DIY Screen Lid Tutorial ( Pic Heavy)

[p51_speed]

Ok as you may or may not have read in my other post , I had to make a new lid for my snake tank , since she decided to let me know it was not adequite enough to keep her in . so I made a new lid out of screen parts from home depot cheaper than I could have bought it .

plus a sense of accomplishment that I built it . so with out adue here we go




1st the parts you will need for this project



1) tape measurer
2) screen rail ( mine is 5/16ths)
3) screen mesh
4) mitre box
5) corner pieces
6) cross bar clips (optional)
7) razor knife
8) screening spline
9) spline roller
10) hacksaw
11) pen for marking cuts






these are what the corner pieces look like



first you going to make your measurements from the inside to inside where the plastic around your tank is , go length and width.

like the one were building here was 14.5x35.5

next factor in the size of the corner pieces . mine were 3/4ths of an inch so that means I had to take OFF 1.5 inches per rail meaning I would now have to cut (2) rails that are 13 inches and (2 rails) that are 34 inches , we tracking ??? cool

after you make those cuts your coing to place the corners in each rail and it should look like this





continue doing that untill you have the frame and it should look like this



STOP AT THIS POINT !!! go test the lid and make sure it fits , if it does not fit make the appropriate cuts to certain rails untill it does . DO NOT go any further untill it fits . if it does fit just right keep reading .


Now if all is good to go . and if you want to make cross bars this is how you do it , take the same measurements you used for the width of the tank rails and cut 2 -3 more ( your prefrence) this will be used for strengthing the frame.

after those are cut you can insert the crossbar clips . it should look like this


after you have inserted both clips in your cross bar lay the crossbar(s) on the spiline track like this



it should look like this with all your rails on



now make sure you have a hard surface in order to roll the spline into the track or you will bend your newly built frame.

unroll your screen so that it overlaps the frame by a good few inches .


start on the long side and start rolling your spline into the track go forward a few inches at a time so you dont slice your screen







once you get to the end carefully cut the spline and push it down


now start on the opposite long side and put the screen under light tentsion as you roll another piece of spline into the track . you will notice that the screen will pull itself taught. go all the way down the track again and cut the spline at the end







start on the short sides (width) of the frame and do the same , slowly working the spline into the track.



after you have all four sides of the spline in carefull put the razor knife on top of the spline and agianst the rail and cut the excess screen off




once you have done that you can it should look something like this



now you can go put it on your tank and stand back to admire your handy work all the same time giving petsmart/co the finger cause you dont have to pay for one of thiers , .




I hope you enjoyed this tutorial if there are any questions , I will be more then happy to answer them if I can . I hope someone can get some use out of this and save themselfs the money and gain the pride of making what you need instead of buying it . have a great day BP.net and thanks again for letting me join.

[Kaorte]

Very cool! I'd like to see this tutorial converted for an all screen enclosure, like for lizards, geckos, or chameleons. I'm a big fan of DIY!

[p51_speed]

I'm pretty sure in the coming weeks I will probably do that , seeing as how my fiance wants a panther chamilion . she had me tattoo this one on her so now I have to get her the real thing

[p51_speed]

I will be building and doing three full enclosure tutorial worth in the next week or so for those of you that are interested


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[Reznor]

Subscribing! This looks awesome.

[Kaorte]

I'm thinking about an adult chameleon...so a screen cage DIY would be awesome. Thanks!!

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