Building Sump
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It's a worthy project. Melev has a ton of ideas and designs on his site.
http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html
http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html
I built my refugium out of acrylic. Bought a couple of sheets from Lowe's. I used a rotozip rotary cutter with a multipurpose bit (RotoZip XB-MP10 Multipurpose X Bit - theses don't melt the plastic) and used weld-on #16 to glue it together, that was three years ago and it is going strong. Pretty easy, hardest part is building a guide to rest the rotozip against to ensure you cut straight, but that wasn't hard, just the hardest part.
Here is a great thread on RC regarding acrylic construction and techniques thereof....http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1056956&page=49 It's split a handful of times and is a doozy of a read. However, most stuff gets repeated again and again. You'll quickly learn most of what you need to know then it becomes a skim read as you try to hone in on what applies to your particular project(s).
A high level fly over of a typical sump project...
1) decide on the design
2) source the acrylic (extruded or cast...the latter is better but the former is often fine for sumps, especially given the extra support provided by baffles/partitions. Go name brand...cheapo stuff can be disasterous. For a small sump, you might spend $50-75.)
3) cut the acrylic (tolerances need to be very precise...best to have the shop or an experienced hand do this for you)
4) route the acrylic (super clean edges need to be cut prior to gluing...same advice as #3...I have a router but I still pay to have this done on more expensive projects to mitigate the risk of messing things up/needing to start over.)
5) glue it up (Weldon is the common brand...a few VERY different options exist. The pins method with Weldon 4 will be suitable. You'll also probably end up needing some WO 16 and/or WO 40 before you're done.) /Edit - I just saw that Mity posted while I was typing. Using WO 16 is an option too but not as strong. It will be plenty enough for many a small project though./
6) trim it (trim/route the final edges, sand/polish etc)
7) fill it
A high level fly over of a typical sump project...
1) decide on the design
2) source the acrylic (extruded or cast...the latter is better but the former is often fine for sumps, especially given the extra support provided by baffles/partitions. Go name brand...cheapo stuff can be disasterous. For a small sump, you might spend $50-75.)
3) cut the acrylic (tolerances need to be very precise...best to have the shop or an experienced hand do this for you)
4) route the acrylic (super clean edges need to be cut prior to gluing...same advice as #3...I have a router but I still pay to have this done on more expensive projects to mitigate the risk of messing things up/needing to start over.)
5) glue it up (Weldon is the common brand...a few VERY different options exist. The pins method with Weldon 4 will be suitable. You'll also probably end up needing some WO 16 and/or WO 40 before you're done.) /Edit - I just saw that Mity posted while I was typing. Using WO 16 is an option too but not as strong. It will be plenty enough for many a small project though./
6) trim it (trim/route the final edges, sand/polish etc)
7) fill it