Questions for the experienced cage builder.

Hi all

I am going to try my hand at building my own wooden cages. I have done some woodworking in the past, but hardly consider myself knowledgeable in this area. I have been scanning the posts in this caging forum, and now have a couple of additional questions.

1. I will be using wood. What is the best type of wood for money/durability? I will be building a 6x2x2 cage, and two 3x2x2 cages that will sit on top. I want to make sure that the bottom cage can handle the weight of the two on top.

2. Are there any preferred sealing materials, or stuff that I should avoid that could be toxic?

3. I have read that wood is a poor conductor of heat, and that I ought to put the UTH on top of the wood and sandwich it between a piece of glass or plexiglass. Is this safe (having no air flow to the UTH)?

I really appreciate any help from the community. I have been doing my own research on the subject, but didn't get concrete answers on everything. In case you are wondering what I will be housing, there will be a BCC in the bottom cage, a BP in one on top, and a BRB in the other top one.

Well I'll take a stab at it :). Over the years I guess I have built 50-75 enclosures for myself and others but I am by no means an expert. I'll just tell you what has worked for me.

For starters solid wood looks nice but comes with some real pain in the a** problems. One, sealing is a pain. It can be done it's just tedious and has to off gas forever. I have used standard polyurethane and it's works ok (after a few coats). There is a two part epoxy/resin that seals like glass but it's crazy expensive. Like 50+ a gallon. So I would say 3 coats of polyurethane and caulk all corners. Don't forget to let it cure until there is absolutely no smell.

As for what wood...melamine ;) if you want the look of wood however your most durable wood is gonna be oak but for what you are gonna spend on lumber you could have it professionally built. I would say go with 3/4" veneered plywood. It's around 50 for a 4' x 8' sheet and will finish nicely. Then you could just do a solid wood front.

You can put your heat inside as long as it's sealed. This is achieved pretty easily with some self stick tile over the UTH.

Check out this link for some pretty good plans that you should be able to adapt to fit your needs pretty easily.

http://www.albinoburmese.com/cageplans.htm

Hopefully I answered at least a couple questions :). Have fun and good luck!!!

Thanks for the pointers! This may sound dumb, but...if I use plywood, I still need to seal it, correct?

Also, I take it there is no problem with the heat being sealed in like that? Is it directly sandwiched between the wood and the tile with no ventilation? I will have flexwatt hooked up to a Helix, btw.

Yes you will still need to seal it. The link I gave you has a pretty good method for sealing cages. Sealing the flex watt between the wood and the tile works fine.

I build cabinets and cages for a living. Ask a local shop to get you some prefinished asian birch. It comes with a 2 part epoxy finish baked on so finishing the inside is not needed. I put mine together with clear caulk and then caulk the joints after everything is together

Heres the inside of one i did.

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...3/dsc06048.jpg

Prefinished...now I like the sound of that! How does that run a sheet if you're only buying a sheet or two at a time?

Not sure about other areas but for one sheet I pay about 35 for only one side prefinished and a lil over 40 for both sides finished.
If you figure your time and finishing materials you can do it for that price. I usually orger 20 - 30 at a time so i get it at a much better price

Oh yea prefinished would definitely be the way to go. Finishing is a huge pain in the a#%

Our local Menards and Lowe's sells 49" x 97" x 3/4" melamine in just about any color you want (some may have to be ordered)
Menards wants $29 for special color melamine (even comes in natural wood grain and granite/marble)
They can cut it to size for you, or just cut it into more managable sizes.

I don't want to hijack this thread, but does anyone else use AutoCAD for designing their racks?

You can get the one sided sheets too, so the unfinished side can be stained. I did this one in ebony.

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file..._4622239_n.jpg

I'l not add too much my experience is as a boat builder but so far the big issue that has a simple solution is the bottom. Heating through 3/4 inch wood of any kind takes tons of power wood is a fairly good insulator that works for you in the upper end of the enclosure but if you planned on using belly heat it is not really much help. I'd recommend the bottom being 1/4 PVC (not expanded just regular ) it heats reasonably well is strong (it does bow a bit) and can be held in place with mechanical fasteners (screws) and can be cut with woodworking tools (with a bit of practice it melts if things run too fast.) That is my 2¢.

On a small hi-jack has any one ever built using a stress skin panel for the upper body of the enclosure? I have a bunch of Brynzeel 32mm mahogany marine ply sitting around and it is just begging to be a stress skin enclosure.

Thanks for the tips everyone. @kitedemon, the heater will be inside the cage, on top of the wood an underneath some glass or tile. I just get nervous whenever wood and a heater are touching, but maybe I am paranoid.

I will check for the asian birch, thanks for the recommendation. I want to avoid melamine because of the weight.

I'd like to create something simple, with the emphasis on being easy to access/clean, and that looks decent and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I will look through the link to see that I have the right non-toxic materials for the job. I have not used autocad, nor do I know what it is...I'm just going to build a box without a top, and make that the door. Add ventilation holes and drill holes for the wires and voila! Snake cage.