Kicking Myself!

[julia298]

What a stupid thing to do!

Today while tending to new plants ready to put in my tank I rested one of my (not yet properly fitted) T5 lights on top of the centre of my jewel hood... for a couple of seconds...

25minutes later I was kind of peeling it off the melting black plastic which now has a 4 inch light shaped lump sticking up.

So the diy hood Ive been putting off till another day, and then another and so on, seems to a bit higher on my 'things to do' list now.
What I would like to know has anyone done a diy hood for a bow fronted tank (its a jewel vision)?
And how difficult would it be because of the curved front?

Replies & advice welcomed when you have stopped laughing.

 

[Chri$]

Making a hood for a bow-fronted tank certainly will be more of a challange.

I presume your going to make a wooden hood?

 

[SkiFletch]

Definitely going to be tough to make a piece of wood bend for a bowfront. The only suggestions I have are that heat and humidity are your friends. Probably going to be smarter to first cut the wood longer than you'll need so that you have some extra to help create the bow. Also make sure you use a soft wood like pine for the front pane, plywood would be impossible and oak would be really tough to get it to bend. Also, make SURE after you bend it that you epoxy seal it and secure it very tightly to the sides to keep the bow in.

 

[mr.dark-saint]

I've seen Norm Abrhams (SP?) do some neat things with wood. On one of his episodes I seen him place wood in a PVC pipe hooked up to a giant Kettle. The steam would heat the wood and soften it a bit so it can bend. I don't think you can do this with Plywood since the glue may come off (same thing with vanere) so you'll have to use real wood. They basically let it go for quite some time to get the shape (they heated and bent it and heated and so on). I suppose as long as the piece of wood fits in to the PVC it's cool.

Or you can make your own laminate. Start with sheets of thin wood or ply (you may need some steam to soften up the fibres and glue). After it dries place another strip on top and build your thickness. This way you aren't stuck with wood that is costly (oak ain't cheap unless it's stolen ) and size that would fit in the PVC. I would get a piece of cardboard (big enough) and place it on top of the tank so you can trace the curvature of the bow. You're basically making a jig. Then cut a 2X4 to the radius of the curvature and bolt it on to the plywood (you may need to bolt on a few to get the hight). *Here is a cheat. Cut two 2X4s for the curvature then place scraps as washers in between the two to get the hight. This way you only use two 2X4's instead of a truck load of 2X4s) .

Now when you bolt the 2X4s make sure you place the bow inward to the py wood since you will need to nail some blocks or clamps in front to restrain the ply in place while the glue dries. Then remove the blocks or clamps and repeat to get the thickness. Now for the facing you can get a nice piece of venere to match the tand or just paint it (if you paint don't need to worry about the nice venere since you're painting). Save the jig and see if the place where you got the tank be interested in some "custom" canopy and recoup some cash. Then send me my 15% on every canopy made .

 

[chishnfips]

why not make it out of wood, then draw the shape onto the wood and cut it out with a jig saw?