DIY Stand for Nano tank (picture intensive)

[mseepman]

Well, I've been working on putting together a new Nano tank for my office at home for a while now and so I thought I would put together a thread to describe the building of my DIY stand and eventually the DIY light hood as well. I say eventually because I haven't figured that hood completely out yet, so this will be a great place to discuss it.

As for the stand, I started building it about 2 weeks back and have been tinkering with it each night that I have time. To say that I have "overbuilt" this is an understatement. After seeing how many people comment on how strong a stand has to be, I got carried away with building it and now it weighs almost as much as I do...all for a 16 gallon nano...lol.

I want to thank my brother for giving me a hand and lending me any tools that I was missing.

Okay so here is a pic of the framework for the stand...remember this is a 16x16x16 cube tank that it will be holding.



Then I started putting on the sides...I'm using 3/4" Birch veneer.



From there the back panel was installed after the frame was planed smooth.



Slowly it's starting to take shape...and gain a lot of weight...lol.


And the front facias were glued on and clamped.




Once everything had dried enough to hold, I started to prep the bottom shelf which will be laminated to give it more water resistance.


Then I installed the kick-plate. Mostly for looks as the door will cover this.


Now I started on the top. First the plywood needed to mounted and then the cleats needed to be sanded and added. Next will be a black laminate to protect the surface.




Well that's as far as I've reached so far. Before I put the laminate on, I plan to condition the wood for staining, stain all the surfaces a cherry color and then put about 3 coats of Diamond coat verathane over everything. There is a door that still has to be mounted once I've finished preparing it as well.

So what does everyone think? Comments...questions?