Hi all! Thank you for welcoming me to this forum, I'm excited to learn. As the title states, I'm completely new to woodworking (made the occasional bird feeder and watched a lot of videos, but that's all).
I'd love to build a piece of furniture, but I would really like a sanity check on the strength of the finished piece. It will be a cabinet framed in 1x3 and 1x2 poplar, and then skinned with 1/4" birch plywood. I'll attach some screenshots of my sketchup model. In the frame design, all green pieces are 1x2, and pink are 1x3. The last image is an alternate joint type for the frame, which I think might be stronger? Everything would be glued and screwed.
The most important factors are that it can hold ideally 300lbs, since it will be a stand for my aquarium. I expect the aquarium to weigh more like 200, but I'd really like to have a buffer to feel secure. It's also really important that the top of the stand is very level, since my aquarium is frameless (in a tank with a plastic frame, only the frame needs to be supported, but a frameless tank needs full, even support across the bottom glass).
I really like the look of walnut, and I was hoping to make the top of the cabinet out of 3/4" walnut boards. Would these be able to support that weight? They'd be supported on 4 sides by the poplar frame. Or would it be better to use something like 3/4" plywood or MDF with a veneer or thin walnut boards over the top? I'm also worried about the movement of the wood, if the boards would flex too much over time?
Thank you very much in advance for any help! I have been trying hard to research this, but a little adrift in all the terminology!
I'd love to build a piece of furniture, but I would really like a sanity check on the strength of the finished piece. It will be a cabinet framed in 1x3 and 1x2 poplar, and then skinned with 1/4" birch plywood. I'll attach some screenshots of my sketchup model. In the frame design, all green pieces are 1x2, and pink are 1x3. The last image is an alternate joint type for the frame, which I think might be stronger? Everything would be glued and screwed.
The most important factors are that it can hold ideally 300lbs, since it will be a stand for my aquarium. I expect the aquarium to weigh more like 200, but I'd really like to have a buffer to feel secure. It's also really important that the top of the stand is very level, since my aquarium is frameless (in a tank with a plastic frame, only the frame needs to be supported, but a frameless tank needs full, even support across the bottom glass).
I really like the look of walnut, and I was hoping to make the top of the cabinet out of 3/4" walnut boards. Would these be able to support that weight? They'd be supported on 4 sides by the poplar frame. Or would it be better to use something like 3/4" plywood or MDF with a veneer or thin walnut boards over the top? I'm also worried about the movement of the wood, if the boards would flex too much over time?
Thank you very much in advance for any help! I have been trying hard to research this, but a little adrift in all the terminology!