# My knock-down/flat packable aquarium stand



## the_deeb (Mar 19, 2009)

I thought I'd start a build journal for my new stand. The stand is going to be for my new custom 150g wide tank and I had a couple of specific requirements for the build, which will hopefully make for an interesting journal.

Firstly, this setup is going to be the centerpiece of our apartment, so I want the finished stand to look like a nice piece of furniture.

Next, the aquarium itself is going to be quite shallow, so I wanted the stand to be quite tall to visually compensate for this. The dimensions of the stand are around 5ft X 3ft X 3ft, which is too wide to fit through the hallway/door for our apartment, so I decided to build it so I could easily disassemble it and flat pack it for moving. I put a lot of thought into how best to do this while still having a strong supporting structure, and I came up with a solution involving some sturdy joinery and some interesting bits of connecting hardware.

Another feature that is a little different about this stand is that I wanted it to have legs rather than sitting with its full length on the floor. I think this is more aesthetically pleasing and will make it easier to shim the stand and clean up potential spills in the future. 

The final major limitation of this build is that I live in a small apartment and don't have any power tools (except for an electric drill), so I'm going to be building the entire thing using only hand tools. I'm only an amateur woodworker, and my tools and skills limit the kinds of cuts and joints I can reliably make.

Ok, with that background out of the way let's move on to the build!


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## the_deeb (Mar 19, 2009)

First of a quick shot of my "work shop"  

That's my dining room table with my trusty folding dozuki. It's a wonderful saw that cuts through lumber like butter leaving a paper thin kerf and a really smooth finish that requires little sanding. I built a little DIY miter box to assist with making good square cuts.


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## the_deeb (Mar 19, 2009)

I'm building the stand primarily out of poplar 1x4s that I picked up from a local lumber yard. It's good quality wood with nice square corners and minimal warping and was relatively affordable. Doubling up these boards results in a board that's much nicer and stronger than a typically pine 2x4. The legs of the stand will consist of two or three of these boards laminated together. Here are the first set of boards cut to size... 










and glued together


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## the_deeb (Mar 19, 2009)

A lot of the joinery in this build will involve long 90mm bolts running through several pieces of wood so it was important to accurately drill straight holes and have everything line up. A drill press would have made this easier, but I don't own one, so I made do with a nice little drill guide from Lee Valley tools. This was easy to use and gave pretty nice results.

Here's the guide:










You start out by using a punch to mark the location of the hole










and then add a 3/16" bushing over that and use it to fit the guide in place and secure it



















The you pull out the bushing and replace it with a new bushing sized to the drill bit that you're going to use (1/4" in my case). Using a high quality brad point drill bit also make it easier to get clean accurate holes.


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## the_deeb (Mar 19, 2009)

The end result of all that drilling was a bunch of nice straight holes. This is one of two strips of plywood that will eventually be used to attach the top to the sides. It has holes for 4 connector bolts.










Here they are attached to the top and base of the stand using pocket hole screws.




























I carefully lined up the holes in those pieces to make matching sets of holes through the plywood sides and into some 4 x 1.5 pine screw strips. These screw strips are a central part of the build - all the other parts of the tank will attach together using these strips. To provide an attachment point for the top and base to the sides, I'm using some threaded insert nuts.










I drilled and glued these into the screw strips using Gorilla Glue










I then drilled pairs of holes in the ends of the screw strips to accommodate cross dowel/barrel nuts.


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## the_deeb (Mar 19, 2009)

I then attached the screw strips and the legs to the plywood sides. Here's a completed side panel:










You can see the "mortise" holes in the legs to allow for the long cross pieces to attach. I didn't have the skills or tools to cut out true mortises, so you can see I just accomplished this by leaving spaces in the center board when I laminated the legs together.


