90g Stand Canopy (designed/built for ARC Member toyo)

[rededge2k1]

Hi gang,

This weekend I started a build for ARC member toyo (Juan) and wanted to share my progress with you guys in this thread. This will be for a 90g tank and will be made from black walnut with a polyurethane finish, Maybe you can pick up some ideas for your own stand build, so enjoy the pictures!

First off, here's my design that I put together for Juan in SketchUp. The stand is 38" tall with two doors (clear opening into the sump area -- no divider). The canopy has both cabinet doors for feeding, and the lid flips up as well for tank cleaning and bigger tasks like that.

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And now for the fun stuff, building the stand framework. A trip to Peachstate Lumber in Kennesaw and $538 later, and we have a big pile of black walnut!

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Cutting the plywood panels to size with a track saw...so much easier than trying to push full 4x8 sheets of plywood across a table saw.

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All of the plywood pieces cut

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Cutting dados in the panels for joinery

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[rededge2k1]

After cutting the dados on the table saw, I like to go over them with a router plane to ensure the depth of the dado is consistent all along the length. Sometimes it's hard to keep pressure on the cut at the table saw, which can result in a "wavy" groove. This nifty hand tool ensures the depth is the same all along the groove.

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The stand is held together with wood glue and pocket screws. All of the mechanical fasteners will be hidden by the trim work later.

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The cutouts are laid out and rough cut with a jig saw.

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A straightedge at the router table makes for a nice clean, straight line after the openings are rough cut with the jig saw.

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Beginning the assemble the stand frame...

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Completed stand frame

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[elfloyd]

Score another one for Dustin!

 

[sn4k33y3z]

I love the grain of that wood (yeah yeah yeah yeah LOL).

 

[toyo]

Dustin, thanks again for taking time to make this project happen. Your attention to detail is amazing! Can't wait to see the finish product. :thumbs:

 

[stoney1118]

Very nice! This puts my "stand in progress" to shame!!

 

[giulianom]

That's a nice workbench you got there, Dustin...



You make that yourself too?

 

[rededge2k1]

GiulianoM;885090 wrote: That's a nice workbench you got there, Dustin...

You make that yourself too?

Yep, it was my fall project last year. It took a while and weighs a ton, but it's an awesome workbench. It's based on the Split Top Roubo Workbench that was featured on TheWoodWhisperer.com last year.

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Dustin

Edit: After building the stand frame yesterday, I started milling the rough lumber today that will become the raised panel doors and trim. I was planning to work on the canopy framework today, but it has been a while since I've used the ole jointer so I was more excited to mill the rough black walnut instead

All of the rough boards were laid out with chalk, rough cut to size with a jig saw / bandsaw, and ran over the jointer and through the planer to make them smooth & square.

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The stand doors are wide so I had to glue two boards together to make the center raised panel for the stand doors.

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After the glue dried, I removed the mill marks and flattened everything up with a #7 jointer plane.

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The raised panel profile is made on the router table, along with the cope/stick cuts for the door rails and stiles.

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After a lovely Sunday afternoon of saw dust, the canopy front frame and all of the cabinet doors are in the clamps to dry overnight.

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[reeferman]

excellent work Dustin!

 

[toyo]

So nice!!!

 

[ff337]

That's what I'm talking about. That's awesome.

Edit: That's what I'm talking about. That's awesome.

 

[darth reefer]

Quality woodwork like that is an art form. Nice work!

 

[rededge2k1]

This evening after work I took the cabinet doors out of the clamps and they are nice and flat/square.

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I then milled up the rest of the trim boards from the rough black walnut, and stacked/stickered them to acclimate overnight before bringing them down to final width/thickness tomorrow.

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Last task for the evening was framing up the canopy. The front is solid walnut, while the sides and back are walnut plywood. Note the exposed plywood edges will be hidden by trim later.

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[toyo]

Looking great! Thanks for the update.

 

[rededge2k1]

Top installed on the canopy

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Cutting the front off the canopy box, to make the flip-up lid

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To hide the exposed edges of the plywood frame on both the stand and canopy, I cut 3/4" wide by 1/8" thick strips of walnut and glued them to the the plywood edges. After they are trimmed flush and sanded, they blend right in. But first, I had to square up the inside corners that were left rounded from the router.

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Edit: Installing the piano hinge on the canopy lid

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The trim boards, rough cut to size

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The decorative profiles I routed on the different trim pieces

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The edges of the cabinet doors get a similar decorative edge, to blend them in with the trim pieces

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The fluted trim was also made on the router table, from 1/2" thick walnut

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Starting to trim out the stand

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[rdnelson]

Gorgeous work as always Dustin.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[skriz]

I admire your dedication to dust control. The pocket screw jig..lol!

Nice work, man. This will be a sweet setup.

 

[rededge2k1]

Skriz;886602 wrote: I admire your dedication to dust control. The pocket screw jig..lol!

Yeah it's really more for the jig than it is for me. Without any dust collection, the drill bit gets clogged and heats up a lot more since there is nowhere for the shavings to escape. That, and I make myself use that $600 Festool vacuum cleaner whenever I can to justify the amount of money I paid for it! If you think reefkeeping is expensive....

Dustin

 

[skriz]

RedEDGE2k1;886605 wrote: Yeah it's really more for the jig than it is for me. Without any dust collection, the drill bit gets clogged and heats up a lot more since there is nowhere for the shavings to escape. That, and I make myself use that $600 Festool vacuum cleaner whenever I can to justify the amount of money I paid for it! If you think reefkeeping is expensive....

Dustin

Ha! Don't blame you one bit! Sounds like when I bought a fry daddy in college. As a cheap college kid, I had to get my money's worth..so, I ended up frying EVERYTHING! As you can imagine, that didn't end well! Okay, so maybe not exactly like the fry daddy..

 

[giulianom]

Skriz;886611 wrote: Ha! Don't blame you one bit! Sounds like when I bought a fry daddy in college. As a cheap college kid, I had to get my money's worth..so, I ended up frying EVERYTHING! As you can imagine, that didn't end well! Okay, so maybe not exactly like the fry daddy..

I bet you tried to fry ramen...