Do It Yourself Plywood Acrylic Aquarium

Outline the base of the aquarium on a piece of plywood. All of the edges of the aquarium should be straight, though the base does not need to be a square.

Use the jigsaw to cut out the base.

Sand the edges of the freshly cut plywood using a sanding block.

Set the smallest sheet of acrylic on its end at the edge of the plywood.

Draw a line along the acrylic on the plywood to get one of the outer edges of the base piece of acrylic. The base piece of acrylic will be the exact same shape as the plywood, except it will be smaller by twice the thickness of the acrylic.

Repeat the process by moving the acrylic around the plywood until there is a line all the way around the plywood.

Lay a sheet of acrylic on the plywood and then cut the acrylic along the pen outline on the plywood.

Cut out the edges of the aquarium by laying a sheet of acrylic on the plywood at a edge pen line and cutting perpendicular to the edge line for the desired height of the aquarium.

Put on nitrile glove then place the base piece of acrylic in the center of the plywood.

Set one sheet of acrylic on its end on the edge of the plywood and against the acrylic base. Block the upright piece of acrylic in place using the scrap pieces of plywood and acrylic.

Run a small bead of methylene chloride along the inside of the edge of the two pieces of acrylic.

Allow the acrylic to set for 30 minutes before attaching the next piece of acrylic.

Repeat the assembly process for each edge of acrylic making sure to run a bead of methylene chloride along each new joint, on the bottom and sides.

Wait 24 hours for the methylene chloride to fully dry.

Visually inspect each joint and add a small bit of methylene chloride where joints appear not to have fully fused.