Acrylic welding - Overflow installation!!
by
, 03-02-2012 at 04:39 PM (7033 Views)
Just made my first ever acrylic weld... other than my practice joints. I'll be posting some pictures later this evening. I'll also be posting an updated picture of my tank and the new (mostly completed) plumbing. It's been a long time coming, but by the end of the weekend I will probably be able to give my system a full scale water test (and hopefully share a video with you guys). Hope you all enjoy the pictures when I get a minute to post them this evening!
Okay, so as promised, here are my photos:
I'll start off with the two pieces of acrylic I had routed out by my uncle. He owns a sign shop and has a massive CNC router and got these pieces shipped to me and at my door in less than a week from the time I sent the original files to him! They're both black 1/8" thick acrylic
Next come pictures of some of my materials and tools. The WELD ON 4 is what I used as a way to "weld" or chemically join my two pieces of acrylic. The acrylic cleaner seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I am wondering if it may have left a residue that will cause the joint to prematurely fail sooner than it otherwise would have. However, since the acrylic is backed by 1/4" glass I doubt it will be an issue.
Here we have a few pictures of the acrylic pieces after they were welded together (I didn't get any pictures of it in process because it was all new to me and I didn't want to mess anything up)
Here are a few pictures of the overflow before the acrylic facer was added.
And a picture of the corner overflow all taped off for silicone application.
Now the overflow is "glued" to the glass portion of the overflow by silicone deposited between the two surfaces.
A picture of the overflow facing and the tank bottom and walls all taped off for silicone application
The "finished" product after the masking and masking tape have been removed.
Side view of the tank with the overflow pipes visible. In the not-so-distant future I will be painting this surface so that people can't look into the overflow on the side.
An internal view of the overflow box
A full tank shot, minus any of the modular loc-line hose shown in the photo.
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