Any Engineers Here?

[jeffopentax]

I was asked by someone to build a stand resembling this, except 36” tall.

He said he likes the overhang on the ends (about 4” each side, stand is 48” overall), but not if the stand would be stronger without them. That got me thinking, is it possible for undue stress to be put on the tank if the corners aren’t directly supported underneath? I’m no engineer (obviously!), so maybe it makes no difference on this scale. What say ye all?


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[marks69]

You would have to make the top about 3 or 4 layers of 3/4 plywood or something.

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[jeffopentax]

You would have to make the top about 3 or 4 layers of 3/4 plywood or something.

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I was going to use 3/4” ply. The original is 5/8” mdf. It was sold to me when I bought my 60g years ago, both brand new. Is it possible that stand wasn’t meant to hold a 48” tank?


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[dale]

that 5/8 mdf is insufficient in my opinion, sure it worked but not to the degree most of us want.. 3/4 will work as well but if you want super solid with no flex you would need 1 1/4 to 1.5 with the layers glued n screwed .. you could put a 48" tank on a 40" stand and everything would be fine,, but most of us are not comfortable with that... ocd or nerves, one or the other.. lol...

 

[jeffopentax]

Interesting. The tank and stand were sold to me, together, by none other than The Tropical Fishroom. Just another reason to not shop there! Think I will recommend either not having the overhang, or making the stand longer than the tank.


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[marks69]

54 stand and 48 tank would look nice.

 

[John721]

If you have a 4" over hang you should use at least two sheets of 3/4 ply wood plus pl premium plus screwed. With that it should be good when I built my temporary stand for my 90g I had a 4" over hang but I used 2 2x10 and I had it on there for 2yrs before I finally made the permanent 1. Even after being on there for 2yrs the wood was still straight

 

[shamous113]

You could use 2 sheets of Russian birch plywood glued and pressed together (using a large cold press), honestly though I wouldn't use that stand as shown on a larger tank, what size of tank is it for? I find a lot of steel and wood stands are built to the bare minimum of strength not taking in to consideration long term use. ie a lot of people will use HSS 2x2x1/4 for a larger tank, the deflection over a 4' span on a 600gal tank is over 0.25" if you go to a HSS 3x1.5x0.25" LLV member for the top frame the deflection is >0.1" over 4'.