# Garage built tank stand



## mrmoby (Jan 18, 2005)

Hey everyone, it's been a while. 

I've been working in the garage, toying around with woodworking. I built a new 20 gallon stand to replace a quick and dirty stand I threw together for my niece and nephew almost two years ago. The overall design is basically a knock off of my 55 gallon stands that I bought as kits on ebay several years ago. 

This stand took the better part of nine months to complete. I'm really not that slow, the cabinet has been done since x-mas, but I had to wait for the warm weather to put the finish on. If youhave any woodworking experience, you will know this isn't a very complicated piece, but I got a lot of learning experience, and am very happy with the end result.

First, the stand being replaced. Ugly as sin, but a SOLID unit, now to be my new miter saw stand.



















Now..the new stand.....



















Solid top.....









Learned how to use a router on this job. Did my own trim and door.....










I saw this piece at the Rockler store. I already had a knob, and I choked on the $15 price tag, but for this, I had to have it!


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## mrmoby (Jan 18, 2005)

A little more info....

I used pine for this job. Not my first choice, it is EASILY marred. I wanted to use oak, but at $70 dollars a sheet, there was no way I was going to "learn" on that. The bulk of the cabinet is pine plywood. I bought a roll of edge banding to cover the edges of the plywood. I was really skeptical, but I applied it with an iron, trimmed it flush, and you would swear it was a piece of solid pine. I was really impressed. Hopefully the polyurethane finish keeps it in place.

The most time consuming part of the build (aside from finish) was making the door. I bought a router bit to cut the rails and stiles, and it was three tries before I got a door where all the pieces fit together AND layed flat.

The finish was overall the most consuming part. I put on a coat of golden pecan stain, and followed it with four coats of polyurethane, inside and out. Each coat was close to an hour to apply, so that's 8 hours of poly, not including sanding between coats.

Solid stand though. The best part is that it can be reproduced very inexpensively. Granted, I spent money on tools, but I plan to use those in other areas. Material wise, I could probably build another for around $65. Oak would be considerably more, but the ones in the pet shops are far more costly, and imo, often not very well built. Even the one I bought online, still cost me $150, unassembled and unfinished.

Anyway, that's the story. Thanks for looking!


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## BV77 (Jan 22, 2005)

very nice stand.


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## conradd (Jun 21, 2010)

thats gorgeous, at first I didn't see the second picture and thought that is what you have been working on and I was like ************. lol but the second one is really nice, i would buy that from petsmart or something. nice job!


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## mrmoby (Jan 18, 2005)

Thank you!


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

now you just need to work on the tank! lol


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## mrmoby (Jan 18, 2005)

Tallonebball said:


> now you just need to work on the tank! lol


LOL! Yeah...please don't anyone call the ASPCA........that tank was for display purposes only.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

LOVE the fishy knob!


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## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

wow that is gorgeous, great work 

just goes to show that with a bit of elbow grease people can produce products of their own superior to that which you could get at most stores.


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## Username in use (Apr 29, 2010)

somebody loves his craftsman tools


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