Tank stand fix or replace?

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J-P
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Tank stand fix or replace?

Post by J-P »

Hey guys, my self built (custom) tank stand was damaged during our move. I don't trust it to hold any weight other than the dry tanks. I'm thinking that I can repair it (laminated 2x4) on 4x4 posts.

The damage is where the cross beams 2x4 attach to the 4x4 beams. It has separated by almost 1cm and all the weight is sitting on the screws (4). The stand itself weighs almost 300lbs. The stand because of the separation in VERY uneven on one side.

So costs:
Electric drill
More wood
wratchet straps
hand jack

OR
Hire a guy (professional carpenter) to rebuild it.

what do you guys think?

At this point I'm just brainstorming and fishing for ideas.

Cheers!
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gkai
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Re: Tank stand fix or replace?

Post by gkai »

You should post some images, like that it's difficult to say.
With some pics, i may provide some advice: I'm not a carpenter, but I just finsihed building a stand for a shallow 350l so...
Don't trust me too much though, it's my first significant wood project, so take any advice I could give with a grain of salt....
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J-P
Former Staff Member
Posts: 5626
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2009 12:21 am
Gender: Male
Location (country): Japan
Location: Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan

Re: Tank stand fix or replace?

Post by J-P »

gkai wrote: Tue May 08, 2018 9:24 am You should post some images, like that it's difficult to say.
With some pics, i may provide some advice: I'm not a carpenter, but I just finsihed building a stand for a shallow 350l so...
Don't trust me too much though, it's my first significant wood project, so take any advice I could give with a grain of salt....
https://youtu.be/DIevzrtC7JQ @ just after the 6 min mark.
if you follow me, you avoid stepping in the crap that I just did...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZR55G ... pqlgec1A2Q
gkai
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 104
Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2014 5:06 am
Location (country): Belgium

Re: Tank stand fix or replace?

Post by gkai »

Not so easy to tell just looking at the video, but I would be careful, looks like the stand is much less overdimensioned than I expected: usually custom wood stuff is able to withstand many more times the expected weight, but I don't think it's the case for your stand...
In particular, you have few diagonal reinforcement, meaning that the stand is not immune to parallelogram deformation (beam keep their length, but angles move away from their orignal 90°.).
This is not a problem when the stuff is perfectly square, but once it isn't anymore (or if some side load happen), it can lead to catastrophic failure...
So you may consider additional reinforcement in addition to closing the gap, like diagonal beams or back/side wood panels screwed to fix angles at 90°...

Also, the state of the wood can not be seen on the video: splitted? screw holes widened? some ungluing? usually a 1cm separation has some consequences...

Finally, be carefull is you have non-solid wood: bad laminate or wood agglomerate do not age so well, especially in humid condition: if they stay in place they keep going, but after damage it's sometime unfixable: screws will just not hold and strength will never be similar to what it was when originally built...Good laminate and solid wood that withstand humidity or water is much better in this respect....
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