Tank dremel drilling 101
I wrote this up on another site a year and a half or so ago and thought with the couple of tank drilling thoughts lately it would be good to have it here. i was looking at the lifereef page this morning and decided i really didn't want a siphon type overflow. so i sat there thinking about how spendy a glass bit was and then i remembered it...the dremel. yeah that's it i will dremel a couple of holes in the tank and build a couple of overflow boxes. Before...
the whole reason for this madness. 1" bulkheads for the overflows
The weapons of mass destruction. The dremel and a box of 15$ harbor freight dremel bits. yeah, the uber cheap ones.
so the first thing i did was lay the tank down on to its face and guesstimate where i would want to be if i was a hole in a fishtank. i settled on 3" to center from bottom and sides. my plan is to use some dark glass and the corner of the tank to do a triangle overflow vs the usual square type. they don't have to flow much I'm only using a mag 9 for return.
The first hole went fairly slow and i didn't think to take any pictures. i was a bit nervous (i did do a practice hole first on another piece of scrap)I followed the inside of the red circle with a rounded bit at first to get the groove going. I had the garden hose on fast drip right next to the hole so it was getting a steady flow of water at all times to keep it cool. the dremel had no problem staying dry the whole time. it took about 15 minutes of careful grinding but at last SUCCESS!!!
whew, it fits like a glove
The 2nd hole went much faster than the first and i didn't get ant pics of that hole either. but the result was the same
the last step for the day was to work on some other glass projects i had laying around
it can be done with a dremel and quite easily and cheaply. as nervous as i was when i started i never felt like i was in any great danger of cracking. the water kept it totally cool and kept the bit cool too so it lasted a bit longer. it still took 2 bits per hole.( remember, harbor freight:)) i plan on doing this again if i ever need a hole. its so easy even a caveman could do it.
I wrote this up on another site a year and a half or so ago and thought with the couple of tank drilling thoughts lately it would be good to have it here. i was looking at the lifereef page this morning and decided i really didn't want a siphon type overflow. so i sat there thinking about how spendy a glass bit was and then i remembered it...the dremel. yeah that's it i will dremel a couple of holes in the tank and build a couple of overflow boxes. Before...
the whole reason for this madness. 1" bulkheads for the overflows
The weapons of mass destruction. The dremel and a box of 15$ harbor freight dremel bits. yeah, the uber cheap ones.
so the first thing i did was lay the tank down on to its face and guesstimate where i would want to be if i was a hole in a fishtank. i settled on 3" to center from bottom and sides. my plan is to use some dark glass and the corner of the tank to do a triangle overflow vs the usual square type. they don't have to flow much I'm only using a mag 9 for return.
The first hole went fairly slow and i didn't think to take any pictures. i was a bit nervous (i did do a practice hole first on another piece of scrap)I followed the inside of the red circle with a rounded bit at first to get the groove going. I had the garden hose on fast drip right next to the hole so it was getting a steady flow of water at all times to keep it cool. the dremel had no problem staying dry the whole time. it took about 15 minutes of careful grinding but at last SUCCESS!!!
whew, it fits like a glove
The 2nd hole went much faster than the first and i didn't get ant pics of that hole either. but the result was the same
the last step for the day was to work on some other glass projects i had laying around
it can be done with a dremel and quite easily and cheaply. as nervous as i was when i started i never felt like i was in any great danger of cracking. the water kept it totally cool and kept the bit cool too so it lasted a bit longer. it still took 2 bits per hole.( remember, harbor freight:)) i plan on doing this again if i ever need a hole. its so easy even a caveman could do it.