Tried to repurpose an old fishtank into a PC case, guess what happened next

So I had this 20 gallon tank sitting in my garage from when my roommate moved out, and I thought, hey, I could cut some holes in the lid and mount my motherboard in there with a custom acrylic tray. Drilled the first hole for the PSU cable and the glass just spiderwebbed across the whole bottom panel. Totally my fault, I didn't use a glass drill bit, just a regular one from my old toolbox. Spent the next hour vacuuming tiny glass shards out of my carpet with a shop vac. Has anyone else tried using glass for a case and regretted it, or am I just that unlucky?

2 comments

2 Comments

wesleyjohnson24d ago

Consider putting a sheet of rubber or silicone between the glass and the drill surface next time. That would have absorbed the vibrations before they turned your tank into a confetti machine. Also, you probably know this now but glass drill bits are like 8 bucks at any hardware store, not worth the risk. I've seen people build fish tank cases before but they always use tempered glass panels that are already cut to size, not a whole tank. Honestly you might be better off just buying a cheap acrylic case and painting it to look like a fishtank, less chance of ending up with shards in your carpet for the next decade.

james_clark24d ago

Nah, I gotta disagree with the rubber sheet thing... sometimes that just makes the bit skate around even more and then you're fighting to keep it from sliding into the glass. Plus if you're drilling through an already-assembled tank, good luck getting a sheet in there without cracking the seams first.