PEPPIE'S 4th BUILD

[Peppie]

Yea, most of the time it is all about the hunt, not the kill.
Todd, We will be at the race track for a week. The last weekend of June. I will Pm you a # later.

 

[Peppie]

IT HOLDS WATER!!!!! BUT the closed loop looked like a sprinkler system. LOL I drained the tank and headed to the hardware store and got every thing I needed to redo it in PVC. Should have done that in the first place. Now it is water tight.
The flow levels were right on the mark. I love it when a plan comes together. Here are a few pics of it running. I'm sure some were scratching their heads up to this point. I know I did a couple of times.

Water flow from the DT to the fuge with not a sound!

The working end

The next step is to do some woodworking. I think I will use Mahogany and Bridseye Maple for the hood and to reface the stand.
Lots more to do. Hope to have life in it in about three weeks.

 

[Peppie]

Today I made saw dust instead of acrylic snow. It was a nice change. I started by building a mockup of the tank and the walls it will set against. I want it to look as if it was built in place. I decided to put a face frame around the two tank sides that will be seen. The hood will sit on top of the face frame.

The green panel represents the right wall, the upright piece of acrylic represents the back wall corner. The tank will set out side of this corner so I will need to return the faceframe, hood,and stand bak to that point.

African Mahogany board just screaming to be resawn into thinner boards

I cut the 7' in half. It will be easier to run thru the bandsaw.

I got 4 @ 3/8'' and 2@ 1/2'' BY 43"

I ran them thru the drum sander. They look pretty good.

There are a couple of wider panels that need to be glued up

That is it for today.

 

[TJL]

Hey Dave, thats some really nice looking Mahogany and going to make one PURDY piece of aquarium furniture. Ya know, a little Ebony or dark Rosewood would sure be a nice accent.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Peppie]

There will be just a thin strip of black somewhere on the build. The wife and I are going back and forth about installing Birdseye Maple for the panels. I want a contrast wood of a lighter color, she says it is to much. We will see who wins. But yes there WILL be some thin black trim on it. I got about 35-40 bf of the mahogany. It has some nice ribbon figure in it. I think it was about $5 per bf.
Have you got all your windows in yet? You should have some credit hours in the bank by now.

 

[Peppie]

I pulled out the biscuit joiner and the glue bottle today to assemble the face frame

Dug out the hand plane to clean up some saw marks, and champfer so edges

I need to have access to the rear of the tank for the skimmer and the closed loop pump so I made a sliding panel

I need to do some sanding before I glue the two frames together

Still in the planning stage for the hood. I'll figure it out tonight.

 

[Peppie]

After a few discussions with the wife on panel wood choices, we compromised, I get to use the panels and she choose the wood. It will be quilted maple.

I will darken the figure with a water based dye.

I will sand this down, apply more stain, sand it down, apply more stain, finale sand. The stain will stay in the figure. Ending with a clear top coat.
I hate squeeze out when I glue something up. It will not take a finish without alot of sanding, so I mask the glue joint off before hand.

All clamped up

I spent most of the day making smaller thinner boards out of a large one. Then I worked on profiles for the hood trim

Figured out the crown molding size and angle.

Had to build another mock-up wall corner. The one on the bench was way to high to work on the hood. This will be much easier to get the hood built

The tricky part is yet to come!!

 

[Krish]

Man...Everything looks amazing so far!! Keep it up!!

 

[Peppie]

Thanks Kirsh.
I feel my progress has slowed a bit. The hood has threw me somewhat of a curve. I want it to be able to handle a future LED up grade. Yet it needs to accommodate the CF I have right now. I also need to have access to the fuge section for maint. The fuge section can not let light into the DT. I dont want to take off the entire hood to move a rock or pluck out a coral. I want to be able to have easy access to feed. And on top of all of that I want to be able to move the lights out of the way to do mait. yet have enough light to see what I am doing. I think I have got most of it figured out. Now I just have to see if I can make it work and still have it look like a piece of furniture the wife will allow in the livingroom.
THAT IS THE TRICKY PART!!!

