Thank you guys...ill apologize again for being so slow.
Chin, ill fire a few up this sunday..i have been revamping it to work a little better and ive takin a bunch of pics of how its being done.
Lucky, no, i didnt use any fiberglass beyond the polyester layers.
I am sorry i am unsure what sanitread is.
Danny, thank you..ill get a couple for you on sunday when i have a chance to update on the self cleaning head.
Ill see if i can bribe my daughter to stand beside it to show scale for you..at 16, she`s much too cool for fish tanks..but ill see what i can do.
Funky,
The ply is 3/4" on the bottom, back and sides. euro bracing aswell as exterior bracing was used to achieve the rigidness i wanted to see.
On the front, the ply is laminated to 1.5" thick, and i bet stronger than most glass tanks.
Sludge buildup on the inside of the neck on most skimmers i built or used extends to about 4" down on the inside of the neck and in my experience greatly reduces skimmate production, i felt this was the most important feature of the whole unit.
I can watch production improve after the first pass with the squeege.
If you were refering to the outside of the neck, yes, it doesnt help with production, but was important for two reasons.
First i always watch here to guage the skimmate production and adjust accordingly, so i like it clean so i can watch this daily.
second and most important, it stabilizes the whole rotation of the unit and keeps both squeeges clamped against the neck while rotating.
It was very difficult to build everything by hand and get it precise enough to rotate exactly on center of the neck, so there needed to be a little play here.
The things to consider when i was building for this were many :
The lid for the cup had to be drilled and routed dead center for the bearing and motor casing or the pivot would be off center.
The outer groove routing where it seats onto the cup had to be precise, so the center hole wasnt shifted in any way.
The neck had to be dead center coming up from the base of the cup so the cleaning head would spin freely.
all considered, i was about 1/8" out after all pieces where placed together, and i hoped the squeege flex would absorb this difference while spinning.
One day, i would love to have a CNC....
I will explain what i have changed recently on the head when i next update on sunday.
Greg,
Sure, id be glad to give you a tour...and yes FRAG TRADES are always a bonus !
thanks all, Marc.