diy bow front hood plans

[viper12775]

can anyone help me i want to build a hood for my 46 gallon bow front aquarium if you have plans or know of a site please replies

[Reefland]

I am not sure of any sites but if you have any specific questions I may be able to help. I built a few bow front hoods that turned out ok.

There was another member on the board named Steve that just built a 155 bow stand that may be able to help you too!

Scott Z.

[viper12775]

ok thanks i put it off for a few weeks ill keep you posted

[mistermikev]

howdy folks, just thought I'd throw in my 2cents on this one. Have a 46 bow with hood/stand and didn't build it myself, however have been thinking about building a better one and used to be a prof woodworker. Can't offer a complete plan on how to build a radiused structure in this response but can offer a little trick I learned when I was a woodworker.
#1 find out what radius you need.
#2 get a router
#3 mount that router to a board ruffly 8 or so inches longer than the radius you need. The router can be screwed down to the board. You just need enough of a hole in the board to slip the router bit through and a little bit of clearance for the bit.
#4 measure the distance of the radius from the bit (mounted to board), and mount a screw in the board at that mark(screw sticks out sm side as bit.
#5 mount the board -using the screw -to the piece of plywood you wish to cut (note the plywood will have to be as big as the radius or longer I would guess that the radius on a 46bow is approx 3' but I suspect the exact one is out there somewhere on the net. You will want to mount the screw in the center of the piece so that the radius is square to the straight edges left over).
#6 now set the bit to a depth of 1/4 inch (you don't want to try to take it all of in one run) - don't forget to clamp down and secure the cut piece, and you can now cut a radius in the wood.
then, with a 1/4 channel in the wood you can cut the excess off with a jigsaw. then go back and lower the router a 1/4 inch each pass until the result is a perfect radius.

this info can be used to create a nice looking radius, from there you can mount pieces along that radius and perpendicular -to support a face for the canopy. then attach bending stock or 1/4 masonite to the supports.
Hope this helps.mv

[Reefland]

Hi mistermikev,

[Reefland]

Oh, and here is a good start for you:
Bow Front Cap w/MH Lighting