hobogato
Sat, 7th Oct 2006, 09:37 PM
well, i am building (at least attempting to) a hang on back beckett skimmer for someone, and decided to try a new design to keep all microbubbles from dumping out the drain into the display. a few of the times i have posted finished projects, people have asked if i chronicled them, and i never had - so i decided to do that this time. i didnt want the HOB to be untested, so i decided to build one for myself (in sump) using the new design to make sure it would work correctly. as you can see - i could use a new skimmer anyway:
my skimmer - dont laugh, it works great, it is just really ugly because it was one of my first acrylic projects - before i even knew how to use weldon. it is held together (and has for almost two years) with nothing but silicone and a plastic frame on the outside of the box.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/oldskimmer.jpg
so i started with a couple of pics of the materials - $100 worth of acrylic and $140 worth of PVC.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/acrylic.jpghttp://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/plumbing.jpg
it took me about 45 minutes to cut all the tube pieces for both new skimmers
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/tubes.jpg
and about an hour to rough cut all of the flat pieces for both skimmers
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/pieces.jpg
it took me 45 minutes to sand all of the ends of the tube smooth by hand
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/sandingtubes.jpg
it took me about 15 minutes to run all the flat pieces through the jointer to make the edges perfect. on my last wookworking project, the violin, i found out that even though you have the jointer set to take 1/32" off of a piece of wood, it takes alot more off of a finger if you mess up - but that is all healed up now.
(notice how i still keep that pinky curled under, away from my other fingers tho now :) )
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/jointer.jpg
look how nice those edges look ;)
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/jointedpieces.jpg
it took me another hour to do the finish cutting on the flat pieces with the router.
it took another 4 hours or so (with some beer, er i mean wait time scattered throughout - notice i saved the beer time until after finishing with the jointer) to finish putting it together and plumbing it.
heres one step close to the end
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/glueing.jpg
and here is my new skimmer.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/newskimmer.jpg
i will hook it up tomorrow and see how it does. once i see it in action, i will make any adjustments needed to the design before finishing the HOB one. ill post ther rest of the process after i finish the second skimmer.
my skimmer - dont laugh, it works great, it is just really ugly because it was one of my first acrylic projects - before i even knew how to use weldon. it is held together (and has for almost two years) with nothing but silicone and a plastic frame on the outside of the box.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/oldskimmer.jpg
so i started with a couple of pics of the materials - $100 worth of acrylic and $140 worth of PVC.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/acrylic.jpghttp://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/plumbing.jpg
it took me about 45 minutes to cut all the tube pieces for both new skimmers
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/tubes.jpg
and about an hour to rough cut all of the flat pieces for both skimmers
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/pieces.jpg
it took me 45 minutes to sand all of the ends of the tube smooth by hand
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/sandingtubes.jpg
it took me about 15 minutes to run all the flat pieces through the jointer to make the edges perfect. on my last wookworking project, the violin, i found out that even though you have the jointer set to take 1/32" off of a piece of wood, it takes alot more off of a finger if you mess up - but that is all healed up now.
(notice how i still keep that pinky curled under, away from my other fingers tho now :) )
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/jointer.jpg
look how nice those edges look ;)
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/jointedpieces.jpg
it took me another hour to do the finish cutting on the flat pieces with the router.
it took another 4 hours or so (with some beer, er i mean wait time scattered throughout - notice i saved the beer time until after finishing with the jointer) to finish putting it together and plumbing it.
heres one step close to the end
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/glueing.jpg
and here is my new skimmer.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/projects/newskimmer.jpg
i will hook it up tomorrow and see how it does. once i see it in action, i will make any adjustments needed to the design before finishing the HOB one. ill post ther rest of the process after i finish the second skimmer.