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“Dressing” aluminum frame stand?

MarcosDelgado0

MarcosDelgado0

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Hello,

I’m picking up an aquarium this week but the seller doesn’t have the original stand and instead built an aluminum one but I’m confused how I would go about “dressing” the frame with wood so it looks nice? Any advice or can someone point me in the right direction? I tried google and don’t know if I’m searching it wrong but I’m not finding much info.

(Also, probably not likely but there’s no way to cut the frame length down so that the tank sits flush with the stand right?)

Thank you!
 

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Or would someone know where I could order a 48”L x 24”W aquarium cabinet? Tank is going in the living room so aluminum frame isn’t going to make the family too happy lol
 
You can cut it down but you’d have to disassemble it, make the needed cuts, and then reassemble it.

Skinning the aluminum frame with wood is possible but it will take quite a bit of work to make it look good. What kinds of tools and skills do you have to do this?
 
MarcosDelgado0 said:
Or would someone know where I could order a 48”L x 24”W aquarium cabinet? Tank is going in the living room so aluminum frame isn’t going to make the family too happy lol
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What i did was converted a TV cabinet or armoire and reinforced with 2x4.

But since you already have a solid stand, the part that stands out the most are doors. Frame it with plywood then buy cabinet doors. Will look great.
 
Flagg37 said:
You can cut it down but you’d have to disassemble it, make the needed cuts, and then reassemble it.

Skinning the aluminum frame with wood is possible but it will take quite a bit of work to make it look good. What kinds of tools and skills do you have to do this?
Click to expand...
Okay I might have to just buy a new stand because I’m not crafty and the only tools I have are a tool box kit lol
 
You can screw the plywood directly into the aluminum if you like. It looks like the stand is bigger than the tank. That would bug me unless I put a small tank next to the big one on the same stand. Aluminum is east to cut, but I understand wanting a plug and play stand.

I also don't see any corner gussets/braces. That would make me nervous as all shear/racking force goes into the hardware. There are easy brackets to add and just takes a little Allen wrench work. The plywood screwed to the outside would offer some shear strength.
 
H2OPlayar said:
You can screw the plywood directly into the aluminum if you like. It looks like the stand is bigger than the tank. That would bug me unless I put a small tank next to the big one on the same stand. Aluminum is east to cut, but I understand wanting a plug and play stand.

I also don't see any corner gussets/braces. That would make me nervous as all shear/racking force goes into the hardware. There are easy brackets to add and just takes a little Allen wrench work. The plywood screwed to the outside would offer some shear strength.
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Yeah that’s also one of the reasons I’m thinking of a new stand all together. I don’t like the look of it not being flush… I just can’t find anyone who makes a 48”x24” stand online that can ship
 
Innovative Marine has their stand they use for their EXT100 and SR80 with stand dimensions of Length 47.50” Width: 23.50” Height: 35.81”. A tiny bit short but it’ll work if that doesn’t bother you. Call them to see if they’ll sell the stand only.

www.innovative-marine.com

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I was looking at a very similar sized stand. I wanted an extruded AL build, but I also wanted it to be skinned nicely. I looked around to find someone to do it, and it's very expensive and hard to find. I know I don't have the woodworking skills to do it nicely, or in a time effective manner.

I ended up going a different route, but the path I was going to go as a middle ground was go to IKEA and buy their cabinet doors. I found I could get nice styled ones that I would've been able to fit to cover most of the stand in a visually appealing manner. I think it would've looked pretty good, including that Ikea does have wood doors.

The gotcha is the time to get it together and do the bit of framing you'd want to make it look good. The other gotcha is doors are expensive. No matter where you look, unless you're just getting a flat white panel that flush closes, each door was like $50+. After adding it up the total cost was getting pretty high.
 
Could always drape a sheet/curtain around that doesn't show salt creep then have doors in the front. Or some type of thin panel with vinyl wrap.
 
richiev said:
I was looking at a very similar sized stand. I wanted an extruded AL build, but I also wanted it to be skinned nicely. I looked around to find someone to do it, and it's very expensive and hard to find. I know I don't have the woodworking skills to do it nicely, or in a time effective manner.

I ended up going a different route, but the path I was going to go as a middle ground was go to IKEA and buy their cabinet doors. I found I could get nice styled ones that I would've been able to fit to cover most of the stand in a visually appealing manner. I think it would've looked pretty good, including that Ikea does have wood doors.

The gotcha is the time to get it together and do the bit of framing you'd want to make it look good. The other gotcha is doors are expensive. No matter where you look, unless you're just getting a flat white panel that flush closes, each door was like $50+. After adding it up the total cost was getting pretty high.
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Yeah I’m not very crafty so I don’t think I could pull this off. I also don’t have tools :/
 
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