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smacky 
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 Topic: Snapped Center Brace
Posted: October 10 2010 at 1:58pm |
My first emergency. I was playing around on the computer this morning and I heard a noise come from the tank. Upon examination I saw that the center brace had snapped. It had been repaired in the past, obviously the repair job wasn't quite adequate. This is what it looks like now:  I've got a brace to hold it together, but as you can see, it's a very temporary solution.  Should I try gluing the brace back together? Should I make something new to hold it together? The front of the tank moved out about a half inch from where it was before, so I'm pretty sure something needs to hold it there. What do all of you think would be best?
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Kiltboy
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Posted: October 10 2010 at 2:02pm |
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What is that brace made out of? Depending on what it is you might be able to fix it but chances are it will snap again...
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Chance Evans
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smacky
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Posted: October 10 2010 at 2:04pm |
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It's plastic.
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jcoulter17
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Posted: October 10 2010 at 2:21pm |
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I helped fix a tank like this. We used a peace of a acrylic and weld-on
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smacky
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Posted: October 10 2010 at 2:31pm |
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Do you think two 4" pieces (one on top and one on bottom) would be enough? How thick should the acrylic be? It's a 3' wide bowfront.
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jcoulter17
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Posted: October 10 2010 at 2:39pm |
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We just did one on the top
Edited by jcoulter17 - October 10 2010 at 3:27pm
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SumpCrab
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Posted: December 23 2010 at 9:00pm |
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Dude, just take a similiar strip of plastic and a few nylon bolts and nuts and your good to go. I have noticed acrylic and ABS plastic don't bond all that well if its a high stress joint.
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Corey Price
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Posted: December 23 2010 at 11:20pm |
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Um, not that I know everything, but I doubt there's much to worry about here... How big is your bowfront? I say this since you're not seeing much movement between the two broken pieces. Sometimes the trim on bowfronts aren't really necessary. For example, I bet I could pull the whole top plastic trim piece off of our 144 half-circle at work and nothing would happen. How do I know? Because it's sagging, with no real tension force in it.
Just my two cents. If it makes you feel better, fix it.
Corey
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: December 24 2010 at 12:50am |
I agree with all the comments above. Not a big deal but peace of mind is priceless. Bolts are more secure and a flat piece of 1/4" acrylic will be good enough with 4 nylon bolts available at one hardware store or another. 
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tcfab
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Posted: December 24 2010 at 9:12am |
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If you need some acrylic I have a piece here you can have.
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Need custom acrylic work? give me a call, www.Elite-Aquatics.net (801)645-6386
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smacky
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Posted: December 24 2010 at 12:41pm |
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I got a piece of acrylic scrap a few weeks ago and tried weld-on, sumpcrab was right, it didn't bond well at all. I'm going to stop by the hardware store and pick up some nylon nuts and bolts today and finally fix it and get rid of that big metal clamp.
Thanks everybody for the help.
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vadryn
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Posted: December 24 2010 at 3:23pm |
That metal clamp gives it quite the cool industrial look. I say give it a couple months and make sure you won't miss it before you go down the "nuts and bolts" road.
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smacky
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Posted: December 24 2010 at 4:53pm |
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It's already been a couple of months. I turned the clamp so it was mostly on its side and took the front of the hood off so I would be able to use the lights. The biggest problem is that many times I've been doing something in the sump and when I finish, I stand and hit my head on the clamp. I can't wait for this to get resolved.
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: December 25 2010 at 10:51am |
 Thinking about all the times we stand up and hit our heads on something we knew was there...That gave me a good chuckle this Christmas morning. Thanks.
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