This build is somewhat inspired by Samamorgan's light build and reading from his LED Compendium thread (which needs to be a sticky!!!), and to a lesser degree by the new ADA Aquasky (which I think is kind of ugly :eek5: ) .
I wanted to try my hand at some acrylic work, so I decided to make myself a fixture. I watched some of uarujoey's videos on acrylic work on Youtube, and set out to make myself a light stand for my $1/gallon 20 Long. He has some excellent DIY aquarium videos if you've never watched them.
I have some build pics I'll post later. I was afraid .25 acrylic spanning 30 inches would sag if unsupported. Sadly, I was correct. This arrempt will work until I get round 2 done.
I have several mistakes I want to fix and redo. I'll add 1/2 inch side reinforcement on the front and back to make the 30" span more rigid. I had a number of bubbles in my acrylic welds which I want to work on (perfectionist). I also jacked things up badly when I flame polished it. That part needs lots of practice.
I knew if you flame polished then welded, it'd cause crazing (cracks). What I didn't think about (common sense now, duh) is if you flame polish after welding, air bubbles in the weld will expand and crack too.
Plenty of lessons learned for round two. Cool thing, I'll just unscrew these Ecoxotic Panorama fixtures and mount them back on the new stand when it's ready.
I wanted to try my hand at some acrylic work, so I decided to make myself a fixture. I watched some of uarujoey's videos on acrylic work on Youtube, and set out to make myself a light stand for my $1/gallon 20 Long. He has some excellent DIY aquarium videos if you've never watched them.
I have some build pics I'll post later. I was afraid .25 acrylic spanning 30 inches would sag if unsupported. Sadly, I was correct. This arrempt will work until I get round 2 done.
I have several mistakes I want to fix and redo. I'll add 1/2 inch side reinforcement on the front and back to make the 30" span more rigid. I had a number of bubbles in my acrylic welds which I want to work on (perfectionist). I also jacked things up badly when I flame polished it. That part needs lots of practice.
I knew if you flame polished then welded, it'd cause crazing (cracks). What I didn't think about (common sense now, duh) is if you flame polish after welding, air bubbles in the weld will expand and crack too.
Plenty of lessons learned for round two. Cool thing, I'll just unscrew these Ecoxotic Panorama fixtures and mount them back on the new stand when it's ready.