Making my own resivoir, need some input

[Killer Munkey]

Me and my buddy who works at a hardware store are building a resivior that will fit into the bottom of my case. We are using plexiglass at the moment to make a rectagle in the dimensions of 6x5x8in. But my friend found out at the hardware store that plexiglass doesn't like to be glued together and will come apart at some point. So that leaves me wondering how i can make a water tight resivior out of plexiglass. My friend said we could melt the glass together but doesn't know how to do it.

Does anybody have any ideas how i can make this plexiglass resivoir water tight?

[Hawk]

How about using clear silicon as the glue/adheasive, with also screwing the sides together at 3 points. 1 on each end and 1 in the enter. That should do it. Think of it this way, when was the last time you saw a aquarium glass glued? ;)

[totalwise]

whilst at school we made some utensils out of acrylic (i'm not sure if this is plexiglass or not, maybe its our british english word for plexiglass)

Well acrylic is basically a really hard plastic that has a tendancy to crack, it has a really smooth surface etc, am i close??

Well the idea of gluing acrylic might sound difficult and risky, but its quite straightforward, basically the adhesive we used was highly toxic and corrosive, what it does is it burns the 2 peices on contact and when you put them 2 together they becomes like one piece, the 'burnt' pieces merge togther to form a permanent bond, you gotto apply the glue to both peices and hold it togther really firmly whilst it dries up. But I'm not sure if this would give a neat finish for transparent acrylic as the glue will leave a highly visible mark.

Only problem is I forgot the name of the adhesive, a good diy shop should help you out.

This method should work as we made a dual purpose pizza cutter and server in 1, so for food hygeine reasons this would obviously have to be quite solid.

Even if plexiglass and acrylic are different, i'm sure it can be done, because if you notice, cube fishtanks have their joints glued, being glass thats the only way to join pieces togther, so if you can join glass by glueing, you can ofcouse you can join plastic,

Only question is do you really want to make your own one?? I would rather buy a ready made one as it will have a warranty and if it leaks you can get compensation for your parts.

My computer has 6 fans, 2 to blow air in and our of the case, 1 for the chipset, 1 for the cpu, 2 to blow air in and out of the psu. So you can already see I wouldn;t benifit from a watercooler as the noise cancelled by replacing the cpu fan will not make a difference to the overall system sounds,

[83racecrew]

KM, I go along with hawk on the gluing/screwing thing, assuming of course that the plexi is about 1/4" thick? you could drill some nice small #6 or #8 holes. For the glue, what about the urethane stuff they use to put Automotive windshields in with...this is obviously weatherproof, and its very sticky...as a matter of fact thats all that holds the windshield in on most cars.....only downside is I have only ever seen it in black :(

My 2 cents :thumb:

[83racecrew]

Another thought.....if you could find someone with a box brake (used to bend sheet metal) you could use lexan (3/32" or 1/8") which can be bent without breaking and you would then only have to "glue" or seal the four corners and the top, the bottom would have no seams. :)

more of my cents :lol: (or is that noncents :rotflmao: )

[Snafu]

I did a "google" using plexiglass and gluing to come up with several links. The top 3 are:
First (http://astro.umsystem.edu/atm/ARCHIVES/NOV98/msg00736.html)
Second (http://www.floyds.on.ca/acrylic.html)
Third (http://www.garf.org/news22p2.html)

The third is probably the most interesting as it is building an aquarium using plexiglass. The other two refer to "Weld-On" products.

I had to find these as well 'cause I have some plexiglass kicking around here for some duct work I need to make.

I like Hawk's idea about using screws to hold it together. Another idea is to use metal angle iron or aluminum at the edges and silicon to seal it all is (together with the glue). This could give it an interesting look.

Anotehr idea if you are into effects is teh reservoir use by BlackMesa for his HalfLife2 case mod (http://members.home.nl/gis/). IMO one of the ultimate case mods for sure :thumb: (I love this mod so much I dl's all the pics and use a picture show as my screen saver :hide: ).

Just some thoughts for you. Let us know what you end up doing :wave: .

[Killer Munkey]

the glueing and screwing looks like it will be the most pratical. although if i find anything like totalwise was talking about i'll give it a try.

what i can get a hold of is some L joints and use that to screw the pieces together and either use aquarium glue or silicon to seal up the joints. Using alliunum to cover the joints would probably look really cool if i got the metal to a mirror finish by polishing it. My buddy is off of work today and the g/f isn't around for several more hours so :mischeif: I got time to get stuff done.

i'll check back in after i've done a sweep of the hardware store to see what i can use.

[ALX_eater]

What Hawk said will work, use it to line the inside to seal it. depending on how thick it is you can screw it together and put a rubber gasket in between to seal it then use the clear silicon to give you a warm and fuzzy

[LostInSpace278]

OK just a few pointers for clarification.You are probably better off getting 3/8'' plexiglass. This is so you can heat it while you bend it. The plexiglass will be thinner in this area. Using some clamps, a metal straight edge, and a propane heating torch. Try and stay away from the MAPP gas. (MAPP gas burns much hotter than propane)Waving the torch over the area you would like to bend, do not apply directly. It should bend very easily. As for the tops and end caps, they make special bits for drilling Plexiglass, as to not shell, shatter, or cause spidering of the glass. One other thing you can try is heating a nail (red hot) about the same diameter of your screws and push it through the glass. Make sure you use some type of sealant between the end caps, top, and the rest of the reservoir.

As far as glue being the only thing that holds the aquarium together. Not so. The band around the top and bottom hold it together. Some small aquariums do not need these bands, all of larger ones do. I would venture to say 20 gallons or more have bands. The sealnat is not strong enough to hold the weight and pressure of the water.

[ALX_eater]

If you do the above method don't apply any products that have alcohol in it as the plexiglass will crack. But the above is the best way of doing it so far.

[Killer Munkey]

hmm. not a bad plan LIS. i'll be in the hardware store tommorow and i'll see if they got 3/8in plexiglass. I know they got 1/4in glass so if they don't i'll have to check out a larger place like home deopt. I can get a hold of a propane sodering torch to do the job.

aswome amount of input from everybody. i'm grateful for all the ideas. What i'm probably going to do is try the screwing and glueing with the 1/4 pieces that already half made and see if i can get a hold of some 3/8in glass to give the heating bending a try. I already got a good idea on how to make all but the top piece out of just one plexiglass piece that will bend into the dimesions i want.

i found a good picture of what i'm shooting for, dimensions are different but its the same end result linky (http://www.hard-h2o.com/readreview/watercooling/reservoirpump.html)

the top piece can be sealed up the same way as the one in that review is. Rubber sealing joint pressed together by screws. I'll get those drill bits that you talked about LIS to drill in the holes for the tubing. The leads for the tubing will have to be on the sides if the top is going to be removable which it has to be.

more to come tommorow, hopefully i can gather up all the parts to begin the glued reservior and then get the other materials for the bent heated one on friday when i get a pay check :beer: