PEPPIE'S 4th BUILD

[Peppie]

Thanks IPisces,
Me too. lol I am hoping 3-4 more long weeks

 

[Frankie]

Wonderful work Peppie! So glad you rebuilt the closed loop

How do you like working with that african wood? I'm using brazilian cherry for the trim on my new build. Kinda similar in appearance to that stuff your using.

Frank

 

[Peppie]

I find the figure a little hard to tame with the hand plane. The cabinet scraper is much better to get a smooth surface for the finish. I am not real sure how stable it will be for the hood. That will be alot of moister to deal with. I plan on 3-4 coats of a poly on both sides. That is should help. I left some wiggle room for the fuge door just encase.
I see that type of cherry being used for flooring alot. Is it that hard? I know domestic cherry is pretty soft.
The closed loop was a brain fart.

Thanks for the complement
Peppie

 

[Frankie]

Yeah, that's what I do for a living so I always have exotic stock piling up. I was going to go walnut this time but the cherry is very hard and dense, very stable wood.

It is similar to Ipe. Not as dense though.

I am using a new finish on the build, it's a water borne from Germany that will not yellow and is very hard. I like it much better then Bona. It's called LOBA if your interested in checking it out. Sprays or pads out very nice and levels easy.

Love the walnut accent Peppie!

 

[user 26995]

Thanks IPisces,
Me too. lol I am hoping 3-4 more long weeks

It may take a long to to do builds like this, but it is soooo worth it in the end. And I love the walnut accent too.

 

[TJL]

Man, that is coming together nicely now Dave. Absolutely incredible detail in all your work my friend :hail: One of these days after I finish with my Honey Do's :whip: and the 125 is up and settled in will have to dig deep into my exotic woods stash and do something 'Peppie Worthy' = Fabulous! for a Nano-sized species specific system build. I'll dig some out to get your opinions/ideas when up for your visit. :bounce:

Cheers, Todd

 

[Peppie]

Frank, I will check out the Loba, I am always open for an easy to apply hard finish. Have you started a build thread for your stand? I dont remember seeing it.

Thanks Todd, I am going to shoot you a PM so we can meet in Monroe next week. Thanks for the good words.

IPisces, I have a saying. If I am going to take the time I am going to make it mine.

I went to the Box Store today to get some brackets for the lights. I had some drawer guides laying around

The idea here is to have the lights independent from the hood. It will make the future upgrade easier.

cut out a platform for the lights to hang on from some 1/2'' plywood.

I want to keep as much light in the hood as possible. The underside is white this will reflect the light

I added a frame to the top of the brackets for another white panel

 

[Peppie]

Couple more pics

The half hood has been removed

 

[Frankie]

What a killer setup Pep!

I will get you the link to my build after I post some more pictures tonight. After seeing all of yours I am a bit embarrassed about the quality of my pictures

BTW, IF you PM your address to me I will mail you a pint of the LOBA for you to experiment with. I'll have to go ground though since you live so far away from me. Let me know.

 

[TJL]

So thats what you do with extra drawer glides just lying around, geez I could build about 40 or so projects like this... lol

You are going to have to put some pretty amazing livestock in there to get our attention past the cabinetry my friend, looking forward to your visit.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Peppie]

I can not compete with mother nature. Lots of people are so focused on the looks of the inside of their tank, I am a whole package kinda guy.
I too am looking forward to our get together

 

[Krish]

Good stuff as always peppie!! You know everytime I see your screen name I think of the movie Multiplicity with Michael Keaton where the wierd clone that was made from one of the other clones said, "She touched my peppie Steve!" :rofl:

 

[Peppie]

Thanks Kirsh,
Sorry I have not seen that movie. I hope I doesnt churn up any animal urges. That could possibly create a very uncomfortable situation if we were to ever meet eye to eye.lol

PS thanks for the edit

 

[TJL]

Good stuff as always peppie!! You know everytime I see your screen name I think of the movie Multiplicity with Michael Keaton where the wierd clone that was made from one of the other clones said, "She touched my peppie Steve!" :rofl:

Krish, you must be getting way to much SUN down there! Lucky for you SEATTLE is not, so could you please pkg up and send us all excess.

Todd

 

[Krish]

I'd love to!!! Working out in that heat almost takes your breath away!! It is un-comfortable hot here right now.

On the edit, no problem peppie. Any time you have issues like that just shoot me a pm.

 

[Peppie]

My wife is back east visiting family for two weeks so I have to get a move on. She dont like looking at a mess in the livingroom. There will be a mess for a least a few days. So now is the time. I ordered 200gal box of salt yesterday. I should be making water by Friday. (thanks Eric)
There are a few details I need to address before I can add the water to the tank. I will start with the rock work. I only have 32'' x 24'' to work with and as you all know, that is not much. I will be going up instead of out.
I salvaged my rock walls from my Nanos and cut them into smaller chunks

I have some 3/4'' acrylic rod and some 1'' pvc. The pvc will be cut into short pieces to slide over the acrylic rod and hold the rock pieces apart from one another

The base will be elevated and the base rock will sit on this platform.

All the pieces of the rock are interchangeable. I will assemble them when the tank is full of water

I painted some white board for the background. I used flat black, flat blue, and a little gloss blue. It will mount to the backside of the tank.

 

[Somethings Fishy]

cant wait to see this in your tank, its going to be awsome!!!

 

[Peppie]

Thanks S-fish, It wont be to much longer. I am shooting for the end of next week. Still a lot to do.

 

[eww]

Yeah everything looks great...good luck with your wife..oh by the way I am wondering how you have all this time to work on your tank, take pics, and post...our doors must be done...right? -becca

 

[Peppie]

So this next part of the build scares me a little. I have gone two ways on this, over and over. Do it Or dont do it. It gives me a headache. lol
I want to hang some rocks off two sides of the tank. The right black side and the back. The problem I have is once I glue the support bracket to the side ITs A DONE DEAL. It wouldnt be bad if I were able to glue them on while the tank was full of water, but the weldon 4 wont work that way. I would really like to see all the rock work done before I added these supports. So picture a pile of rocks sitting on your livingroom floor. Now in your mind place them in your tank so they are just right. NO DO OVERS!!!!!!!
I started by drilling some holes.

Then I layed out some platforms

and I drilled them so they would sit on the brackets at about a 5deg angle

I ran a rod thru the platform and caped it with a homemade washer. More glue area

I cut the odd profile in the platform to allow an odd shape rock sit in it better

It hold them pretty well.

I will coat them with epoxy and crushed coral to get rid of the plastic look

I made 8 total. All different sizes. I will be able to mix and match. LOL