Building ADA

[Jason Baliban]

Well some months ago I picked up an ADA 120H. Sadly, it sat on the floor in my office for almost 5 months before I got around to putting it together. When it finally came time to put it together, I needed to find a stand that would both fit the metric size of ADA as well as not take away from the sleek look of the tank. Really, the only solution that would accomplish both of those would be to get an ADA stand. Well, they are really pricey!!! ...not to mention shipping. So the next option was to build one. This is a brief account of the 40 hours it took me to build my ADA style stand over the last two weeks. I hope you enjoy.

I decided to cover the stand in formica. Here are the sheets of formica after I picked them up. ....rocking hard with the marshall cab!!!



The early stages of the build. Notice no front piece or hole in the dividing support.



Wood work is complete....next is putty, sand, and formica.



Puttied and the interior is stained.



This was the first piece of formica i ever glued and trimmed, so it was quite an accomplishment for me. I hope that you feel the same excitement just looking at the pic



Next was the back.



The front was slick....i cut out the trim from one solid piece. No seems!!



Ready for the last piece!!



Formica is complete on the body.



Drilling the holes for the wire/tubing portals. This was challenging.



The stand is complete!!!!



Lets add the tank!!!







Final Product!!



Final shot of the seams....for Erik (Troy McClure)



Hope you had as much fun looking as i did building!!

Oh, and my last tip...

Freshly routed Formica is very very sharp!!! My hands are completely messed up from the last two weeks.

jB

[retoid]

Wow, thats is some craftsmanship! Nice job, it looks fantastic.

From this picture, your stand looks way better!

[Chrona]

Great job! Thanks for posting this. Are you going to start building these and selling them for 800 bucks now?

[epicfish]

Holy moly. Great job Jason! Looking forward to your tank setup thread. Hehe.

[gmccreedy]

Very well done! Good lines, good craftmanship!

How much did it end up costing you?

[Jason Baliban]

Thanks everyone for sharing my excitement!! I'm really pumped with the results. I keep going out to the garage to inspect it. HAHAHA

It cost me just over $300 in materials.

jB

[gmccreedy]

I figured it would cost about that. worth every penny IMO. Enjoy!!

[LeapingGnome]

Great looking stand, cheaper and probably better quality than the original!

[chippie]

can u tel me what the length width height and the thickness of the wood please ?

[tazcrash69]

That is some fantastic work Jason. I've always wanted to try working with Formica, just never got up the guts after seeing some bad cuts, and trims.
I also like the attention to detail you put in for the black trim around the cutouts.

Oh, and looks like you need new work boots soon.

[Khandurian]

Beautiful!

What kind of wood did you use?

[retoid]

looks like maple

[aquanut415]

looks great jason! aren't you gonna paint the interior a beautiful verdent green?

[Jason Baliban]

chippie - the wood is 3/4" plywood glued and screwed together to make 1.5 inch. I used this for the whole stand except the front piece and the doors.....which i used just 3/4". The stand is 31" tall....the dimensions are cut to fit the footprint of the tank.

tazcrash - Formica really isnt that bad as long as you have a nice router bit with a ballbearing It cost me like $16 for the bit. Thanks for the kudos on the effort....i did my best to take my time. Boots....yeah those are a pair of dr martins that are about 10 years old

Khandurian - its just the highest quality plywood before you get into actual nice wood like maple. They were $25 a piece.

aquanut415 (master shake) - HAHAHA, no i think it will stay the way it is

Thanks for the kudos guys

jB

[bharada]

Jason,
Excellent work. And way to go hanging the doors straight.

My only question is, where's the Formica on the toe kick?