Made a mistake, could use some advice.

Hello,

Well here's the deal. I got a baby female boa for christmas. She's in a 10 gal. tank for now, but I had a bunch of plexi glass from a shelf thing so I thought I'd go ahead and make her big tank out of that. My adult male boa is in the same thing,a tank made out of an identical shelf. Here's a pic of the new one to get an idea of what I'm talking about. http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c6...e/DCFC0010.jpg
It's not quite finished yet, still need to add latches, a few more hinges on the door, and a few misc. things, as well as fix the mistake this post is about.

The only difference between the two is my males tank is held together with L brackets and the one I made for the female is made with wood. The mistake I made is the wood. I totaly spaced out when I went to go buy it and ended up getting pine >.<.

So my question is, is there something I can seal it with thats non-toxic and all that good stuff to make it harmless or do I have to scrap it and redo it? If there is something I can seal it with, any recomendations?

I plan to redo my males tank with wood too, just without this screw up =P. Thanks for reading and thanks for any input.

If the pine wood as kiln dried(like a lot of lumber) then I would think it would be fine.
Otherwise, you can use water sealant(like think Thompsons waterseal type) nontoxic style. Or you could use fiberglass resin(just no fiberglass fabric, get me?), and seal it with that too.
Just suggestions.

Ok thanks, I'll go back up to lowes to see if I can find out if it was kiln dried or not. Also I'll ask about the sealant, I should seal it even it is kiln dried that way no moisture and the like can soak into it.

Thanks again wolfy :)

You want to put a few good coats of water-based Polyurethane(non-toxic and great for use in cages) on the wood, even if it is kiln dried. Any bit of moisture, such as urine, can get into uncoated wood and warp it over time. Bad news.

Good luck getting it all done. Looks really nice. :)

Most smaller 1x and 2x material, which it looks like you have, is douglas fir. I think it is safe to use. People usually refer to it as pine because of the color. I doubt you'll have any problems at all.

Argentra-
Thank you, I'll out and look for that tomorrow.

Brandon-
Good eye, it's 1x2" :) And that that's good to know, 'cause I'm not 100% sure it's pine. After I had built it and looked it over I thought it looked like pine so I asked my dad and he thought so too. So, we may be wrong :rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Argentra

You want to put a few good coats of water-based Polyurethane(non-toxic and great for use in cages) on the wood, even if it is kiln dried. Any bit of moisture, such as urine, can get into uncoated wood and warp it over time. Bad news.

Good luck getting it all done. Looks really nice. :)

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Are all of the water-based Polyurethane coatings non-toxic, or are they only a select few? I may go that route on an enclosure. Though Ill more likely go with epvc or some wood covered with melamine sheeting.

Bwt, nice craftsmanship on that enclosure, man! Hopefully it isn't too much of a pain to fix!

(God I want a boa)

If you've got some time and it isn't too cold where you are, you can also use varathane. It seals up the wood totally. I've used it for many years with never a problem. I used to build custom cages so I know from experience.