Drilling my glass sump

[PalmTree]

Just wanted to share my glass drilling experience. I looked up the instructions on RC and purchased the diamond plated hole saws on Ebay. In an attempt to save some money on electricity I purchased 2 Sequence Reefflo pumps. I've heard good things about the product and decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately it requires a 2" bulkhead on the intake side. Here are a few pics of my drilling experience. A bit nerve racking in the beginning but turned out to be much easies than I anticipated.

Using plumbers putty I built a dam around my preexisting hole which I taped up so it would hold water. The water acts as a lubricant and keeps the bit from heating up.

This is a shot of the hole saw ready to roll.

It took about 3 minutes to drill through the glass. My sump is made with fairly thick glass just under 1/2". It was pretty surprised at how quickly it chewed through the glass.

Both Sequence Dart and Snapper up and running w/ a few new plumbing pieces. The snapper is running my MRC 2 skimmer and the Dart is for my main circulation. So far I am very pleased with the Sequence pumps. Low noise and low heat transfer. All in all the entire project took me 5 or 6 hours from start to finish. I really hate dismantling stuff underneath the stand but when its all done I'm pretty happy I went through the trouble.

 

[inline6]

Nice handiwork Allan!

 

[Wolverine57]

It pay to watch home improvement yeah buddy! Great job! Where did you get the gray ball valves?

 

[inline6]

It pay to watch home improvement yeah buddy! Great job! Where did you get the gray ball valves?

Allan's first name is really Tim - lol

http://www.savko.com/

 

[junglebase]

Hey Allan, good job there!... can i borrow your services someday? ... :usa1:

 

[House of Laughter]

Allan, (or tim)

Great work - I have found that using a dremel for that last 1/16th of glass has elimiated those little shooting cracks like the one seen in pic 1 and 2. Works wonders.

Good job

House

 

[meschaefer]

What size drill bit did you use for the 2 inch bulkheads, 50mm?

 

[loismustdie]

Ahhhhh, very nice allan, very nice. Sequence and becketts. Sounds like a winning combination to me. Glad to see that for your upgrade, you increased performance rather than adding 22 inch rims.

 

[tripstank]

For the last little bit of glass if you don't put any pressure on the drill and let the weight of the drill do the work for you you will get zero break out, but I have to say looks good!

 

[masterswimmer]

What size drill bit did you use for the 2 inch bulkheads, 50mm?

We use 50mm diamond core bits for a 1" schedule 80 bulkhead.
2" bh would need a 3.25" hole (schedule 80) conversion is 82.55mm

See here for schedule 80 BH sizes

BTW, Allan, nice job

swimmer

 

[PalmTree]

Thanks everyone! If anyone needs diamond plated hole saws for 2" blukheads let me know! Savko.com is where I got all my PVC stuff.

 

[manyfish]

smart man, out of all that you use union with your system

 

[PalmTree]

Believe me I leerned from my MANY mistakes in my first set up!

 

[Liz]

SWEET! :cheers:Great Job!
Don'tcha just love the satisfaction of doing it all on your own?
:scratch:I think I might try it to our next sump...If Craig would let me....:wink1:

 

[PalmTree]

SWEET! :cheers:Great Job!
Don'tcha just love the satisfaction of doing it all on your own?
:scratch:I think I might try it to our next sump...If Craig would let me....:wink1:

Thanks Liz! It is satisfying to say the least especially when it is all done and over with. I'm sure you'll be a better job than me!:sleepy:

 

[skatezen]

Could I possibly borrow the diamond bit this weekend 6/7/07 ? Depending on if anyone comes through with a 2" bulkhead.