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## scapegoat (Jun 3, 2010)

mmmm pull saw


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## the_deeb (Mar 19, 2009)

I made the long cross pieces by doubling up the 1x4 poplar boards to allow for bridle joints/lap joints with the legs. Here's a shot of a test fit of the cross pieces and legs for the front frame with my little assistant helping to determine the spacing:


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## the_deeb (Mar 19, 2009)

Here's the full sequence of assembly:

The cross pieces fit into the mortise holes in the sides



















You can see that I opted for a protruding through tenon (or whatever the analogous term is for the insert part of a bridle joint). This is partly an aesthetic design feature and it also means that the joint will allow for a little expansion or contraction of the wood without leaving an unsightly hole or protrusion. It's hard to tell from the pic but I chamfered all the corners of the tenon.

Next, a 90mm connector bolt gets driven through the lined up holes in all the pieces and into the cross dowel in the screw strip, securely pinning the bridle joint in place.



















Here you can see an inside edge of the leg with the strips that will support the base. The little notches accommodate the supporting strips that run front to back along the underside of the base.










The middle legs also have connecting bolts that screw into cross pieces that are fitted with cross dowel barrel bolts.



















The top cross attach the same way as the bottom ones










These are the holes in the side panels which lead to the insert nuts in the screw strips that I pictured earlier










The top of the stand gets slotted into place and then the bolts get driven through into the insert nuts in the screw strips



















And here's the (almost) complete stand structure. One thing that's missing is that the base isn't currently in place. Ordinarily the base would be fitted in before the top and attached to the sides in a similar way, but due to some minor alignment issues with the holes I needed to make some slight modifications so it's not included in this shot.










That's as far as I've gotten so far. Next up I need to build the doors, install some edging on the plywood top and then prime and paint the whole thing.


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## scapegoat (Jun 3, 2010)

really beautiful job


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## NWA-Planted (Aug 27, 2011)

I am beyond impressed, that is very nicely assembled and looks great!! Can't wait to see it finished out 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

Nice job. Looks like an ikea design.


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## the_deeb (Mar 19, 2009)

mistergreen said:


> Nice job. Looks like an ikea design.


Thanks. I was actually inspired by an ikea varde base cabinet/island that we have in our kitchen


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## alexei (May 8, 2012)

great job working with minimal resources; this clearly shows the mind is our most important resource 

I was going to give you the idea to maybe mortise a small square and inset a small block to cover up the 90mm bolts a la Greene and Greene, just to hide the hardware. I was searching for a picture to link you when I found this: 








http://www.woodmagazine.com/woodworking-tools/reviews/more/top-tools-for-2010/?catref=wd200&page=6

Just an idea to fuel the fires, hope it helps.


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## alexei (May 8, 2012)

the_deeb said:


>


I love the scale of this design... one cat high and 3 cats long :icon_wink


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

Very nice work. You a carpenter?


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## the_deeb (Mar 19, 2009)

alexei said:


> great job working with minimal resources; this clearly shows the mind is our most important resource
> 
> I was going to give you the idea to maybe mortise a small square and inset a small block to cover up the 90mm bolts a la Greene and Greene, just to hide the hardware. I was searching for a picture to link you when I found this:
> 
> ...


That's a cool idea. I've been thinking of doing something similar with some sort of magnetic cap.


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## the_deeb (Mar 19, 2009)

speedie408 said:


> Very nice work. You a carpenter?


Thanks. I'm certainly not a carpenter, just an amateur woodworker. As my wife puts it, my woodworking specialty is building large wooden boxes and putting fish tanks on them.


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## deeda (Jun 28, 2005)

Very nice design and build on the stand!! Even more so considering the lack of power tools and the nice fitment of all the parts.

All my cats do when we are working on a project is get in the way, though they have tested the strength of the shelves on the racks we put up for the fish room.:hihi:


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## MartyD (Dec 29, 2006)

You sir, have skills


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## thelub (Jan 4, 2013)

I am very inspired by your work! I'm always using the excuse not to build things because I don't have a shop or the proper tools, but I have WAY more "shop" space AND tools then you so now I have ZERO excuse not to build.

