Best way to cut up a 2200G acrylic tank into pcs?

[BADGUS]

Here's a question,there's a ~2200G tank available to be torn down: i.e: cut into moveable pieces,i beleive it's 1'' thick acrylic and roughly 12ft long x 5ft high x 5ft wide.How would one go about cutting it into say 6pieces?

[Acrylics]

Sawzall works well :D

[EnderG60]

for 1" acrylic, use a circular saw with an old blade and some tape on the guids to keep ti from scratching stuff.

[sfsuphysics]

+1 on circular saw, hopefully have a friend spray water to keep things cool too otherwise crazing can occur.

Also I would be a bit careful about reusing the acrylic to build a new tank. Assuming that tank had water in it for a considerable amount of time, the acrylic is probably deformed in some way (bent,stretched,stressed, etc) so may not be perfectly square and may not have the same strength properties that it had.

[BADGUS]

I was planning on using it to make a smaller ~250-300gal display tank and a sump out of it.Would it be ok to use for that or still iffy?

[kcress]

It would probably be fine in that cut down application especially if you keep the height down.

[Liquid Hobby]

+1 on circular saw, hopefully have a friend spray water to keep things cool too otherwise crazing can occur.


I circ saw will give you a straighter cur than a sawsall (personally I'd use a finish blade) however, I would not mix water with a circ saw. Water and electronics don't mix to well...

[marius880]

I circ saw will give you a straighter cur than a sawsall (personally I'd use a finish blade) however, I would not mix water with a circ saw. Water and electronics don't mix to well...

i will also help BADGUS take down this huge tank.. thanks for all the info guys.. any other ideas are appreciated. i do have a circular saw :) so thats good.

[marius880]

here is a side picture of the tank... we will try to do the cutting down the middle where that metal post is.

<a href="http://s667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37/marius880/?action=view&amp;current=100_1709.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37/marius880/100_1709.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

[sfsuphysics]

I circ saw will give you a straighter cur than a sawsall (personally I'd use a finish blade) however, I would not mix water with a circ saw. Water and electronics don't mix to well...

plug the saw into a GFCI outlet or use a cordless one should be fine.



BTW OP, that's a good sized tank, I'm guessing there's something wrong with it, or removing it won't be possible? It'd be a shame to take a 2200G tank and chop those dimensions down by 10. I mean I know you need a 5 foot opening but hell I'd poke a hole in the side of the house to get that in if the tank is still in good condition :D

[BADGUS]

Nothing wrong with the tank,the restaurant is going to be torn down to make way for a strip mall,and the tank will go down with it if nobody rescues it.

[sfsuphysics]

No chance on rescuing the whole tank as is? Or is it just too much tank? Which I totally could see, hell heating that bad boy probably would cost an arm and a leg.

[agreeive?fish]

heck if the restraunt is to be tore down i would just knock out a 5ft opening to remove the tank in one piece and then you have an excuse to put a pattio door in our house because te tank would fit thru a patio door opening

[gods child]

put 2in tape down where you are going to cut so you dont scrach up the acry use a circ with a fine tooth blade an a little water to keep down the heat . clamp down a stright edge if you can makes for less work later .Good luck with it hope all works out 4 u

[Liquid Hobby]

plug the saw into a GFCI outlet or use a cordless one should be fine.


Proceed at your own risk. Circ saws are not water proof. Water will get into the motor, barrings and kill your saw, cordless or not. A finish blade and slow going should not require water, but I'm no acrylic expert...

[TAB]

I'd cut a hole in the wall and take it out as a whole...

next would be a track saw, fallowed by a track router, then circular saw with a straight edge clamp.

[noahm]

Proceed at your own risk. Circ saws are not water proof. Water will get into the motor, barrings and kill your saw, cordless or not. A finish blade and slow going should not require water, but I'm no acrylic expert...

Masons do this all the time. Diamond blade on a circ saw with garden hose running all over. Unless you are pouring water into the motor housing, 99% of the water stays in the blade/guard housing. Ever seen contractors working in the pouring rain? You would be surprised how resilient most tools are. We have a Dewalt 12" compound miter saw we converted into a wet saw via a plumbed in 1/4" copper water line w/valve. That thing is 8 years old and packed full of concrete paver residue and still kicking.

[widmer]

1. Did I miss something? Why are we warning about getting water in the circular saw? Isn't it presumably drained and dry before sawing begins?

2. Not sure about your economic situation, but I'm sure it would be best if you cut it in such a way so that the acrylic is resaleable. That's a lot of money worth of acrylic.

[sbabs]

I'll drive up and help you with that for some of the acrylic! :) Can bring my table saw and we can cut your stock cleeeaaaaan and true!

Man, Give my 4 96 by 30s, 2 36 by 30s, and My wife will really be divorcing me, but I'll have something to do in my spare time!

[albano]

1. Did I miss something? Why are we warning about getting water in the circular saw? Isn't it presumably drained and dry before sawing begins?

Yes, you did miss something...they were spraying water on the blade to cool it!

