Any Cabinet Makers Around?

[Beverly]

We have our new tanks and stands ordered from AI. The tanks should be here in 7-10 days. However, we ordered stands to go with the tanks at the same time, and they don't even have a cabinet maker lined up yet :eek:

Anybody here a cabinet maker? Or do you know of one who does tank stands? Looking for oak cabinets for tanks:

- 24"x18"x24"h
- 36"x18"x24"h
- 48"x24"x24"h

[Skimmerking]

sorry to hear that Bev if I were up there i woould make you the cabinets i made areally good one for my 75 gal.

i hope you find one for a good price...


michael :mrgreen:

[Beverly]

Too bad you're so far away, Michael :frown: Got any pics of the one for your 75g? Maybe you could make me some and bring them up for the next meeting :smile:

[kuatto]

Bev
are you looking for basic 2x4 frame with plywood cabinet?if so I can do up a few designs and send them to you,maybe a few full wall iunit style designs if you want.

[Beverly]

Jim,

Here are a few pics of the quality I'd like....

This one is a little too ornate for me. Does not need to have such fancy doors, nor have legs or canopy:

http://petsolutions.com/images/200/47464170.jpg

Something like this (from this page, http://www.brouhaha.com/~ellis/aquarium/stand.html) is okay, but not is a little too simple:

http://www.brouhaha.com/~ellis/aquarium/stndang.jpg

All the stands need to be oak and black. I've started a thread at RC asking for pics of DIY stands. Hope I get some feedback:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=376914

Do you have any ideas from the stuff I've shown you?

[Skimmerking]

HI there Bev i can make you up a set of plans to make them look like peanut butter ,i will start on them tomorrow ok

mike

[Beverly]

Michael,

Gee, thanks for the email with the drawings. Not quite what I'm looking for, though. I need two doors on the front of the 48" stand and one door on both the 24" and 36" stands so we can store stuff down there.

Here's a pic from the RC thread that looks similar to the ones I'd like. Don't need the canopy, and sort of don't like that the doors have an extra strip of wood down the centre of them, but this one looks close:

http://itsa.ucsf.edu/~plee/pictures/TankHoodStand.jpg

I'd like the oak painted black, but only with a spray painter to get an even furniture-type finish instead of the streaky finish of using brushes...... Unless you're really great at working with brushes :smile:

Can you bring all three stands with you when you come to the next meeting, whenever that is, and not damage them during transport?

Gee, now I've got both Jim AND Michael working on this in their heads :eek: If both of you have similar stand building abilities, it might make more sense for Jim to make them so shipping won't be a too much of a hassle.

Jim,

Do you have a truck or access to one? We don't and would need to have the stands brought to us. Any chance of us slipping over some time soon to have a look at your stands more closely? If so, PM me with your phone number and we'll set up a time :smile:

[kuatto]

Bev
I tried emailing you a couple of drafts I did lastnight,but there was an error trying to send.I safed them on disk so if i cant send by email,you can see them when you come over for the meet.
I do have the tools to build,so when you decide on a design let me know.I'm not a master carpenter,but not bad :mrgreen:

Going to see Keith today so won't be home all day,talk to you later tonight.

[Beverly]

Am PMing you with my phone #. Call me when you get back. Don't want to wait until the meeting to see your tanks, though. Maybe we can come over to your place some evening this week to look at your work.

[fishguyxd]

try pet paridise in st albert
have steel stands

[Beverly]

Actually, found out that the stand making is already in progress and should have them in about a week. Last week I was waiting for a call from AI to confirm price, but never got one, thus the confusion. Sure happy to know the stands are on the way :smile:

Thanks, everyone, for your help and suggestions :cool:

[Quinn]

Glad to hear you got it worked out Bev. :smile:

[Beverly]

Glad to hear you got it worked out Bev. :smile:

Well, the plot thickens with my tank stands from AI, I'm afraid :confused:

Yes, we were told last Wednesday that the stands were going to be done "next week" when we went in to tell the lady owner that we'd found another cabinet maker. So, we went into the store the following Saturday, all excited, and asked for a time frame for when the stands would be at the store so we could look them over, pay for them and set up a delivery date.

