DIY Plywood Cage Question

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Originally Posted by mechliam

I would recommend Pond Shield also. Can be a bit awkward to work with but when done right it looks great.

I use either mats or bulbs in all my custom builds. For a BP, I would go 18" high with a mat or 24" high with a bulb (and use a guard). I don't use the Radiant Heat Panels in my enclosures so I can't really help you with that one but going from previous comments, sounds like they work well. Might look into it myself in the future.

I wrote up how I go about building my custom enclosures. You can check them out here:

https://www.reptilerange.com/how-to-...ile-enclosure/

Let me know if you have any more questions and I will try to help.

Liam.

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Thank you for that link, it is layed out very well and is very easy to understand. Pond shield seems to be the way to go. So I'm thinking 3 x 1.5 x 1.5 with a RHP with black pond sheild on the inside. I'll probably use glass for the doors as well.

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Originally Posted by TopazEye

Thank you for that link, it is layed out very well and is very easy to understand. Pond shield seems to be the way to go. So I'm thinking 3 x 1.5 x 1.5 with a RHP with black pond sheild on the inside. I'll probably use glass for the doors as well.

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My suggestion for the pond shield is mix it in really small batches, way smaller than the instructions suggest.

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Originally Posted by wnateg

My suggestion for the pond shield is mix it in really small batches, way smaller than the instructions suggest.

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Would this be just in case I accidentally ruin a batch? It seems people tend to have a hard time with it.

I also had another DIY question and I didnt really want to start another thread. If I wanted to build a rack completly out of wood (2x4s and Plywood) could I safley use flexwatt on the shelves or would this not work? I'm not sure exactly how safe that would be as most racks are made of melamine or plastic/PVC.

I initially made two 6'x2'x3's (LxWxH), heated with a 120 watt RHP on one end and 100 watt CHE on the other. With a space heater, I didn't really need the CHE anymore, and nowadays I try to put basking areas closer to the panel vs trying to heat all the way to the ground. The cages were originally for my 3.5' bp and 6.5' boa, but the bp was switched out for the retic (7.5'-8.5' while she was in it), and then eventually destroyed when our old trailer was vandalized. I plan on building some new enclosures (hopefully with better planning haha). My bp is very arboreal, and loves to climb, so he benefited from all the space.

I treated with water-based polyurethane, and that worked well for me...I just didn't treat the outside, and that was their downfall when they were left outside in the rain. XD Each individual piece of wood requires a different amount of coats, but the poly is non-toxic once dry and does very well at keeping normal amounts of moisture out. I never tried something like a BRB, but it withstood about 4-5 years of wet EcoEarth and any bowl tippings without damage before the incident that destroyed them.

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Originally Posted by TopazEye

Would this be just in case I accidentally ruin a batch? It seems people tend to have a hard time with it.

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It's because it starts to harden very quickly, so if you're doing multiple coats, you don't want to waste your mix. The instructions said you can use 1 coat, but I did 3 coats, and I wish I could've done a 4th.

Another question, sorry if I'm being annoying. If I made a wood rack and used plywood as the shelves, could I paint the exposed side with drylock/ pond sheild to protect from humidity? This would be for a lid-off sort of rack with 40-50% humidity.

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Originally Posted by TopazEye

Another question, sorry if I'm being annoying. If I made a wood rack and used plywood as the shelves, could I paint the exposed side with drylock/ pond sheild to protect from humidity? This would be for a lid-off sort of rack with 40-50% humidity.

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I would think you should only need to protect the underside of each self as that would be the"lid" of each tub. Other than that I would think there would be enough open air flow to make the humidity a non issue. So I would recommend at least sealing that portion.
Ask as many questions as you can think of that what we are here for. And as for heating with flex watt or something similar I wouldn't be concerned with it on a wooden rack as you shouldn't be setting it for more that say 98°F. So the wood won't get hot enough to catch fire or anything like that. Just remember UTH's are for belly heat and not meant to raise the ambient temps by more than a degree or two so make sure your room is going to maintain proper temps all year long.

If you're going to be building plywood cages do yourself a favor and buy the Kreg pocket jig. You will never find a better way to build plywood cages.