[Acrylics]

they were spraying water on the blade to cool it!Why? there's absolutely no reason to spray water on it, none.
And it's silly to worry about even trying to get a perfect edge on the material - you're going to have to trim the sheet anyway to size it, square it up, etc. and then you're going to have to route it to get a gluable edge.
Cut it fast, and "fairly" straight and don't worry about the edge you leave.

With all the above said, I wouldn't even consider building a tank from this material. Given the dimensions of the tank and the material thickness, it's going to be some badly stressed material to begin with, and more than likely pretty warped. 5' tall x 12' long, made from 1"???

James

[dzfish17]

Why? there's absolutely no reason to spray water on it, none.
And it's silly to worry about even trying to get a perfect edge on the material - you're going to have to trim the sheet anyway to size it, square it up, etc. and then you're going to have to route it to get a gluable edge.
Cut it fast, and "fairly" straight and don't worry about the edge you leave.

With all the above said, I wouldn't even consider building a tank from this material. Given the dimensions of the tank and the material thickness, it's going to be some badly stressed material to begin with, and more than likely pretty warped. 5' tall x 12' long, made from 1"???

James

^^^ I used a circular saw to cut the 1.25 lids from my tank. The saw went through pretty easy with no water. Ive seen a 4' tall 1000g tank with 1" acrylic and it had at least 1" to 1.5" deflection. The tank looked like it was going to explode. I agree with the above post that its going to be hard to build a tank with bowed acrylic.

[BADGUS]

TTT,will see how it goes this weekend.

[albano]

,i believe it's 1'' thick acrylic and roughly 12ft long x 5ft high x 5ft wide.
so it might be thicker...

[BADGUS]

so it might be thicker...

It might be 1.5''

[marius880]

Why? there's absolutely no reason to spray water on it, none.
And it's silly to worry about even trying to get a perfect edge on the material - you're going to have to trim the sheet anyway to size it, square it up, etc. and then you're going to have to route it to get a gluable edge.
Cut it fast, and "fairly" straight and don't worry about the edge you leave.

With all the above said, I wouldn't even consider building a tank from this material. Given the dimensions of the tank and the material thickness, it's going to be some badly stressed material to begin with, and more than likely pretty warped. 5' tall x 12' long, made from 1"???

James


Update to the tank... We were told that its 16x3x4 high ng.... The tank might be 10 years old. Assuming that the acrylic its not warped, would the acylic still he bad to use? Just bexause it jad water in it for 10+ years, does that do ajything to the acrylic?

I guess if we do this this weekend, we will update the thread. It's messed up that we cant see the tank before we to there to take it apart... That would answer my questions.. ;)

[java]

working construction ive used countless skill saws with a diamond blade and a hose. never been shocked once.

but gl with the tank

[albano]

Update to the tank... We were told that its 16x3x4 high ....
16'x3'x4'= ONLY 1436g...holds about 1200g of water...nano tank! :jester:

[marius880]

16'x3'x4'= ONLY 1436g...holds about 1200g of water...nano tank! :jester:2I


It was 2200 gal at first :) when he just told the gal. But once we finally got the dimensions, I guess its not as big as the guy said...;) either way. We pulled the plug. It looks like we wont get it anymore... To many uncertainties. Thanks guys for all your help...

[Nathan.Titulaer]

Are you seriously passing up a free 1200g tank? Even if ti doe s not work it is always worth a try. You could show up and take a door off the hinges and get a free tank, or it could be a complete fail either way it would be fun to find out.

[widmer]

Regardless of the condition of the acrylic, or if there is bowing etc, I wouldn't be surprised if someone on craigslist would like to purchase it, even if not to use for anything aquarium related.

[mc-cro]

That is a lot of acrylic, someone has a use, and a price for that much scrap acrylic.

[madean]

I came across a tank the was damaged in the upper corner. So I cut the tank in half horizantally to create a shorter tank. I then turned the tank into a frag tank. I would cut the tank to a height of 12 to 24 inches and turn it into a frag tank. Think of what you could grow. Anyways I used a circ saw with a high numbered tooth blade like a formica blade. I could be wrong but it might have been a hundred tooth blade. I also think there are circ saws that have water hook ups to cut types of stones. Ie granite. But I would never use water to cool my blade on my old school commercial grade circ saw. Man if I lived closer I would pay you to take me there so that I could cut the tank and use it as a frag tank

[Trademark]

Instead of using a regular circular saw, go to Home Depot and spend 80 on a hand held circular wet saw that is water fed via a water hook up through a garden hose attachment. Just have to put a regular cutting blade on it. Simple

[nickman]

Not sure why everyone is so bent on wet cutting. All the acrylic guys i know have dry saws in their shops.
A battery powered saw is just going to be a PITA with this big of a job and mixing water with extension cords let alone a saw that will be held vertically for a good bit of the tear down seams crazy. The edges will be worthless anyway so why worry about a little crazing and rough cuts.
All that said, if you end up getting this thing, i should be in the chicago area in a month. mind holding a few 2x4 foot chunks for me? :D