# Cylindrical shaped cabinet



## MiamiAG (Jan 13, 2004)

Anyone have any idea how to make a cylindrical cabinet for a cylindrical tank?


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## Snowman (Mar 22, 2005)

What's your level of wood working skills? What size tank are you talking about? It can be done several different ways. I steam bend solid parts to jigs but you have to work fast. I also do laminate form in which the wood is ripped to equal thickness then stock glued to form and left to dry. In the first method you have to allow for spring back after you release the jig, in the second there is more clean up and you are more likely to see the glue lines. You can also buy what is called bending plywood where the ply all runs in the same direction allowing the wood to bend. Bending plywood is usually available in several different thicknesses depending on how tight of a curve you want to bend. After the wood is bent to the form and cured you can laminate it with another finish grade material. If you really want to go high end you can use a vaccume clamping system but that's something you probably don't have available or you wouldn't have ask about bending  I can send you some links for information if you like.

I've done bending work for years...the first thing to overcome is the fear that it is hard...If you have pretty solid wood working skills it's more time consumming than hard.


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

Could you do a laminate type thing with wood cut in wedge shapes? Kind of like how a wood barrel is made but without the curve to the staves...


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## MiamiAG (Jan 13, 2004)

My woodworking skills are not very good. I am going to use my 8 inch cylinder to make a nano tank. Wanted to make a cylindrical base. However, it sounds complicated. May just stick to a square one.


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## gnatster (Mar 6, 2004)

Why not use some of the same acrylic to make a stand. Use some flat stock for the base and top. Fill with inexpensive substrate like sand to keep it steady.


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Yup, stave construction is a very good, strong way or building a curve. If you don't like the faceted look it creates, you can always shape them in with planing, scraping and sanding. The more staves you use, the rounder it will be to start with. The angles are easy, divide the number of pieces you want to use into 360 and thats your angle. The best way to do that is to use a trammel points(compass) to draw your circle full size on a piece of scrape or large paper. Then using basic geometry, strike the number of pieces you want to use around the circle and connect those points to the center line. Connect 2 adjacent points and use that line and the radius line to set your bevel gauge to the exact angle. Then set your table saw with the bevel gauge and you are off. Cut and check a stave against you full size drawing and make adjustments until it is perfect. Cut all your staves carefully and slowly so ensure a good cut (very important if you cannot joint the cuts afterwards). Make a few extra pieces 
To glue them up, you can do all at once or in a few assemblies. All at once might be best as you can use simple packing tape as your clamp. Lay all your pieces on a flat surface with the long face up. Align them carefully and so that the points of th miters are just touching. Carefully stretch pieces of packing tape across the joints, running perpendicular to the joints. Press it down real good. Try to not let any of the points slip up and over their neighbors and stretch the tape as tightly as possible. Them run tape down the length of each joint. Very carefully flip the whole assembly over, pinching it between a couple extra staves usually helps, and then just fold it up into the "circle". IT will probably be a little tight and be not quite closed but thats OK. Stretching apiece of tape across the last joint should close it up nicely. IF everything looks OK, you can glue it up. I recommend using Gorilla Glue if you have more than 6 joints as you will have more working time and the glue is thinner so everything will close up tighter. Also, if your joints are less than perfect, Gorilla Glue will fill the small gaps.

If you tape it up very carefully and use reference along the bottom, you should not even have to trim th top and bottom after it is glued up, it should already be square to the faces, or close enough. Patience is a virtue with this work To add a top and bottom, I would rabbet out the inside with a router and rabbeting bit and fit in a piece of plywood. You could also dowel or biscuit it to a panel to have the inset look. Either would be plenty strong.

If you want a door, follow the same steps but do not glue the 2 joints on each side of the door, you know what I mean. If you want the door to not be full height, do the same thing but crosscut off your top and bottom "stretchers" and glue them into the cabinet in the correct place. Remember that gorilla glue foams and expands as it dries but it cleans up easily when wet with denatured alcohol or acetone. If you want the inside nice and clean, check it about every 15 minutes and wipe up any squeeze out. Even easier though is to dry assemble the cabinet and wax the whole inside of the case. Once the glue is dry you can easily pop off the foam with a chisel or scraper. Thats the method I would recommend.

Well, thats the end of Ask Dennis for this evening. Stay tuned next week when we.......


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## MiamiAG (Jan 13, 2004)

Gnat,

I could do acrylic but it isn't the look I'm after. I was hoping to use a cylindrical top and bottom to match the acrylic cylinder that will be the aquarium.

Dennis, 

I appreciate the explanation but that is WAY over my head. Maybe I should try to get used to a square base and top?


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## TWood (Dec 9, 2004)

Go to The Container Store or equivalent and look through the different types of cylindrical containers they have for trash cans and other storage. If you don't like the color/finish, you can always paint it.

TW


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Sorry Art for the long explanation. I did not realize your tank was small, I was describing something for a free standing unit. For an 8" diameter tank, I would just use a band saw and cut a circle for the base from a solid chunk of wood, you might have to glue up a couple pieces to get the size. You could also use a trammel base on a router. That would be easiest as you could actually create a cavity for the tank to sit in and for the hood you could hollow out a place to accommodate lights, even make a small lip for the hood to fit over the tank. Or you could jig/scroll saw out a ring from a solid piece and glue that ring to a circle....If you use the router jig, I would cut the outside to size, then start wasting away the inside, working in concentric circles from the outside in, using your center point. Get as close to the center as you can then remove the center point and free hand away what is left. If your router base is more 8" then the router will sit on the ring of wood left at the outside and be fully supported for the final, free-hand cut.

I can explain this more if need be


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Art,

I understand Acrylic isn't the look you're after but how about using acrylic for the stand/hood and just veneering it with whatever species of wood you want? They make veneers with PSA backing so you should be able to just stick it on the acrylic. You would then be able to stain and finish it however you like. After all, a thin veneer layer is what the use on the face of most plywood!

I imagine Dennis has more experience with veneering than I do. Maybe he will give his opinion on this.


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## adin (Oct 9, 2004)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=46314&item=4376055117&rd=1


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Veneering the tube might work, it would work actually, but the sucess mostly depends on Art's time and skills. You could use contact cement or somethign like Gorilla Glue again. Personally I would glue it down using Gorilla glue. First, get your paper backed veneer and trim it to the right height, you will want the grain running up and down, astetically (my personal opinion). Then tape it to the acrylic tube and tightly but carefull wrap it around. Make sure the taped edge is straight and square to the other perpendicular edges. Mark the length of the veneer, take it off the tube and cut it to the correct width. Check it again and keep doing this until you can tape it around the tube tightly and the joint is nice and tight. You can do all the cutting with a new, sharp razor/xacto knife and a straight edge. Once the veneer is the correct size, abrade the acrylic wiht 120-150 grit sandpaper, wipe very clean and spread a thin layer of Gorilla glue over the entire surface. Gorilla glue is messy so where gloves and protect your work surface. Very lightly spray the glue surface wiht water and wrap your veneer around the tube. IF you can have it standing on one end sot eh veneer and tube are referenced off a flat surface, this will be easier. If you can get a helper, it will be even easier Wrap the veneer around and tape the joint tightly with blue masking tape. Then tightly wrap around the whole thing with that stretchy shrink wraped used for shipping/packing loose parts. You might want to clamp a piece of wood to the top and bottom to keep the veneer from sliding up after you are done wrapping it. Make sure to cover the alignment blocks with packing tape. Packing tape and wax are one of the few things Gorilla won't stick to.

You might want to double check that you can glue this to acrylic using Gorilla glue, I think you can though.


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