Ball Python enclosure build

[gunkle]

Beautiful weather today (almost 60F) so I took the boxes outside to get them sanded up. Took about 1.5 hours to get it done. Ready to stain the outside and paint the inside with Pond Armor. Should be staining this weekend in the garage at work so it has a good space to air out in and is heated. Also the thermostats, temp gun and Reptile Prime arrived today.



Had to shim the top box a bit to fit the door on the front of the bottom one, thats what your seeing between the two boxes. Will be putting some kind of feet on it. Maybe even just those felt pads.



Still to do:
Mount RHP's
Wire in thermostat probes
Place Thermometers and probes
Hardware (hinges, latches, locks, handles?, feet)
Drill air holes and create something to increase / decrease air flow (probably on 3D printer)
Stain / Pond Armor
Complete above by March 1st
Fill, test and adjust by March 29th
March 31st Get some Ball Pythons and enjoy...

[gunkle]

Picked up a sheet of clear acrylic and cutting tool, 2 matching key cabinet locks and hidden hinges (these may leave too much of an air gap though so will have to see)

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[KevinK]

GOOD ON YOU for planning to epoxy coat, I've been telling this to people building cages on here for a long time and most end up putting shellac or something usually that won't protect the cage. Epoxy is the only thing I know of that will permanently hold up to urates and poor. Very well planned.

[gunkle]

Got the first coat of stain/polyurethane on today after work. Its nice that our shop is heated and no one works weekends.







Also got the Pond Shield and hooks to hold the doors in place delivered today

[MissterDog]

Looking great so far! How is Pond Shield? I've been considering it for future projects and was wondering how your experience is with it is/will be

[gunkle]

Looking great so far! How is Pond Shield? I've been considering it for future projects and was wondering how your experience is with it is/will be

Haven't used it yet but I will document my experience with it. Looks fairly straight forward if you follow directions. I have used 2 part epoxy plenty times in the past for other things. Hoping one is enough as I'm a bit over my initial budget but if it takes two it is what it is.

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[gunkle]

3rd coat of stain on. Now to get the hardware installed. Should have prepared hardware first but had a great chance to get the stain done in a heated garage so I jumped a few steps. RHP's and thermostat should be here today if the weather doesn't get in the way.

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[gunkle]

So over the last week I have had to deal with 2 sick kids, wife with the flu and a snow storm (I work snow removal). I didn't get any time until today to work on these. I spent about 5 hours mostly uninterrupted and got some great progress done, wife in bed still sick and kids built a crazy fort in the living room.

I got the air ventilation holes drilled and the screens mounted in one of them. Ran out of screws but will only be about 15 minutes to get the second one done. Drilled them with a 1" wood bit. Thought the pattern looks neat. I originally planned to put the screens on the outside but I liked the look of the holes being visible.

Using a speed square and a ruler helps to quickly mark out center points for holes.







Helps when working with plywood to only cut through 3/4 or so from one direction and finish the hole from the opposite side. This helps to keep the splintering to a minimum.





I mounted the RPH's in each enclosure and made holes for power cable and thermostat probe.





The Acrylic glass cutting didn't go as good as I would have liked but I was able to get 2 usable pieces out of it and mounted them to the doors. I will have to do some sanding on the rough edges.





You can see what I used to hold the right hand side of the doors in place here. They are actually for hanging pictures on the wall.



I left the plastic over the acrylic sheets so it will be protected till ready for final installation. Next I have to purchase a 3/4" drill bit to install the cam locks. Then take everything out of the inside and remove the acrylic sheets so I can apply Pond Shield to the inside then remount everything and start testing. The end is in sight..

[gunkle]

Got to the first coat of the Pond Shield application this morning. Was able to use the garage at work again. It was very straight forward with good directions. I followed the not smooth surface instructions as I wasn't sure if the wood counted as smooth or not but since I wasn't planning to use a squeegee I think I made the right call. So I mixed 2 cups of Part A with 1 cup of Part B and 2oz denatured alcohol. I re-read the instructions and watched a few youtube videos to prep for this. It turned out to be very easy.



Then I got to painting. It rolled on pretty easy like a slightly thick paint. Once I rolled all surfaces I used a cheap throwaway paint brush to get all the corners that I couldn't get with the roller.









The roller didn't give as good of a first layer as I would have liked on close inspection but the second coat should be no problem finishing it off.



The second coat is cut with double the denatured alcohol so it will be a hair thinner So all should be fine. Since I am not going to be holding water in these I will be forgoing the fiberglass cloth in the seems. The first coat with the paint brush sealed these up just fine for my use case. I will update after the second coat but that may be a few days unfortunately. Possible ice storm coming.

[gunkle]

So I managed to get the second coat on tonight. Like I thought it made a huge difference in coverage quality. Went fairly straight forward. I would recommend anyone thinking of giving this a try to go for it. I even managed to get some into the holes in the sides to help seal them up. Used my finger in a pair of gloves to do the holes. Had some dripping from the paint brush application in the seams from coat number one and not much I can do about it. Also a tip use the paint brush in seams then use the roller to help with any excess. I did go over it quickly with the roller after but obviously not well enough. I don't think it will be too noticable when it's in use though. So happy that the build prob is about done. Now to reassemble them and start testing.

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