SimplyDiscus.com: Make tank stands from old furniture by Ardan Huck

Library > General Discus Husbandry > Do-It-Yourself Projects > Make tank stands from old furniture

Make tank stands from old furniture

May 5, 2002

I was given a writing boutique by some next door neighbours. I was like, "What the heck do we want with this thing?" I stuffed it into the garage and left it in the back of my mind.

At this point in time I had a 3 foot tank with angels and plants. Quite a modest setup. I also had a larger tank in the garage measuring a weird size of 43.5" x 14.5" x 21" high. I had nowhere to put it, untill I imagined all the drawers and top of the boutique missing! The thing measured 4' long, 18" wide, and around 4.5' tall.

So, to the tank stand.

Firstly I wanted to make sure it was going to be strong enough to hold 47 UK Gallons, a pile of sand, and rocks. Before I could test this part I had to do some chopping! I removed the legs (four spindally looking things they were). Then I lopped off the top part after removing the drawers and the drop down table/cupboard door. Now what I had left was a wooden box measuring around 4' x 18" x 18" high. I put this the right way up and attempted to stand on it. Well I didn't get that far as when I put my weight onto my hands so as to put my foot on it, the "top of the box" creaked and bowed. Only a bit but it was enough to discourage me to stand on it!!!!

To strengthen it, I just used bits of the boutique I'd chopped off earlier. I measured four peices of wood 1/22" thick x 18" x 14" and strategicaly placed these inside the tank stand and screwed them into place from the base side of the stand. I also screwed thinner pices of wood measuring 14" x 1/2" x 1/2" into the base and the supports to make sure they weren't going anywhere. After this I was confident to stand on it, with my brother, my father, and my friend. This is one strong tank stand. I then painted it with Ronseal paint and grain, in antique pine. It looks quite good for a rushed job.

Pic 1: Here you can see how the thing looks.

Pic 2: Here's where it gets clever.

Pic 3: This is an attempted close-up of the supports on the left side. The fake drawers removed.
In the above picture I tried to gain more distribution of weight onto the supports by placing one of the supports on an angle.

Pic 4: This pic shows the true colour of the boutique as was. That piece used for the support was part of the top.

Pic 5: Here you can see what I did to the drawers.

So there you go.



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