Cabinet around metal frame

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Stinky Pete

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
Messages
112
Location
NC
I bought this 55 gallon tank cheap on Craig's list but it stood on a ugly metal frame. I'm not a patient person and set the tank up and stocked it on the ugly metal stand. My wife got sick of the metal frame so needless to say I got busy. It was a challenge to build this cabinet around the frame with the tank fully stocked. It's mostly held together with good wood glue and a few choice nails in just the right places. ImageUploadedByTapatalk1392684519.831696.jpg
 
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I bought this 55 gallon tank cheap on Craig's list but it stood on a ugly metal frame. I'm not a patient person and set the tank up and stocked it on the ugly metal stand. My wife got sick of the metal frame so needless to say I got busy. It was a challenge to build this cabinet around the frame with the tank fully stocked. It's mostly held together with good wood glue and a few choice nails in just the right places.

Dude you built it better than I could if the tank wasn't on it!! Very nice! That looks like it took a lot of paitents!
 
Please say you did a step by step with pics on how you did it. Looks great!
 
Agreed. Very nice work! I would never guess from the picture that the wood wasn't holding the weight.
 
Unfortunately I did not think about taking pics until I was finished. I kinda winged it with left over material from a job I was working on.
It's an ugly steel frame but it's really strong so I jammed a 2x4 really tight in each corner and 2 more in the front for the door hinges to attach too. When I say tight I cut the 2x4 1/8 more then the measurement between the top and bottom of the stand.
Then I glued 3/8 beaded ply to the 2x4s with construction adhesive. Once that dried I glued 1x4 poplar on top of the ply to form a raised panel look. The doors are also left over from a job because the customer didn't like them. The only nails are in the trim piece that goes around the top of the 1x4s. That scared the crap out of my Coral Beauty. Didn't see him for a day or so after.
 
I'm glad to see you accomplished that. I have a 125 dual tank metal stand that I will also be building a box for. I don't want to see all the piping going into my sump down below. Seeing your stand helps give me hope that doing mine will work. At first I was skeptical. Now I have hope
 
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