Cage Suggestions Please!

Well, I've been wanting to build a cage for Eleanor for a loooong time... but I lacked funds and know-how until I realized that two of my cousins are married to carpenters :| Just my luck, this week one of them was working on a house a street away from mine and told me to bring over a drawing and he'd build it outta spare materials :mrgreen:

https://ball-pythons.net/modules/cop...8/P1010900.JPG

Dimensions are 40x20x20

So this is what I have to work with... I need suggestions on stain, paint, sealant, how to make outward swinging doors, ventilation, heating (the gap underneath is for a heating pad...) anything! I'm going away and won't be able to check back until Tuesday, so I'm hoping to see a lot of feedback, guys! :D Thanks in advance!

for the sealent, use polyurathane or polycrylic. i use polyurathane on adrians. and use 100% silicone caulk in the corners. that cage looks cool. have you thought about sliding glass doors with a lock?

I would suggest frameing in the front , it would hide the gap for your heat pad and make the cage much stronger and finish off those edges, also it wouldent be a bad idea to add some cross support to the bottom of the cage to keep it from sagging "that would have to be designed around your heat pad'
As rex suggested , a good outdoor type polyurathane "I prefer minwax products" you will want to apply several coats with a good drying inbetween and silicon the joints. stain color or paint would be to your preference. You might also think about lining the bottom of the cage with something " self adhesive tiles,pvc ,formica, shower board" anything to increase the longevity of the cage and keep urates and water from eventually penetrateing the wood "and keep it from absorbing odor"
Good luck you have a nice shell of a cage to start with

ok, for the front, get another peice of plywood and cut it out like so:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...epths/enc1.jpg

Then throw on some acrilyc doors like so:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...epths/enc2.jpg

I like to seal the edges with sylicone. If you decide to paint it make sure to use a latex paint. They look nice and are non toxic.

Looks good so far!

edit:
oh and robert has a good idea with the adheasive tiles. I did that with the entire inside of my frog enclosure and cyliconed the seams (frog need high humidity which can screw with wood). I have had several people think it was professionaly done. It looks great.
*toots own horn*

I don't really have much to add to what has already been suggested. I'd just like to point out that you might find it hard to get the heating pad to penetrate the wood well enough to heat. I like the idea of cutting out a piece of glass to fit the bottom of the cage, then raise it up with some wood at the corners. Then you just have to put the heat pad under the glass, and you have an easy surface to take out and clean when it comes time to clean up the cage. :)

Oh, and for the cage front, I'd go with a sliding glass front, or a glass(plexiglass?) front thats hinged at the bottom so it opens downward.

Looks like a good start so far. Good luck with it. :)

The others have made some great suggestions so far, and there's certainly a lot of ways you could go with this to make a very nice cage. I would share Cody's concern about the heat being able to penetrate the wood, but I'd think one way to deal with that would be to create a "false floor" of tile or shower surround about 1/2" above where the wood is and have the heat pad in between, or another way might be to use a drill to create numerous regularly-spaced holes in the floor to allow the heat through and then use ceramic tiles to create a heat-conducive floor.

If you do replace the floor for better heat, be wary of what you replace it with. Acrylic will warp with heat. Glass or tile would be good. You could replace it with pegboard or like marla said, drill a bunch of holes and cover with tile.
I love building enclosures... :)
good luck!

Thanks for all the ideas, guys! I was kinda wondering about heat penetrating the wood... but I think I'll try the hole-drilling idea. Hopefully I'll have an update this weekend, I think I have an idea of how the final thing is gonna look, I just need the time do to so, lol.