DIY Mr. Aqua 22 gallon ADA style cabinet

[dhenry7711]

I posted this last summer over at tpt forum, but wanted to post it here as well so that some might get inspired to build their own stand!  

 

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06/17/2015

So here's my go at an ADA style DIY cabinet for my new Mr. Aqua 22 gallon tank.

 

Materials:
1ea - sheet 3/4" (23/32") BC plywood
1ea - 1"x4" Furring Strip Board (a straight one)
1ea - 4' x 10" scrap 1/2" plywood
Kreg R3 Jr. Pocket Hole Jig System
1 box 1-1/4" coarse Kreg screws
Kreg face clamp
2 Irwin Quick-Grip clamps
Wood glue
Cordless Drill
Circular Saw

 

Materials:

 

Rough Plans:

 

I decided to make a jig for my circular saw so that I could cut straight lines with minimal effort.
Cut furring strip in half, half for the saw jig, other half for the cabinet middle stile.

 

I ripped the rounded edges off the furring strip with my table saw, took off about 1/4" on each side

 

Making of the jig.

 

The idea of the jig is that you mount the strip to the scrap plywood and then make a cut which will give you a nice straight edge that can be used to make straight cuts.

 

Finished jig.

 

First plywood cut setup.

 

First cut, nice and straight.

 

All pieces cut.

 

Since I wanted top and bottom to be truly 12"x36", the sides and the back dimensions had to be modified slightly to accommodate for how the boards will line up together.  The back had to have 2 widths of the plywood taken from each side, making it approximately 34-1/2"x28-1/2" instead of 36"x30", and the sides needed 2 widths taken from the 30" side, making their final measurements approximately 12"x28-1/2".  I did it this way on purpose, having made many a project only to have ended up cutting a board too short.  I'd rather cut something twice than to buy another sheet of $40 plywood.  And plus, my board stretcher is in the shop.

 

Pocket hole time.  All the pocket holes will end up on the inside of the cabinet.  I originally wanted to use the Kreg plugs in the holes but this just ended up being too much of a pain to deal with.  Once the cabinet is painted and the doors on they will not be noticeable at all.

 

Now we're getting somewhere! 

 

Middle stile added.

 

Front face plate added.

 

Nice first weekend of work, mounting doors and paint come next.

 

 

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07/19/2015

 

So this is what the stand is looking like these days.  Over the past few weeks I have been doing a lot of sanding and painting with the black lacquer spray paint.  I probably ended up using about 3 coats of paint which ended up being four spray cans.  Today just finished applying the minwax clear gloss polyurethane spray.  3 coats to all surfaces, 2 cans.  All that's left to do at this point is wait for the polyurethane to cure and then install the hinges.  Sorry if the pictures seem a little hazy, it is so humid and hot here this time of year.

 

 

 

 

Here are the hinges that I picked out.  Full Overlay Blum 110 deg. Soft-Close BLUMotion Clip Top Frameless Hinges.  $20.49 per pair from amazon.  Also picked up the 35mm forstner bit ($13.20) needed for installation.

 

 

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08/16/2015

 

Finally got this finished!

 

 

 

 

[Kurobom]

Thanks for sharing this! My brother in law and I were scheming up ways to come up with a way to do something similar for our future 22 long tanks. Do you mind me asking what the rough cost of materials came out to be?

[dhenry7711]

On 5/20/2016 at 7:08 PM, Kurobom said:

Thanks for sharing this! My brother in law and I were scheming up ways to come up with a way to do something similar for our future 22 long tanks. Do you mind me asking what the rough cost of materials came out to be?

 

Plywood was about 40$, hinges were around 20$, paint and poly probably 40$, all in all materials only were around 100$ maybe?

 

I did have to shell out for the kerg jig and forstner bit too, so that was around $50, but those can be used in future projects as well.

[Shrimp Life]

Very nice stand... looks very modern and your documentation of the build was really nice. Great job! Make sure to show us pics of the tank as you set it up!