I made a stand

[afremont]

You really didn't miss anything. Thank you for the compliments. I want to put the tanks on it right now, but I have to apply some kind of finish to protect the wood from the water. I was just going to paint it white, but I might varnish instead since the woodgrain looks pretty nice and the joinery came out acceptable enough. A far cry from perfect I know, but it should do the job. Thanks again and I encourage you to DIY too.

[Complexity]

Varnish would look great and may have better resell value down the road (okay, I'm a sucker for varnished wood over paint).

Did you say you were putting in fake doors in front? If the doors are fake, how would you gain entry into the stand? Or did I miss understand?

[HERM]

By fake doors do you mean the whole front will be removable in a single panel with fake doors molded on it ?

[HERM]

That would be sweet ! I hate having to cram myself in to the small doors on my stand every time it's time clean out my canister filter.

[afremont]

By fake doors do you mean the whole front will be removable in a single panel with fake doors molded on it ?

That's pretty much what I'm thinking. I'll frame the cutout from the plywood to look like a pair of raised panel doors and just use magnets to hold it in place. The frames of the fake doors will overlap the opening edges a little. I hope it doesn't look out of proportion too much. If it looks stupid, the backup plan is to trim out the edge of the opening and call it done. Thank you.

[HERM]

Great Idea !

[Complexity]

Why not just put in one or two large doors? You're already doing most of the work by framing out fake ones.

Cut a large rectangle out of the center of the plywood. The inside part becomes the door while the outside part is the frame that goes on the stand to support the door. Put the decorative frame on the edges of the door. Put hinges on one side to attach it to the frame. You're done.

If you want it to look like two doors, then make the decorative frame look like two doors.

Or you just cut the inside rectangle in half and frame it out as two actual doors, adjusting a little for the extra space needed for the decorative framing in the center. If you want to be sure there's no gap, you can always attach a "frame backing" to one door. That door will just have to be closed first so the backing sits behind the other door, but it still avoids the middle brace.

I guess I'm just thinking of two things. (1) First, you may want to sell this stand one day, and it will be more likely to sell if you have an actual hinged door on it than if you have a large, and heavy piece of plywood that has to be removed and replaced every time (not all people with aquariums are strong men -- like ME). And (2) it's just inconvenient to always have to move a large and heavy piece of plywood every time you want to get inside the stand. I know I'm inside my stand rather frequently, at a minimum of once a week for water changes, but often more than that. The extra work of moving that piece of plywood over and over again for the next ?? years could be easily resolved with just a little extra work right now by making an actual door.

[afremont]

Thanks for the input again Vicki. I've decided that I'm going to go ahead and place some trim (moulding) around the inside of the opening to make it a "convertible". I can have the cover on to hide a sump and canister or left off to allow another tank or plants to be displayed without doors left standing open. I'm putting 2 18" t8 fixtures up under the top. The fake door should only weigh a few pounds since it's only 1/4" plywood. Thanks again.

[afremont]

Finally got it stained and cleared. I'm not real thrilled with the results, but it was a learning project and I think I know how to turn out a better finish next time. I used Minwax Cherry oil based stain, waited 24 hours and then covered that with Minwax Polyacrylic water based urethane in semi gloss. The stain turned out a little blotchy and I was hoping for something more red. Next time I'll use a conditioner first and probably use a different brand name product as well as a different color. I applied the stain with a foam brush and flooded it on and wiped it off a few minutes later. Next time I'll probably use a gel stain and wipe it on. I probably should have used a sock or rag to apply it this time.

I brushed the first coat of urethane indoors in poor lighting and didn't get it on evenly. I sanded it with 400 lightly and brushed on another coat after trying a foam roller for about 2 seconds. The foam roller made more bubbles than my bubble bar. I quickly smoothed that out with the brush and put on the rest of the second coat. I still didn't like the coverage, so I took it outside and sprayed it with a high end ($35) harbor freight HVLP gun. I'll be using that method allot more from now on.

Anyway, here you go:

[armthehomeless]

The stand looks great...and does the Christmas tree!!

[afremont]

Thanks for the compliment. The wife did the tree, I don't have that kind of creative ability.

[BUELLER]

GREAT JOB ON THE STAND!! The finish poly coat looks GREAT!! GIDDY UP!!

bueller