My Ikea Stand Modification

[howaboutme]

Sharing my modifications on an Ikea stand for my new build. I thought this would be helpful to show.

This stand will be used for a UNS 75s. My main focus is aesthetics. The stand must look like a regular piece of furniture and both my wife and I love Ikea designs. Knowing that their furniture is not likely to last a lifetime, modding it is a must. The first decision was to buy one of their "better" cabinets. Instead of furniture made of laminations, this one is made of solid wood. I wouldn't compare the density to higher end furniture but it is already built very well. The next consideration was how easy is it to mod. Having instructions posted online definitely helps.

The "stand" is the Havsta. Since my new tank is shallow (12" H), I wanted the cabinet to be higher. I chose white because it matches almost perfectly to the newly added wood bracing without me painting.

The mods consists of extra steel corner braces and new wood placed in strategic locations. I'm lucky enough to be in the building construction industry and have easy access to structural engineers to help with any questions that are outside of my own knowledge. The main issue we have to worry about (usually) is not gravity load. Even the worse stands can handle it. The most important is lateral bracing. You want the stand to not twist. In order to do this, you have to attach sides to one another, preferably three sides together if possible.

The wood I used is pre-primed boards. The white is almost an exact match and since none of it was on an exposed side, I didn't really care. I put 1 board at the bottom to support the sump. This was not really necessary but I had the material. Then another smaller one to support the front top to prevent sagging. There is one in the back that will double as support for my light stand. The rest is all about lateral support. Picts:

The plan. Solid gray is new wood, small yellow box are the bracings:

I only used 1 at the bottom, not the 2 shown here.

 

The right back, lots of bracing:

 

Full shot:

 

The bottom:

 

The shelf also helps:

 

The back:

The right side as shown is open for plumbing. The thin piece you often see is extremely important normally as it provides lateral support. In my case, it wasn't necessary but I didn't want the entire back to be open.

 

Just about done. I put 2 pieces on the right w/ mending plates. Those are for mounting of equipment. The inside:

 

With sump:

 

With tank:

 

The left side is sump, right side wall will have my controller. The shelf will have misc stuff and hide the cables.
This thing is rock solid.

[roni]

that's fantastic!  Love the detail and the final result.  I'm working on a new build and trying to figure out a way to build a small 12" tall cabinet that would both double as an under the tank area to store things as well as a stand for small separate refugium.  Any ikea products you think could be repurposed after reinforcing?  This would be under a 72x30 waterbox tank and my hope was to drill the ATO that comes with the tank, elevate it slightly and have it gravity feed back into the main sump.  

 

 

[YHSublime]

Looks great, Jack, well done!

[howaboutme]

Hi, thanks guys! I appreciate the kind words.

 

@roni Ikea has a bunch of furniture I would have no trouble using. Reinforcement will depend on your load/water volume. I searched long and hard before I chose the Havsta. Besides that, look at the Besta line and the Galant line. Eket also works. Note that one of the main reasons I went w/ Havsta is because it is solid wood rather than laminated. Truly the best way is to head to Woodbridge (or College Park) and see. I had to do that before I pulled the trigger. Also look at the instructions. You can really plan out your reinforcing before you buy. Because I wanted my stand to look like furniture, I also looked at "cabinets" or "storage cabinets" at sites like Wayfair and Overstock. They have good options, some are quite expensive and solid wood. I just couldn't get the dimensions I wanted. The Havsta is perfect in the end.

 

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions.

[roni]

Thanks Jack!  Much appreciated.  Looking forward to seeing your new build!

[howaboutme]

It's coming along nicely! Plumbing is almost done. Glued about 1/2 of the pipes so far. First time doing plumbing so nerve racking. Thinking of other, more complex, plumbing solutions for larger tanks, makes me appreciate this skill. I wanted a 45 on the return but couldn't get the geometry to fit with what I had so settled on standard 90s. Likely not a differentiator for this little run.

 

[YHSublime]

Looking slick for sure. Are you going to have easy access to your gate valve? I've found that I'm adjusting more often than I'd like with the Herbie, especially because I'm lazy and don't swap out my filter socks. 

[howaboutme]

2 hours ago, YHSublime said:

Looking slick for sure. Are you going to have easy access to your gate valve? I've found that I'm adjusting more often than I'd like with the Herbie, especially because I'm lazy and don't swap out my filter socks. 

 

Yes. The tank will be in the middle of a wrap-around stair (U-shaped) so I'll be able to sneak a hand between railing posts to adjust. I can also go over the railing since that is the first run. There's flexibility. I do have to place the stand somewhat away from the wall to allow for the pipes and for opening/closing of the ball valve on the return (only used as a union and for instances where I don't want any water to accidentally trickle out during maintenance, etc).

[AlanM]

What are you using the 80/20 on the back for? 

 

This is looking really nice.

[howaboutme]

21 minutes ago, AlanM said:

What are you using the 80/20 on the back for? 

 

This is looking really nice.

Thanks Alan!

 

The 80/20 is for the lights:

 

The missing light is currently on my waterbox and will move w/ everything else. That piece of wood under the post in the previous photo is a "bumper". In case the 2 pressure pads (they call them brakes) fail, the bumper catches the post so the entire contraption doesn't land on the rimless tank.