Cali Kid Corals

Corals B 4 Bills 225 Lee Mar Starfire Inwall tank

I am a novice still-but, I can cut and weld most anything. Once you know the dynamics it's really easy to weld. The nice thing is I have the time to figure this stuff out and I love tools so it's a nice second marriage, Btw why do you ask? Did you want something welded?
 
No I was just curious, thinking of doing it myself for a stand, and wondered about the actual skill required to keep it strong enough to resist lateral forces as well as vertical
 
So Yesturday I finished the welding of the Gussetts, and screw tabs. Today I cleaned and primed it, tomorrow I will paint it and I will cut some 3/4 ply for the top and polyurethane it. Here are the latest pictures.
 
I'm not sure, I figure the front and sides can handle about 7,000 lbs. and the back about 5,000. I should be good seeing that the stand will be holding a max of 3,000. The main thing to consider is the house's subfloor, The back of the stand will be sitting directly on top of the foundation and the front will be half way to the nearest girder so I will pour a footing under the house and mount house jacks to keep it level over the years to come.
 
You could drop my truck from 30' up onto that stand and it wouldnt even dent ! I love it !


I just threw a couple of deck piers w/post and girder under the leading edge of my tank (100g....for now) . I hate pouring mud in a crawl space so I keep it to a min.
 
I'm sure the stand can take all the compression weight thrown at it given what I have seen in this thread. The only thing that I'd even consider calculating would be the shearing threshold. We are in earthquake country afterall. Of course, this could be on my mind because I am dealing with this question on something I am designing at work ;P
 
Shear strength is what I was most concerned with, that's why the supports are laid out the way they are, also I will have a sheet of 3/4 ply wrapped around the whole stand AND canopy, plus once I have the stand level to the subfloor I will have a 8-10" bolt running all the way through the floor connecting to an 1/8" x 4" x 7 foot steel flat stock to hold it secure. Earthquake?......Bring it on.

BTW I called the guy who's repairing my tank and he said that the tempered glass is in and he's waiting on some special silicone and he can get started, he also said that I can pick it up on Wed. of next week. ;D

So.....Where did I put all my tank lifting buddies?...........Hmm I know they where here somewhere ???.

Bryan- The stand will be completed today, stand will painted and the 3/4" ply will be cut and polyurethaned.
 
Not sure what ply you used, but my all time favorite non MDF stock is Baltic birch (at least I think that is it. my memory is a little shotty right now) Hard, low voids, lots of thin ply layers, and strong as hell.
 
Yeah baby 1.125" is where its at. :) subflooring strong :) Stand looks great.. Migs are a wonderful thing!!!

I didn't read all 6 pages of posts but did you mention where you picked up all the square tube stock?
 
Metal Supermarket, it's about the cheapest place to get metal of all kinds. Look on the net they have stores in santa clara, redwood city..ect. ect. The cool thing about this place is that you can wonder around the place and look through the racks, check them out, they will even cut any size piece you want.
 
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