I like your design choice, although I'm a little bit leery about your hardware choices. I work in furniture and use those bolt and barrel nut combination for a lot of bunk beds we sell and they like to work loose after a while. But your wood choice is far sturdier than what our bunk beds are made of so it will probably work better then I've seen.


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## Patriot (Dec 22, 2010)

Well it looks like I will be taking the wood shop class on my Base.


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## the_deeb (Mar 19, 2009)

thelub said:


> I like your design choice, although I'm a little bit leery about your hardware choices. I work in furniture and use those bolt and barrel nut combination for a lot of bunk beds we sell and they like to work loose after a while.


Thanks, I'll have to keep an eye out to check for potential loosening. The nice thing about this design is that the heads of the bolts will still be accessible on the finished stand, so I should be able to easily tighten them up if I notice them working loose. Also, most of the weight of the aquarium itself will be supported by the wooden joints. Given that the bolts are not really load bearing, hopefully there won't be any catastrophic failures if then work a little loose.


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## flight50 (Apr 17, 2012)

the_deeb said:


> Thanks. I'm certainly not a carpenter, just an amateur woodworker. As my wife puts it, my woodworking specialty is building large wooden boxes and putting fish tanks on them.


No offense but I think your wife needs to re-evaluate you. She is severely underestimating your ability. By no means is that an amateur job. Thats a pro job. Most of us will screw some 2x4's together in an appropriate fashion and call it a day. You have some nice skills there. One can definitely tell your putting some time into it. If you ever sell it, don't settle for low ballers. That's some quality right there.


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## Beer (Feb 1, 2012)

Try blue Loctite on those fasteners (can't remember the number). Intended for temporary holding of fasteners over 1/8 or something like that. Should keep them from backing off, but still allow the stand to be disassembled in the future (unlike red). Just as a safety measure. The stand shouldn't see the same types of shifting loads as a bunk bed. Tank stands tend to be static, unlike a kid's bed.


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## Lia (Aug 2, 2007)

That came out great and that dozuki is neat, I thought it was some type meat cleaver.


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## the_deeb (Mar 19, 2009)

Time for a quick update. Progress has been slow because I got busy with work but I'm pretty close to done. Here's an update on the doors.

Given that the stand is quite a large piece of furniture and is going to be dark brown, I thought that having solid doors would make the whole thing look too dense, dark and overbearing in the room. So I opted to go for lighter doors in the style of shoji screens.

Here's all the wood laid out for one door with pocket holes drilled










Assembling the outer frame of the doors










Assembling the inner lattice (I would have benefited from some additional clamps here)










Fully assembled door










Passing the rigorous kitty inspection










I finished the doors with a couple of coats of dark brown paint and backed them with a layer of sturdy laminated shoji paper


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## kruzerman (May 24, 2012)

Great job. Really well thought out and documented. I appreciate that. You say the paper is laminated. How well will it stand up to water and moisture?


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## Jonny (Jun 5, 2013)

Stunningly impressive!


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

sweet doors and overall build. i've been on a mission in my local lumber yards to source some quality hardwood. Loving the pocket hole idea and looking to bypass the 2x4 build for something more stylistic. were all these pieces cut with a dozuki? I also considered making drawers to neatly pack away some fish foods but figured my build was already overly ambitious being that its a double aquarium stand.

thanks for the inspiration.


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## tattooedfool83 (Mar 15, 2013)

Truly amazing. If you would have left the amateur part out I would have guess you build furniture by trade. 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 4 Beta


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## Kai808 (Jul 19, 2011)

Amazing! As well as your former paludarium! What color lights are you planning to use behind the shoji doors?


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## TehDopeness (Jun 26, 2013)

I'm stealing your door idea for my stand lol


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## kingjombeejoe (Feb 17, 2013)

I love this stand. If I only had the patience....... it still wouldn't come out as good.


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## TehDopeness (Jun 26, 2013)

Where did you get your Shoji paper?


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## pweifan (Nov 2, 2006)

I'm looking forward to seeing a pic of the finished project. Very nice work!


