Lids and AC, I hate cutting polycarbonates

The time had come. I needed to cut up a pretty big sheet of polycarbonate (plexiglass) to make a custom lid for the aquarium side with the skimmer hanging off, and figure out a good way to get my portable air conditioner exhausted through the living room windows. The lid was pretty simple, the sheet was 26″ wide and I needed 7×24″ I made a cut 8″ wide across it and put it aside. The AC was also pretty simple to figure out, but I couldn’t complete the job last night. I made three 8 x 26″ pieces to assemble length wise creating a long strip. One end piece will need to be trimmed prior to assembly for a good tight fit, because I’m not sure how well it’ll bend with reinforcing pieces across the back along the seams.

I need to pick up some silicon, or whatever will adhere to the surface today because I have a forth strip slimmed down and held together with the stock window shim, filling a gap. There’s a small opening because the slimming left one end chipped in a corner, and it’s not a perfect fit due to difference of designs. I want to close that up asap.

Anyways, I sprayed my kitchen with plastic when I busted out the rotary tool & cutting disc to melt/cut out the lid. I’m very happy with the end result, it took a good amount of tweaking but I guess that comes with the “cut, check, cut again” method. Clean up was a bitch.

[ 0C ] [ June 27, 2008 ] [ Misc ]