remove the residue) and then allow a proper amount of time for the silicone to cure. oh and use the right silicone!! lol
good luck and let me know if I can help any further.
Mojo
The big thing you need to maintain is that you have a minimum of a 1/16th of an inch gap in all seems that are going to receive silicone, that the surface is dead clean prior to caulking (use an acetone to clean and then a Denatured alcohol to remove the residue) and then allow a proper amount of time for the silicone to cure. oh and use the right silicone!! lol
good luck and let me know if I can help any further.
Mojo
thanks mojo. i would build the tank so all vertical panels sit on the bottom panel. how do you guarantee 1/16 seam of silicone between all edges? do you use spacers that are pushed out as silicone goes in? what silicone do you recommend? I have heard 100% silicone rubber without anti-mildew additives. black is good to avoid algae. seems like many companies say 100% silicone rubber then you read the label and it says that it will prevent mildew so it is not really 100%.
OK mojo I will go to OBD tomorrow again (thurs) to submit my glass specs, I will go with a L shaped based cut a bit oversized and without polished edges since all vert. panes will be put on top of the base and the base edges will be hidden in the rim on the tank stand. for all vert. panes, I will have 3 of 4 edges milled to 0 tolerance but leave 1 edge unmilled (the top edge since that will be covered with the acrylic rim. I will put a few acrylic beams across the top of the tank (from front acrylic rim to back acrylic rim) to minimize glass pane bowing. I promise to wear gloves so I don't cut my hands on the unpolished edge so don't worry!
I will set up all the pieces with 1/16 inch spacers and brace all pieces so they cannot move, corner braces on top corners, wood beams on the inside so vert. panels cannot move toward center of tank and even a few braces on the outside bottom of the vert. panes so they cannot move away from tank center, so basically all panes cannot move up/down and sidewase. I will set up all panes at the same time, taking as much time as I need to get everything square and held in place, then squirt in the black Momentive 100 series RTV into the gaps in one go (I will practice first on a few pieces of throw away glass), then let it dry for 1 week, razor blade off the excess silicone on inside and outside of tank, then do a water test. Oh one more question, does the silicone run in the gaps from top to bottom of tank under the influence gravity or does it hold on its own? If this is a problem I guess every seam that gets the goop has to be set on horizontal first but I can't imagine people do this. Sounds good mojo? make sure I did not forget anything since this will be a go, I am actually gonna do this, help me now or I am in big trouble.... I am reading up on coral biology. thanks for lesson 1.
I will set up all the pieces with 1/16 inch spacers and brace all pieces so they cannot move, corner braces on top corners, wood beams on the inside so vert. panels cannot move toward center of tank and even a few braces on the outside bottom of the vert. panes so they cannot move away from tank center, so basically all panes cannot move up/down and sidewase. I will set up all panes at the same time, taking as much time as I need to get everything square and held in place, then squirt in the black Momentive 100 series RTV into the gaps in one go (I will practice first on a few pieces of throw away glass), then let it dry for 1 week, razor blade off the excess silicone on inside and outside of tank, then do a water test. Oh one more question, does the silicone run in the gaps from top to bottom of tank under the influence gravity or does it hold on its own? If this is a problem I guess every seam that gets the goop has to be set on horizontal first but I can't imagine people do this. Sounds good mojo? make sure I did not forget anything since this will be a go, I am actually gonna do this, help me now or I am in big trouble.... I am reading up on coral biology. thanks for lesson 1.
Last edited:
Peppie
Well-known member
You may want to wait a bit longer than a week to do a water test!
pandora32
Well-known member
+1 on waiting. Last thing youd want is a blowout because of a spot that wasnt dried all the way.
Peppie
Well-known member
Just wondering if there are any pics of the tank you have built?
I know it is done.
I know it is done.
