has anyone built their own enclosures?

Perhaps I can build my own...
What are some things to keep in mind while building an enclosure for your snake?
How is the heating done with a wooden, home-built enclosure? Do they hold humidity well?
Are there any good tutorials out on the interwebs that you used to help build it?
Is this a cost effective option?

There are many helpful tutorials online. We are building a rack that holds 11 large tubs and 11 hatchling tubs out of wooden doors from a thrift store heated with backheat flexwatt and a t stat. :)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk

If I am building the base for it out of wood, do I need to line the inside with something? What would I line it with?

We use melamin (sp) for all our cages. The first wall units Chad built he used some other type of wood, I can't think of the name off the top of my head, and they are falling apart. :(
Everything he's made since then has been with melamin and he plans on rebuilding wall units with it. Talk about spending some money :O

i was thinking about building some caging too. i have been checking around on the safety of boat paint, epoxys, garage floor paints etc... havent found much info yet.

i am going to build some out of 3/4 inch plywood with the bottom half lined with formica and the rest of the interior sealed with some epoxy or boat paint.

All i use is wood to build cages and you can heat them any way you heat any other cage. Heres some pics of the ones Ive done. http://acadianenclosures.weebly.com/photo-album.html

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by grits

All i use is wood to build cages and you can heat them any way you heat any other cage. Heres some pics of the ones Ive done. http://acadianenclosures.weebly.com/photo-album.html

---

your work is pretty awesome! how do you seal the wood?

I also own a cabinet shop so I use a cabinet grade plywood that i get prefinished. It is coated with a 2 part epoxy that is baked on. There is NO odor and you can clean it with just about any chemical with out damaging it. The other thing I do, like stated before, is line the cages with formica

Holy crap, batman!! Mr. Grits, your cages are lovely! I love the stacked ones. It'll probably be out of my price range, but how much do you stacked ones for? You can send me a pm, I would really appreciate it.
How do you heat those? I don't see how you could use a UTH for each level, do you put it one the back?

I have heated these with heat pads, heat cable, flex watt, and RHP. For the flex watt i cut a groove into the bottom of the floor and cover it with 1/8" plexi.

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/...s/d87df85a.jpg

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/...s/2240a392.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by grits

All i use is wood to build cages and you can heat them any way you heat any other cage. Heres some pics of the ones Ive done. http://acadianenclosures.weebly.com/photo-album.html

---

Magnificent stack cages!

How do you heat them, though?

False floors with heat cable?

:confused:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Salamander

Magnificent stack cages!

How do you heat them, though?

False floors with heat cable?

:confused:

---

I can heat it any way the customer wants.

Heres some more pics of RHP in use

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/...works/rhp3.jpg

I like theat groove and plex glass. I built wodden caged befoer and sealed the bottom with bed liner paint ( like rino liner) it worked great to prevent the wood from molding , and spilled water bowls( use silcon to seal he plywood and 2x4 frame together to make water tight.
I might try to make another one if I got the extra funds this summer ( like msot I see with the plywood only inside) but I will double wall the units so I can fill with expanding foam ot make it warmer and heat holding better .

If you are building your own I'd suggest using PVC (not PVCx) for the bottom it makes heating much easier. Plexy covering flexwatt is a interesting idea but I would be concerned with water spills (I have a bowl flipper he flips dog bowl some how...) and water entering the lower space and shorting the flexwatt. I am sure that careful sealing would prevent this but I am also sure it would need to be renewed every now and again.

Here is mine...

http://images17.fotki.com/v147/photo...31/0128-vi.jpgHosted on Fotki

I like a full sheet of glass for my floors;)....................

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h1...3-03162202.jpg

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h1...3-03162353.jpg

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h1...3-03162253.jpg

I run a very small bead of silicon before screwing it down. If wired correctly flex watt lasts a pretty long time with out any maintance

grits don't take this the wrong way I see what I believe could be a flaw and by pointing it out you can improve the product. I have a background in boat building (before the market dropped out 9 years back) I have done 3 'glass' (plexy and lexan) boats wood epoxy encapsulated, the construction is similar. My experience taught be to use glass tempered glass. The problem was plexy moves a lot an amazing amount and sealed stable plywood doesn't much. I think you will find that the silicone seal will fail in a year or less. If you spill water it will flood the flexwatt cavity and there could be a problem (minor or major depending) Pits all glass is a good option and all PVC (pvcx is too good an insulator to be efficient.) even exactly as you have designed but with the plexi bonded to the whole floor.

Just thinking here, my experience is not the same thing at all but it is similar and I would be concerned by the seal breaking due to movement of the plexy.

Thanks for the suggestion kitedemon. There are a few different reasons I do it this way though. The first is I use a commercial grade silicon that is used on the exterior of buildings and is designed to hold up to the elements.The second, and most important, reason is because not many people wont pay to have an entire floor done in it or tempered glass ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by grits

I can heat it any way the customer wants.

Heres some more pics of RHP in use

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/...works/rhp3.jpg

---

Thanks!

They're all just wonderful!

:)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by grits

not many people want pay to have an entire floor done in it or tempered glass ;)

---

This is so true, the glass cost me between $50 and $100 depending on size. Most people dont want to pay for what they think a $5 piece of plywood will do:mad::confused:

Professional boat builder, we tried GE SCS 1200 silicone it is used for building aquariums and tried 3m 5200 as well it also failed and it is a structural adhesive. The 5200 didn't fail quickly but it did fail (I think it was 2 years). Have you ever seen plexy move in water? Try it it is unbelievable how much it cups. Have you had a spill yet?

I'd suggest the PVC bottom it works like wood and can be fasted with silicone and screws it is hard to make waterproof but leaks are off the side and slow.

I have spills all the time, in fact I have the same set up in my Burms cage. He is over 14 foot and it has held up to him peeing on it for 2 yrs now, and that's a lot of fluid.

I understand it could always be better designed but if the cages are just sitting in my shop and not selling because of the price it don't matter if I line it with gold. :D

Pvc is not very expensive but it is your design. I know we has all sorts of issues with plexy and liquids. Just a thought and comment. Question are they UL approved ? I know a someone here whom was asking me about custom caging lots of it.

Nope not UL approved either, once again it all goes back to keeping the prices of the cages down. Noone want to pay extra for me to ship the cage to UL for them to run tests and tell me the plywood is safe.Then they have to pay additional shipping to get the cage to them.