DIY replacement doors for oceanic bowfront stands

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Last weekend I was trying to take out the glass doors on my 175G bow front stand to get better access to the sump and fuge to clean them.needless to say one of the doors shattered into a million pieces. I called all the LFSs to try and order a replacement door and found out that Oceanic discontinued the bowfront tanks and has no replacement parts (so much for the lifetime warranty ).

I decided to build a replacement out of wood. The tricky part is that the bow front glass doors are curved to match the tank curvature (30" x 20" and at the center the curvature is 1/2" high).

Part #1 (Materials):

I looked for a flexible type of hood and found this composite 3/8" sheet of wood at home home depot. its similar to the material peg boards are made of but without the peg holes (see picture bellow). Its relatively cheap ($6.98 for a 4'x8' sheet) one side is smooth and the other has a fabric like texture. I had them cut it into 4 doors (30"x20") plus a few smaller 12"x19.5" pieces I was going to use as back support.

The other material I got was Guerrilla Glue and 3/8" wood screws. I also found a few scrap pieces of wood in the guarage to use for clamping down the doors while the wood dry.

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Part #2 (The plan):

To duplicate the curvature I needed to glue two sheets of wood back to back and clamp them down while holding the curved shape until they fully dry. To do this I use four 4"x1"x30" scrap pieces of wood to make a clamp. To hold the curved shape I nailed small 1/2" thick scrap pieces (about 2"x5"x1/2") to the middle of the 2 horizontal pieces (see photo).

To make sure I have a good hold I used twelve 3/8" screws per door to hold the two sheets together. The problem I ran into is that the smallest screw I found (the 3/8") is actually too long for 2 sheets of this material and will puncture the outside of the door. To get around this I used washers to shorten the screws (see photo)

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Part #3 (building the door):

here are the steps I followed (per door):

1) lay the 30"x20" sheet of wood with the smooth side facing down.

2) follow the instructions on the Gurilla Glue package:

- dampen the rough side of the 30"x20" sheet

- apply thin layer of the glue to rough side of each of the two 12"x19" sheets

- wait 5min

3) place the two 12"x19" sheets on top of the 30"x20" sheet (rough side to rough side). evenly center them in each half of the larger sheet

4) screw in the center column of 3/8" screws to make sure the sheets stay lined up at the center axis

5) place two of the 4"x1"x32" scrap pieces with the 1/2" thick piece in the middle on the floor about 20" apart

6) flip the door and center it on the 2 scrap pieces.

7) use the remaining 4"x1"x32" scrap pieces to clamp down the sides of the door (see photos)

8) screw in the remaining 3/8" screws.

9) place something heavy on top of the curved part of the wood to make sure the two sheets stay clamped down as close as possible.

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Part 4 (painting):

The instructions on the Gorilla Glue bottle said to wait for 2 hours, I left it for most of the day to be safe. once I removed the clamps and screws I was relieved to see that the wood held the curved shape ( see photo). I ended up using a black enamel spray paint to get the glossy look to match the rest of the stand. even though I only had broken one door I ended up replacing both sides so that the shine and look matches. (So I have an extra glass door if anyone is in the same boat and needs a replacement )

[mFrame]

Nice job and a very nice how-to.