Archive for April, 2004

All Consuming

April 19th, 2004

As always, it’s been a while since either of us has blogged so I thought I’d let you know what I’ve been consumed with for the last three weeks or so. It’s not some great new piece of software (although LaunchBar 4.0 beta is looking good), it’s not some new piece of hardware, no, it’s wood. Namely, an aquarium stand. After moving out to Redmond I gave my old and not-so-nice tank away so we didn’t have to move it out, but it’s been over a year and I’ve got the aquarium itch again. Yes, that’s right, we make aquarium maintenance software and neither of us have an aquarium.

I did some research and found a nice 30 gallon acrylic tank that would fit nicely in my apartment living room without messing up my stereo sound stage (audio is another hobby). The easy part was done, now I had to find a stand. My decor contains various types of dark mahogany wood and I quickly found aquarium stand makers make three colors: black, light oak, and cherry (very cherry). The cherry might have worked but to my suprise, no one makes decent wood stands small enough for a 30 gallon tank (without costing a mint). To make matters worse, I want a wood cap for the top of the tank and no one makes caps small enough either. Nearly all the 30 gallon stands were made out of particle board, were black and extremely cheap; not exactly something I want in my living room. The local aquarium shop did offer custom stands but they were over $300 dollars and were about as ugly as you could get which neither my Wife or I jived on.

What did that leave me with? That’s right, making my own. 🙂 Wade and I build speaker boxes and skateboard ramps (among other things) in our younger days and I did some carpentry work right after college so I’m comfortable with saws, designing, etc. So this weekend I went out and bought a table saw, wood, and all the fix’ns and it was still cheaper than the custom stand from the aquarium shop. The advantages are pretty obvious, I designed it exactly the way I wanted it to look (modern with a mission/cabin-y style). We can also stain it the exact color we want to match our living room. I’ve taken some pictures along the way and if all goes well, I’ll have the stand done tomorrow sans the stain. When it’s done, I’ll post some pictures here for all to see. Wish me luck!

cheers, will
music: cat power – what would the community think

# posted at 4:36 am by Will