Intimately.
That's what I'm looking for at the moment. No one's willing to take it on, ATM, though, and the two local middle schools don't have any students that the teachers feel would be able to handle such a project.
The Ranger
Everybody, this is my pal The Ranger from alt.home.repair. He would like a stout support for his fish aquariums, to be installed in an elementary school on an 'out of pocket' budget.
He's not comfortable with starting a welding hobby but would like your suggestions on how he can get a nice solid stand made for the classroom. First prize would be for one of our Master Fabricators to show up with a portable fab shop.
:)
--Winston
The Ranger wrote:
/doffs hat to Master Winston
As further explanation, the classroom is almost a perfect square, 28'X29', with one corner devoted to a "reading/library" area (10'X5'). I am currenly using a slanted book/magazine display rack as the seperator wall. It's fine for what it does but I would like to replace the rack with something more solid which will also offer dual observation points for the animals. The classroom is currently set up for kindergartners (4-6-yo.) The majority know that the tank area is not a jungle gym. I was thinking of having one stand holding 3 10-gallon tanks (expandable to four) which would hold a variety of animals (tropical fish, crayfish, leopard frogs, tadpoles, snails.) The current set-ups are quite heavy so they're resting along a cabinet area along the back wall. I would prefer to be able to anchor said stand to wall since I live in the Shake-and-Bake state.
Many thanks!
The Ranger
have a local vo tech? many have classes that include skills like welding in HVAC
Is the classroom on a poured concrete slab? Sounds like masonry anchors into the floor would be useful as well.
--Winston
This would be highly useful but the school district is funny about what they'll allow non-facilities personnel to perform. Anchoring furniture to the floor, if performed without a work order by an uninsured, unlicenced professional (teacher), can be a termination offense.
The Ranger
Ah. They have an open mind WRT wall attachments, though?
--Winston
I would suggest you look into Surface Bond Cement. You would stack concrete or cinder blocks to make the stand. After everything is how you want it, you put a 1/8 inch layer of surface bond cement on the both sides of the concrete block. The surface bond cement has fiberglass fibers in it so it keeps the concrete block from separating. It is stronger than concrete block laid with mortar. In a shake and bake state, you can also put some rebar down some of the holes and fill in with sakcrete.
I used this on my son's concrete block chimney that was beginning to develop some cracks. It has been ten years and the chimney is still safe.
=20 Dan
Wow! Thanks Dan! That's a new one on me.
--Winston
re: that "can be a termination offense"
Remember to take your fish with you when you leave.
I remember back when my kids were in grade school, one of their classrooms didn't have chalk ledge under the black board. The teacher knew I did some woodworking and asked me to make her one. She said she'd get the school's maintenance guy to mount it to the cinder block wall.
I made her a real nice looking 8' ledge, complete with wooden mounting brackets and even supplied the masonry screws and buttons to cover the holes.
When I dropped it off at the school she called the maintenance guy who told us that she would have to put in a request, which he would have to get approved by the district, before he could drill into the block. He then looked at me and added "However, if I came in Monday morning and it was already mounted to the wall, well, there sure wouldn't be much I could do about it."
Guess how I spent my Saturday morning?
(...)
Heh!
There can be a huge difference between 'correct' and 'right'.
--Winston
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