The Class Act Aquarium Stand

[user 2204]

FIXED !!! eace:

A little finesse and some stain here, a brush stroke there and walla. Gotta love ebonized finishes. Easy to hide blems in. Now to see how it drys.

 

[user 26995]

Boy Alex that is a beautiful color. Its going to be a beautiful piece. Now are you building a canopy for it too?

 

[user 2204]

It is probably the character of the wood. You may have to sand the whole area down a bit, but I dont think you will be able to just darken up that area.
Contact DALY'S : Paint and Decorating / Wood Finishes. They have experts that will help you.

Thank you. I love Daly's stuff. Almost always use their Profin and Satinthane top coat finishes on the shop stuff such as my workbench and router table stand. Kurt over ther has been very helpful in the past. He is their finish expert.

 

[user 2204]

Boy Alex that is a beautiful color. Its going to be a beautiful piece. Now are you building a canopy for it too?

Thank you. Yes the plan is to build a clam shell style canopy. The front will open upwards and will house dual 175W or 250W SE bulbs in a pair of Lumenmax Elite fixtures. Talked with Barrier Reef today about ordering those up. I plan on running a pair of Lumentek ballasts so being able to switch out from dual 175SE to dual 250SE in the future would be easy as those ballasts are capable with 3 different bulb wattages.

I think I finally decided on the style of doors and plan on trying to build those the same time as building the canopy. We shall see, hoping to start the build on those by months end.

 

[user 2204]

That thing must have been a PITA to stain with all those nook and crannies! Looks great

Actually you know it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Just use a brush and then a clean rag and swipe out the excess. The crevices probably are a little darker, but that is the greatest thing about the way I stained/dyed this piece. You can't tell really where it is darker or lighter as the whole piece is done this way. Kind of like those furnite pieces all over in the stores now. Darker ebonized wood stain look to them.

The real PITA is now my wife would like me to stain a couple of the pieces in the formal living room to match.

 

[trido]

Looks great now! On to the varnishing.

 

[ReefLogic]

wow....that is a very nice color indeed. I am so jealous right now.

 

[user 2204]

Looks great now! On to the varnishing.

Thanks Duane. Actually tomorrow I'll be applying the seal coat that will lock in the color. After that is dry, probably on Monday, I'll be applying the varnish.

Plan is to use a de-waxed shellac as a seal coat for locking in the color. Then applying a product by either Waterlox or Daly's for the top finish coat. Still doing some final test panels on those to determine which gives the best finish.

I learned about using the de-waxed shellac from someone else. He mentioned that it really helps lock in the color.

 

[user 2204]

Well I think a little eye candy is what we need here while we wait on the top coats to be finalized.

I decided to start tinkering with the skimmer that I bought awhile back for the tank. I've read and heard good things about modifing the skimmer with a gate valve. Well I decided to have at it.

The point of no return for the skimmer mod is upon us...

 

[user 2204]

And here's a photo with the new coupler fitting installed.

 

[user 2204]

And finally after just a little bit of work we have a gate valve on the skimmer. Just need something to do while waiting for that darned varnish/finish coat to cure. 3-4 coats seems like FOREVER! But in the end it will be worth the efforts.

Also the weather hasn't been very cooperative for dry times on the finish coats.

 

[user 2204]

Next up will be my little skimmer silencer project. Almost complete with that too. I'll leave y'all with a photo to ponder on.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[trido]

Thanks Duane. Actually tomorrow I'll be applying the seal coat that will lock in the color. After that is dry, probably on Monday, I'll be applying the varnish.

Plan is to use a de-waxed shellac as a seal coat for locking in the color. Then applying a product by either Waterlox or Daly's for the top finish coat. Still doing some final test panels on those to determine which gives the best finish.

I learned about using the de-waxed shellac from someone else. He mentioned that it really helps lock in the color.

Never heard of such a thing. As far as I knew a few coats of urethane or verathane varnish locked in the color less natural ambering. Are you going to use a water base or oil base top coat?

 

[user 2204]

Hi Duane.

I am using a oil based top coat finish. I am actually doing a couple of different things with the top coat. I shall call it Alex's urethane/varnish a secret family receipe. joking of course.

I did skip the de waxed shellac. Decide it wasn't going to do anything any how. So why bother with one extra step that was not necessary.

 

[trido]

I am using a oil based top coat finish.

Ought to be nice.

I wont touch the oil products anymore. Tough clean up, extremely high VOC, not at all eco friendly for the air or in the disposal of the thinner needed to clean and work with it. . Over the last ten years the urethane and verathane have come a long way. Oil base products are pretty old schooL IMO. AFAIK you cant even buy oil based paints etc in off the shelf in California anymore. Just food for thought for any future furniture product you may build.

Dont get me wrong, I'M far from the most ecofriendly guy out there. I just find it more enjoyable to work with.

 

[user 2204]

And here is the skimmer silencer finished product. I just couldn't see spending the money that Coralvue wanted for there version of this.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[user 26995]

Nice! I could use a couple of those. I'll have to see about putting a couple together. Maybe I will stop at tap plastics on saturday. If they are open.

 

[Krish]

Nice work as always Alex!!!

 

[mcoomer]

What kind of doors are you going to put on the stand? Whatever you decide take your time measuring them. I've got a set of lipped doors that I'm going to have to rework because I made the lip too wide and causing the edge of the door to rub the face frame when I open or close them.

Mike

 

[TJL]

WOW Alex, the whole project is coming together nicely and will look very very nice when up and running. With all the time you have spent on precision work into this system build you would think that you were a retired/unemployeed Design Engineer or something ??? I will have to get over for a visit to first-hand inspect your craftsmanship one day soon.

Hopefully I'm only a week or so away from starting my build thread for my new 125g, and even though I co-owned a cabinet/furniture manufacturer that made Aquarium Furniture plan on utilizing a few details of your cabinetry in mine. Again, very nice work Alex.

Cheers, Todd