DIY, Making your own Frag Plugs

[comatose]

I was searching many websites for info on how to make Frag Plug's but none could be found, I tried a few methods(molds) before coming up with this one. i've tried wood molds and acrylic molds, none seem to work well, so i went with the way i use to make live rock, using sand as a mold. this seems to work best. here is the process how i made them.

First you need some type of bucket, since i have a lot of salt buckets laying around i cut the bottom of a bucket about three inches from the bottom. you can use whatever you have lying around.





Next i filled it with 2 inches of sand, then make it moist with water so it would hold it's form. then tap it down a bit to make it firm.



now i needed to make the forms in the sand, so i came up with a piece of dowl that i sanded down a bit to a tappered end, you can use just about anything here as long as it fits into the eggcreate used in frag tanks.


you'll also need some kind of bottle cap from a coke bottle or your favorite soft drink bottle. or anything about that size.


the fist thing you'll do is push the bottle cap into the sand to make the top of the frag plug mold. dont push the cap all the way down, only about half way then pull it out.


here is the impression it makes.


next you'll push the wooden dowl into the center of that impression you just made. then you should have a mold form that looks something like this.


now make a bunch of them, you may have to go over the holes again because when you make the next form holes next to the last one you made, it sometime deforms the one next to it, what i do it make all the holes then go over all them again.
I find that a cut Oceanic bucket is able to make about 20 frag plugs at a time.