"Larry Blanchard" wrote in message
...

Dan, it appears from some of your questions that you're a relative
beginner at
woodworking. Starting with an aquarium stand is a great way to get a lake
in
your living room. My suggestion would be to buy a stand or find an
experienced woodworker to build one for you. If you're still interested
in
woodworking take some classes, read some books, build some things that
aren't
structurally critical. We all had to go through a few years of learning -
and I'm still learning :-).


Yes, you could say I'm a relative beginner. Although I'm not a kid, my only
significant experience with building any kind of cabinets was with my store.
We did a complete renovation ourselves, which required quite a bit of sub
floor modifications, load bearing wall changes, as well as new partition
walls. So, I learned a lot from this. I think the counter came out quite
nice. You can see it he

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/qstroker...60762395681003

I also built our chinchilla palace, which you can see above. (I know, the
doors aren't square to the framing - I borrowed the doors from an older cage
I built...).

Being an engineer, I fully realize I'm no expert, and I might well just buy
a stand for the tank. On the other hand, I like doing this kind of thing as
long as I do it right (I do have access to a good table saw, and have
everything else I would need). That's why I over research anything I do
like this. It seemed to me that the guy who built the stand out of 4x4's
was overdoing it, and I don't particularly want to move something that
weighs as much as the tank to my new home when that time comes.

You made me laugh because I was looking at the tank location relative to the
chinchilla cage the other day, and wondered exactly how far the tidal wave
would wash up into the cage if the tank fell over in that direction. Ever
see a wet chinchilla? lol

If I ever build this thing, I'll post a drawing of my plans before I do it.
Hopefully I can get some tips that will keep the living room dry for a long
time.

thanks,
dwhite