She became very flustered and said she couldn't be phoning this guy every day about our stands and he's got to redo a portion of a skirt for a customer and didn't know exactly when they would be ready. We went home confused and rather pee-ed off thinking she'd lied to us about the stands being ready "next week".

The following Tuesday I phone and ask what's really going on with the stands in a very non-confrontational way. She said she wasn't sure where he was with the stands, that he might have the materials already, but didn't know if he had actually started them yet and that she would call him that night. She also wanted me to come in the next day to go over the plans once more to make sure everything was just right.

Cr*p, I'm thinking, she's been stringing us along all this time with false promises and un-truths :evil: As mad as I was, I didn't get upset with her because that only makes this lady more unreasonable. I said if he hasn't started, I want to know, and if he has started, I would like to know some sort of time line he has in mind for delivery. Very reasonably, she said she would do that and I said I would call the next day to find out what was going on.

Right after this conversation with her, I get on the phone with the cabinet maker I had lined up the previous week and asked him if he would still be able to do our stands in the event we were no longer working with AI on them. He said sure :smile:

The next day I phoned AI and she says she no longer wants to do our stands because of all the changes we had made to the original design and that her cabinet maker was not able to understand what it was we actually wanted. Well, we had made 2-3 modifications from the time of the original order, which all had detailed drawing accompanying the minor changes, but there had been no changes for two weeks prior to "the stands will be ready next week" time. I actually don't think she even talked with her cabinet maker and was stringing me along some more. I guess she wanted to fire us before we fired them.

Anyway, we will be getting a Visa refund on the money we put down on the stands. But if she had told us the truth in the first place, we'd have our stand half finished by now by the other cabinet maker :evil:

Moral of the story: talk to me if you want stands made for your tanks and I will give you the name and number of the cabinet maker we're going to be working with. His prices are not cheap, but I've known him for awhile and I believe he's going to do an excellent job for us. Plus, he is upfront about costs, what he can and can't do, and I trust him.

End of miserable AI stand story.... I hope :evil: :confused: :mad:

[mr_alberta]

Wow. I'm surprised you got your tanks so soon from IA. With all the bad publicity they get on RC and other forums, I don't think I'll order anything from them ever.

[Quinn]

I think she means AI as in Aquarium Illusions, not IA as in Inter-American. I've never had problems with IA and I know a number of Calgarians have bought from them as well. And I've never bought a tank or stand from AI so I can't comment on them.

[Aquattro]

Quinn,thanks for pointing that out. I also thought it was IA, not AI, that Bev was speaking of....

[Beverly]

I think she means AI as in Aquarium Illusions,

Yup, Quinn has it right. Wonder now if I'll be banned from their store :rolleyes:

Really, I have just had problems with the stands issue with AI. Otherwise, they are still my favourite lfs in town for livestock.

[Quinn]

I wouldn't expect so. Perhaps it will trigger them to get their stand source sorted out though. Subcontracting seems to inevitably lead to problems.

[bulletsworld]

Editing this post....

[mr_alberta]

:eek:

This is like a soap opera if not better!

*gets popcorn out* :mrgreen:

[Beverly]

The difficulties I had with AI over the tank stand issue has been solved to to both my satisfaction and the satisfaction of the owners. I will continue to do business there for many reasons including great staff as well as better livestock than anywhere else in the city.

No business is perfect, nor are any of us perfect. I'm sorry I publically brought up the issue I had with AI. The issue should have been solved privately between myself and the owners, which is what I will be doing if any other problems arise.

Also, while solving the stand issue, it was brought to my attention that group buys, such as the large salt order we recently recieved from J&L, may be first queried at AI to see if a competitive price can be met. Personally, we've got enough salt to last for MONTHS :mrgreen: , but the next salt order I make will first be run by AI. AND I'm going to want to order Kent salt like the folks in Calgary did, which imo, is better than IO :cool: