jsoong
Aquarium Advice Addict
I am all excited with this.
I had an old 75 that is cracked on one end sitting in the garage taking up space. I thought I can remake that into a sump. The plan was to cut the tank shorter to get rid of the crack. Since this is 3/8" thick glass, I didn't think the usual scoring & snap method will work too well. <I can't snap anything over 1/8" cleanly.>
Well, I have an old diamond blade that was used to cut concrete tiles. I thought I would try that. I originally rented a wet saw for the job, but it was not worth it to rent a saw for 3 cuts. So I rigged up something with my table saw.
Warning: YMMV!!! I used my Ryobi BT3000 - an aluminum saw. <You don't want to use a cast iron or a cabinet saw!> It has a direct drive motor that is well above the dust chute, plus it has good dust collection so any water will be sucked away quickly with my big shopvac. The saw is plugged into a GFI outlet for shock protection. I use my garden hose to wet the blade & made myself a temporary wet saw.
I took the tank apart, crossed my fingers & started the saw. The diamond blade worked beautifully. All I did was feed slowly, and watch the blade. If I don't get enough water on the cut, the leading edge would glow orange, so I slow down & turn up the tap. It took maybe 5 min to do a 24" long cut, but no major disaster. <Make sure the glass is supported on all sides. I had a break when the glass got too heavy hanging over the saw as I cut, but luckily, the break was on the waste side, so finished the cut without incident.>
Second warning: The blade throws up glass splinters from time to time - WEAR EYE PROTECTION!!!
I am all psych up with this new (to me) glass cutting method. So now, all that is left is to scrape off all the old silicone & rebuild the tank. I don't need too many dividers with a FW sump, but I can make those out of scrap glass I have lying around.
I had an old 75 that is cracked on one end sitting in the garage taking up space. I thought I can remake that into a sump. The plan was to cut the tank shorter to get rid of the crack. Since this is 3/8" thick glass, I didn't think the usual scoring & snap method will work too well. <I can't snap anything over 1/8" cleanly.>
Well, I have an old diamond blade that was used to cut concrete tiles. I thought I would try that. I originally rented a wet saw for the job, but it was not worth it to rent a saw for 3 cuts. So I rigged up something with my table saw.
Warning: YMMV!!! I used my Ryobi BT3000 - an aluminum saw. <You don't want to use a cast iron or a cabinet saw!> It has a direct drive motor that is well above the dust chute, plus it has good dust collection so any water will be sucked away quickly with my big shopvac. The saw is plugged into a GFI outlet for shock protection. I use my garden hose to wet the blade & made myself a temporary wet saw.
I took the tank apart, crossed my fingers & started the saw. The diamond blade worked beautifully. All I did was feed slowly, and watch the blade. If I don't get enough water on the cut, the leading edge would glow orange, so I slow down & turn up the tap. It took maybe 5 min to do a 24" long cut, but no major disaster. <Make sure the glass is supported on all sides. I had a break when the glass got too heavy hanging over the saw as I cut, but luckily, the break was on the waste side, so finished the cut without incident.>
Second warning: The blade throws up glass splinters from time to time - WEAR EYE PROTECTION!!!
I am all psych up with this new (to me) glass cutting method. So now, all that is left is to scrape off all the old silicone & rebuild the tank. I don't need too many dividers with a FW sump, but I can make those out of scrap glass I have lying around.
