After a hard days work, the stand is built!

The stand is made solid and will probably last 3 life spans. Over its life span it will be moved from place to place, room to room. Have you considered putting self adjusting feet for when the floor will not be even?

 

Thanks Donny, having the right tools was one of the main factors of making this project possible, definately a big help!

I was concerned about the life span of the stand, my brother laughed and said I will leave this stand in my will to some family member who will inturn leave it in their will! I have considered adjustable feet, right now it has plugs that just close off the tubing, and it is resting on carpeting off cuts. I will probably make adjustable feet for it as it will also help hugely to level the stand when the flooring is not even. My wife and I have just moved into a new house, so hopefully we will be here for a long while, moving is the pits! but your suggestion of adjustable feet is a very good one, I was playing with the idea when we were building the stand, but we just wanted to get the stand complete by the time we had to move so that the tank goes on the new stand, the last thing in the old house by Sat afternoon was the tank, so there wasn't much time to make adjustable feet, but the idea is there.

 

hi peekay

im contemplating building/buying a stand to house two 3ft tanks. I wanted to get a rough idea of what costs are involved in building metal tubing stand having read through this thread

 

Hi Speedz

It is definitely cheaper to DIY! And you have the satisfaction knowing that you have built it, finish and quality is all in your hands, if you can, I would definitely recommend the DIY route.

When I bought the metal I shopped around, I called about 4 places and got very different prices! I ended up buying 3 lengths of 32x32x2mm square tubing at R105 per length, so just the metal costed R315. Then I bought a litre of Hammerite paint, that stuff is not cheap! I think I paid about R250 for a litre, but it is a have to, the alternative is to have it galvinised, but that would have worked out anywhere between R700 - R900, and then there was the worry of it twisting and warping, Hammerite is more than sufficient, we sprayed it on with a spray gun and gave it about 4 generous coats and it came out fantastic, I used the smooth finish. Welding rods, we used about a box and a half, rods are quite cheap, Lets round off the stand to R600. The wood was quite abit more, for the cabinet, doors, hood and shelving it probably all came up to R1800, then it was about 6 litres of stain at about R80 p/l, packet of screws at about R60, 2 tubs of wood polish wax about R50 for both, so all in all the wood in place and painted was around R2400, add about another R150 for hinges and door handles, so total cost is about R3140. Add on about R500 for the beers and takeaways we consumed!! Now if I had bought this stand/cabinet with the hood minus the tank I guestimate I would have paid somewhere around the R7000 - R9000 mark.

It was a fantastic project and I am more than happy with the outcome. Work and the festive season have kind of put everything on hold for now, but at the end of the month I will be buying the lighting for the hood and then put the hood on, will post some pics of the final finished product once I am done.

If I understand you correctly Speedz, are you wanting to build just the metal stand, or will you build a cabinet around the stand aswell? Just the stand as you can see is quite cheap, it's time and effort that are the biggest costs, the more finer details with the wood work, staining and polishing that becomes quite expensive, and I went the cheapish route by using standard pine and staining rather than going with a more expensive wood.

If you have the means to DIY then go for it, it is great fun and the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself is so worth it.

 

Thanks for the valuable information. I want the the stand to hold 2x 3foot tanks, one above the other. So it will just be metal. Im still deciding whether or not to ahead with this idea as my current 3ft is getting a bit overcrowded and i cant compromise space in our flat

 

Thanks Peekay will def look into that for my stand.

 

When sending metal frames for galvanising thats manufactured with square tubing,you will have to drill holes.first for preventing the metal frame twisting and also to drain out the galvanizing during the process,bcoz you pay by weight

 

Speedz - I have done the above project. pm me if you want my specs/
Measurements .

 

Peekay how about a pic update

 

Soon Donny!! Still busy polishing the doors and the hood before I put the doors and hood on. Since the middle of December I have not touched anything at all! Was just too hectic, but now things are back to normal again and I will continue with the build. I also need to buy the ballasts for the lights and get that all wired up before putting the hood on. Will post pics as soon as it's done.

 

Awesome