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## the_deeb (Mar 19, 2009)

Thanks for the comments everyone.

kruzerman: the paper is laminated and is apparently surface washable, but the company still doesn't recommend it for areas that will see a lot of water so I'm not positive about how well it will hold up. For really wet areas or outdoor use they sell acrylic sheets with a shoji pattern but that was really expensive so I thought I'd try the laminated option first. I'll just have to be careful about not getting any splashes on it. I mainly decided to opt for the laminated stuff instead of regular shoji paper because it's relatively tear proof and will hopefully stand up to my cats better. 

Albert: yes I cut all the boards with a dozuki, which was at times cathartic and at times tedious. I had the plywood panels cut for me by the lumberyard.

TehDopeness: I got my shoji paper from eShoji.com


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## the_deeb (Mar 19, 2009)

Well, the stand is finally done. I should admit that I did run into some issues in the final assembly. Everything fit together perfectly before painting, but it seems that the combination of the paint and (I think) the expansion of the wood due to the arrival of hot and humid weather meant that the joints were much tighter than before (particularly the mortise joints at the bottom where the cross bars slot into the sides). It took a lot of sanding to get things to fit properly, and lot of whacking with a rubber mallet and clamping pressure to finally force things into place. I'm going to need to touch up some paint in some spots.

Everything is nice and snug now, but while the stand should still be disassembleable, it will probably take a lot more force and effort to break it down than I was initially hoping for. Oh well, a learning process as always.

Here are pics of the final product! (the pictures make it look black but it's actually a nice dark brown)



















40 gallon sump in place inside the stand. I inserted this into the stand before putting the top on because I don't think it would have fit through the doors (unlike the cat, which does fit through the doors).


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## Chrisinator (Jun 5, 2008)

That's a pretty kick-ass stand!


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## pweifan (Nov 2, 2006)

Spectacular job! Thanks for sharing


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

I will echo the thoughts of everyone else. This is a work of art. Great job.


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## Chester (Mar 25, 2013)

Dude that is amazing, and looks like a great piece of furniture instead of just a fish stand!


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

One more kudo! That is a really beautiful, original design stand. I wish I still had my workshop so I could try making one. I know I can't do that kind of work with just hand tools. And, there are lots of very good design details there to steal!


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## ebubna (Jul 9, 2013)

dang, thats a good looking stand.


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## ScarletFire (Nov 4, 2012)

This is an amazing stand. If you were to do this again, how would you change it?


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## WEGL5280 (Sep 4, 2013)

Really excellent wood work. Makes me feel like an ape when thinking back to building my stands...


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## the_deeb (Mar 19, 2009)

Thanks everyone.



ScarletFire said:


> This is an amazing stand. If you were to do this again, how would you change it?


One thing I didn't adequately appreciate when putting this together was the extent of seasonal expansion and contraction of the wood. I initially cut and fitted all the joints in the winter when it was dry and cool, but by the time I had finished painting everything and was ready for the final assembly it was summer and the wood had expanded because of the hot humid weather making all the joints much tighter than they had been initially. It took a lot of whacking with a mallet to get everything to fit into place. It makes for a nice tight and sturdy fit, but I'm a little apprehensive about how difficult it's going to be to ultimately take this apart.

If I was to do this again I might consider slightly oversizing the joints and relying more on the hardware to hold them together. 

Another minor issue is that the inset cabinet doors were perfectly sized to fit the openings in the stand, but with filled aquarium on top the ~1000lbs of weight has cause some slight flexing of the frame which makes the doors stick a little bit when opening and closing. The solution would have been to slightly underside the doors or to use an overlay rather than an inset door design that would be less susceptible to this issue.

Other than that, so far I'm very happy with it.


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## Tyrone (Nov 22, 2013)

I know this is an old thread, but I'm new here and this build is...well everyone else has said it! I'm speechless. I'm definitely going to try this build but in a smaller scale. Thank you for sharing this.


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