Help With Weight Please

[fi$hys]

Hi all
I have a cubaord kind of thing with a chesy on the top but i cant open the top because my tank is on there and the chest is empty and below the chest is two draws.The wood at the top is 2cm and holds around 67 pounds at the moment but will it hold any more and if so how much.
Thanks
Mat

 

[pica_nuttalli]

how old is this peice of furniture? can you show us a picture of the full unit? what size tank have you got on there?

 

[fi$hys]

i got a 18x10 the furniture is around 7 years and camera is playin up

 

[dgwebster]

because of the structure of the chest area below, you have to be very careful because all the weight is therefore being transfered in stress to the side panels, compressing them. personally, id be more worried about these and how they are jointed together e.g. dovetail is very very strong, safe to put a 3' tank on it (depending on the wood its also made from.)

There are alot of factors going, but a good way to do it is gut feeling. If your gut questions it even one bit, leave it alone. Dont hum n hey it, forget it. if its bad enough to raise doubt its not safe enough.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

i'd not trust it with too much more weight; if it was an inexpensive peice bought in the last 20 years, then it's probably just pressboard. pressboard is generally strong, but can quickly deteriorate if it gets soaked.

 

[dgwebster]

im gonna guess press board over there means either mdf (if laminated) or chip-board here (if panelled).

 

[fi$hys]

what

 

[pica_nuttalli]

fake wood made from lots of teensy woodchips glued together. for most extents and purposes, its just as good as real wood and its tons cheaper. that's why most mass-produced furniture made since the 1980s is made of it. furniture older than the 1940s is probably going to be some form of off-the-tree wood. i'm not very "up-to-date" on what to expect from the 40 years intervening the two periods

however, "pressboard" can easily deteriorate because the individual woodchips aren't very durable. if it gets wet too often and too frequently, it'll just crumble away. it also can take only so much weight before giving away. unless your peice of furniture was specially designed to hold a fishtank of a given size, i'd not risk it. they don't look so heavy, but water weight adds up really quickly.

if you can stomach the look, most hardware/home improvement stores now sell modular wire-frame shelf systems that are designed to hold a couple hundreds of pounds of weight. these systems are pretty cheap (in the States, anyways) and they're really easy to transport. sometimes you can even purchase a custom number of shelves or parts independent of the original kit. just get some sort of sheeting to cover the wires and they're great for books, videos, junk and smaller fishtanks. talk to a clerk in the store about what you want to use the shelves for and they should be able to help you pick out an appropriate liner.

 

[dgwebster]

if you can stomach the look, most hardware/home improvement stores now sell modular wire-frame shelf systems that are designed to hold a couple hundreds of pounds of weight. these systems are pretty cheap (in the States, anyways) and they're really easy to transport. sometimes you can even purchase a custom number of shelves or parts independent of the original kit. just get some sort of sheeting to cover the wires and they're great for books, videos, junk and smaller fishtanks. talk to a clerk in the store about what you want to use the shelves for and they should be able to help you pick out an appropriate liner.

hell, buy some presswood/mdf/real wood to make a simple front end to frame it it. fine cheap n dandy, though i think this guy is going for "existing is free" option.

 

[Dubby]

because of the structure of the chest area below, you have to be very careful because all the weight is therefore being transfered in stress to the side panels, compressing them. personally, id be more worried about these and how they are jointed together e.g. dovetail is very very strong, safe to put a 3' tank on it (depending on the wood its also made from.)

There are alot of factors going, but a good way to do it is gut feeling. If your gut questions it even one bit, leave it alone. Dont hum n hey it, forget it. if its bad enough to raise doubt its not safe enough.

To add to what's been said above.... you could add a couple of pieces of wood inside the chest to act as struts and distribute the weight.

 

[dgwebster]

very well said dubby.

i'd recommend in that case setting them 45 deg from the side panels and alternating them, so they sort of go \/\/\/\ through it to prevent lateral stress.