 

[Peppie]

Well the tricky part wasnt as tricky as I thought. It goes without saying this will not be your typical hood build. I will use the wall to the right as part of the hood and the back wall will also come into play. The worst part of that is I will not be able to sell it. One time deal here.
I started with the fuge section. Since there is crown molding around the top of the hood, I cant just hinge the whole hood a few inches back. Access to the fuge has to be separate from the DT access. I'm not sure how much heat will be in this part so I will mount a fan in the back lower part of this compartment and let it flow out the top.

front

open

This panel will keep most of the light in (it is upside down)

1/2'' space for air flow

The front will have a removable panel made of Q Maple. It will sit in a slot cut in the trim, and have a magnet at the top. I will be able to reach over the top and pop the panel out for easy feeding.

The front and side panels will be glued at the corner and reinforced with a large glue block. I will be able to slide the unit off the face frame easily for maint.

Fuge door

 

[Peppie]

Got a couple more pics
Fuge door

Open

Nice tight corner

Full shot

 

[TJL]

Man that looks sweeet Dave but I'm sure that I told you NO MORE POWER TOOLS and you must wear a blindfold to make this a fair race.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Peppie]

I forgot to post the pic of how I jigged up my band saw to a treadmill. I must have ran 5 miles to resaw all that lumber. LOL
You guys realize I have passed the half way mark of this race. I suggest you guys get some new tires and a full tank of fuel. Neither one of you can afford to make pitstop from here on out. I will be taking a few days off in a week or so. That should give you two plenty of time to catch up (YEA RIGHT)
I came up with a new idea for hanging the lights. I want to make sure I dont need a change order, being it was not in the original set of drawings. Should I use the standard EEW911 to submit it if I have to?

 

[Peppie]

Now it is time to add a little black to the build. This first pic is the back side of the hood front. The thin wood around the opening will keep the feeding panel from falling inside. I also added another trim piece to the top of the crown. You can see the glue blocks that hold it in place.

This is the front side. The bottom black piece sits higher than the opening. This will hold the panel in place, with the help of a magnet at the top.

crown profile. I think I will add a thin black strip to the very top

Some 1/4'' strips of Peruvian walnut will be transformed into trim

This is the tool of choice.

a little hand work

I will use it to out line the display openings

I couldnt wait to see hoe the contrast would look so I wet it down with some water. Not sure if I should give ya all a sneek peek.LOL TODD this is what I had in mind for black lines

This piece will look alive!!!

 

[estanoche]

Man that looks sweeet Dave but I'm sure that I told you NO MORE POWER TOOLS and you must wear a blindfold to make this a fair race.

Cheers, Todd

+++1000 - on the woodworking detail you put us all to shame!!!! shame i say!!!!

the black wood trim is awesome.............. gives you that perfect depth when you are looking into the light of the tank

 

[Peppie]

Thank you so much, Estanoche
I like to use a contrasting wood in most all my woodworking projects. I like the color of this black wood, its is one of the few woods that has a consistent color and grain that doesnt cost an arm and a leg.

 

[eww]

Should I use the standard EEW911 to submit it if I have to?

EWW911 Form received in triplicate, reviewed and approved but with one stipulation... There needs to be an upgrade out of CF planned for and instituted in the very near future to move you into this decade of reefing... JK Like I have been around long enough to tell someone they can't use CF. Heck T5 was old school when I started our first tank. Love the cabinetry as always Dave. I need to get up there to take a look in person.

BTW... The gas tank is now full and new tires are on and I'm ripping it up in the back of the field. I need to knock a few cobwebs out and get back into the race.

 

[Peppie]

The hood is being built to accommodate a future LED build. The CF lights I have now will not be connected to this hood. They will hang off the back wall from a wall shelf bracket . I am trying to figure out how to hinge them so I can tilt them up 10-14'' so I can get down in the tank to do rockwork ect. and still have some light to see.
You are welcome to stop by any time.

 

[Peppie]

Eric, I forgot to add. I was thinking of making a smart--s post on your build site about cobbwebs, It is funny you beat me to it.

 

[user 26995]

Beautiful work. Cant wait to see it finished.