drilling acrylic

[skriz]

I wanted to modify my skimmer, BUT just need to make sure I don't destroy it in the meantime.

Do I need to do anything special or use anything specific when drilling acrylic. I need to add some holes to the injector housing and make a few existing holes larger.

Am I better off capping the smaller holes and drilling larger or can I make the small ones larger safely?

First DIY with acrylic, a little scared!

[tankslave]

Depends on how big the holes are. There are special bits for acrylic/plastic that have a steep taper so that they dont "bite" upon exit and crack the acrylic. Drillling into round acrylic is the trickiest. If you want to enlarge a current hole, better get a dremmel and sand it open.

[tgfrench]

The step drill bits work great for acrylic. You can get them from most any electical supply store and I even reckon lowes or hd have them. If you have any concern of cracking your acrylic you can always cut an extra piece of acrylic and glue it in place to create an additional thickness bolister. I used them to build my kalk reactor and was able to thread the acrylic.


http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/676336A922.jpg

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/67633mini-mini-kalkrec.JPG

[tankslave]

what did you use to seal the pipes in the tube there? looks like you glued on a square piece of acrylic, did you taper it to match the tube diameter? Which pump is that, btw?

[tgfrench]

I used a extra piece of acrylic guled and then drilled to fit a 1/2 cpvc male/female adapter, with some silicone thrown in. The second one i built i just drilled and tapped the acrylic for a single male adapter. the pumps a mj 400 I'd reccomend at least a 600 for the next unit.