verticle lid hinge

[BillT]

I made a decent lid hinge for my daughter's frog tank:



I had read of people making hinges for aquarium tops by putting a bead of silicon aquarium sealer between two pieces of glass and letting it harden. It binds well to the glass and is flexible. Since the hinge I wanted would have to support the weight of the vertically hanging rather large piece of glass, I was worried about it being strong enough. Therefore I reinforced the silicon by imbedding a log thing piece of mesh (about 300 ?m) in the silicon (kind of like fiberglass). The same mesh is at the top and bottom of the door (lets air in/out, keeps frogs in). This seems to be working well. The door has not sagged to any noticeable degree and it hinges well.

Since it is mostly lumpy silicon, the wife thinks is should be prettier. Maybe I should have used black silicon and/or tried to smooth it out more, but I'm pretty OK with it as a first try.

[BallAquatics]

That's cool Bill!  Where there's a will, there's a way.   Looks like this project is coming along very nicely.  What type of frog is your daughter going to keep in her new set-up?

Dennis

[Mugwump]

I like it...that's neat!....tape a thin strip of colored paper over the 'homemade' hinge to hide the caulk...tada..or even go over it with a black marker?

[BillT]

What type of frog is your daughter going to keep in her new set-up?

Red Eyed Tree Frogs Dennis. Very cute. They should arrive today.

Thanks for the link to your friends website. I tried to make a copy of his tanks.

I like it...that's neat!....tape a thin strip of colored paper over the 'homemade' hinge to hide the caulk...tada..or even go over it with a black marker?

Good ideas Mug. I will have to think about it.

We are going to try to get java moss growing on the back surface. I know it grows well out of the water in a humid environment since I had some in a drying out tank that pretty much filled the tank.

[BallAquatics]

Thanks for the link to your friends website. I tried to make a copy of his tanks.

Hey Bill, happy to be able to help.  You and Brian would hi it off very well I believe...  he's a micro biologist at tOSU.

Dennis