On today's episode of TJ's reef, we're
gonna show you how we made this...ha ha
We get to do this again.
Don't stop!
I need to get myself a better crew.  Oh wait
I'm getting what I pay for.
Are we ready?
On today's episode of TJ's reef we're
gonna show you the value of 3d printing
for your reef.  Let's take a look.
We're gonna go through the process
making that top.   How did we do it?
Well, we 3d printed it, and assembled it.
But not only can we make tops with 3d printers,
we're going to talk about whether it's
safe to use 3d printing and what else
you need to think about when you're
making items for your reef using a 3d
printer.
Hey there everyone and welcome to
another episode of TJ's Reef.  Today we're
talking about 3d printing and you might
be thinking what is a 3d printer have to
do with a reef tank well it can actually
save you a lot of money you can make
custom parts for your tank and you know
whatever your imagination
lots of talking
lots of talking
we're just gonna...
I need louder people
Is that all I gotta do to make it quiet around here?
So, with a 3d printer you can make custom
parts for your tank you can make parts
to save money and it's fun! You know
from my experience most reefers are
tinkerers too so to be a 3d printer
isn't exactly out of the range of
possibilities for someone that's got a
reef tank I mean obviously there's me so
a couple of things about 3d printers and
making stuff for your tank
first of all stick only to ABS plastic
there's PLA and there's other things out
there that you can use from my
experience and from what I've learned
abs is the only plastic that is safe for
your tank now there's some question as
to whether or not the colorants are safe
for your tank so generally your plastic
is gonna be white but you may have
noticed you know other colors like black
and green and red I can't say whether or
not that's safe or not so use any
colorants with caution if if you're not
sure just stick with white outside of
that be careful the chemicals you use I
wouldn't treat anything with acetone
it's very common for people to use
acetone to smooth their 3d prints
afterward I would not I would just sand it
cuz acetone could be bad in the tank
don't use any metallic 3d printing
processes we obviously don't want any
metals in our tank and you know other
than at you you could pretty much 3d
print anything a couple of things I've
printed
is one the tank top the screen cover
we're going to show today and another
one was a custom hang on filter they
don't make a filter sock for my
all-in-one so I made a custom hanger
I ended up abandoning it I did make it and
it did work but it just wasn't doing
what I expected it to do so let's get
into the process of how we are going to
make a tank top well what you're looking
at here is the top of the tank it is
made out of a aluminum frame that is
used for window screening you know it's
a kit you can buy your local hardware
store really simple the reason I did
this versus like some of the tank top
kits out there is you know I have to go
around the legs of my lights and it's
just an odd shape with my tank so I put
this together it works great but I am
concerned about the salt creep and
metals getting into the tank and you
know that's just not a good combination
water and metal I don't like it now the
screening is a plastic mesh it is
transparent so it allows more light
through I think the holes are quarter
inch on the netting so nothing's really
gonna get out here the first step is
just measuring the heck out of your tank
and then going into a CAD program which
you can just do online like I did for
this one and start creating the top that
you want using your dimensions now my
printer isn't big enough the printbed
is not big enough to print the entire
top so I have to print it in sections
and once I have each section made and
printed I super glue it together and
from there we just repeat the process so
the entire frame is printed and
assembled and we verify the fit and then
we move on to strengthening it because
it's made of a number of different parts
each one of those joints that I glue
together is a weak point so what I want
to do is use fiberglass and fiberglass
resin to make it a little bit more
sturdy now
that in combination with epoxy to the
underside at the joints along with the
tension that the netting will be putting
on the frame should make it really nice
and solid so let's move into the
fiberglassing process okay we are now
outside because you never want to do
this inside here I have my frame just
gonna start on this front edge here
you're gonna want a paper cup your
hardener mixing stick your scissors
strips of fiberglass your resin and the
Coke Zero that that's for me don't
forget your pirate skull rubber gloves too
let me get the resin and the hardener
mixed up do about an ounce at a time
gives you about 10 minutes working times
so that's what we'll do small batches do
a strip at a time and that way it
doesn't harden up too fast on us
well if you haven't figured it out
this stuff is sticky the second it
touches your gloves you know it starts
screwing up your fiberglass so you just
got to deal with it once it hardens you
can sand it like wood and it'll come to
a great finish it's good to go so here's
this section we'll wait for it to harden
up move to spin this thing around and
continue on with the rest of it we'll
see when we come back from getting this
completely a fiberglassed and ready for
sanding all right the resin has hardened
up so now we are going to do some
sanding
all right so here it is all sanded and I
just rinsed it off which is why it's wet
at the moment you can see it's much
smoother I haven't painted it yet that's
why you got the different colors it's
definitely stiffened up the next we'll
be painting it and in using that oh
spline to set in the the mesh for the
top alright first coat of paint is on it
is looking really good
you know is it perfect no could I spend
another day or so really perfecting this
absolutely but you know I want to get
that aluminum top off that tank I don't
want any metal near my tank and you know
at the end of the day this is gonna sit
on top of the tank not gonna sit inside
the lip so it's all around a better
choice okay two items that I'm going to
take care of now first I have some resin
in the channel that you put the spline
for the mesh top I'm gonna add a little
bit of epoxy over these joints on the
underside just to give it a little bit
more rigidity yeah we'll see how holds
up but we'll go from here
alright managed to get most of the stuff
out so hopefully that's good enough for
setting the spline now we're going to
mix up some epoxy and hit all these
joints
all right we've got all the seams filled
I honestly don't know how much strength
that's gonna add but you know what it's
not gonna hurt so better to seal those
up then not this stuff takes about five
I think this is a five-minute yep
five-minute quick cure so we'll give it
a about 10 or 15 just to be safe and
they'll be ready to put the spline in
and and do the the top and finish this
bad boy up
well here is the original top and I was
hoping just to reuse the netting that's
on it but as you can see they are not
the same size so thankfully I do have
plenty of extra the stuffs not cheap but
is that terribly expensive so I will
just lay it over here cut new pattern
and put in new mesh for the new top the
epoxy has hardened up so we are good to
go I guess at least I'll keep an
emergency spare tucked away in a supply
closet if you know something should
happen to this one so let's get to
putting the new top together
and here's the end result we have a
perfect custom-made 3d printed screen
top for this tank this turned out better
than I expected the top is really nice
and tight there's nothing getting out of
here the dimensions were great and brick
you may think he's really interested in
the tank but ultimately it's really
because I have food good what do you
think brick approves so that's gonna
wrap it up for this episode of TJ's reef
I hope you learned something about 3d
printing and maybe you'll have your own
3d printing projects for your tank if
you like more reefing tips make sure to
hit that subscribe button we try to put
out a show every week give you something
to do especially during this lockdown
that we're going through and you know
it's a great way to see brick right
brick thanks for stopping by we'll see
you again on the next episode of TJ's
reef
