I have been working on a design for a stand for my 20 gallon aquarium to sit on. Each side of a square is 2 inches long in my diagrams. Pocket hole joints are indicated by double arrows, while the lil box thingies are L brackets. I plan to attach the top to the legs using figure 8 brackets.
Are there obvious ways I could improve my design? This will be my first serious woodworking project.
Here are the side and top views:
Agree with others about the joints. I had a 20 gallon aquarium on an old pine table my dad built. Mortise and tenon joinery on the aprons, plus angle brackets to hold the legs in (which were 2.5"x1.5"). This is 50 years old and quite frankly over-built.
The top started buckling, cracked, and the legs splayed a little under the load after a year. It's mostly healed itself in the ten years since the aquarium has been gone, but never underestimate how much weight an aquarium can put out.
He designed a pine stand for a 70 gallon aquarium after that, and the floor buckled before it did. The top is slotted pine, like this, (for condensation which can damage wood) with small spacer blocks in between. I believe these sit on 4x4s that are mostly hidden on the inside by being part of panels and frame. Mostly mortise and tenon and bridle joints.
Most of the examples online use construction lumber on the inside, and face frames on the outside.