indoor reptile enclosure, for the curious

[crocdoc]

A one-off (probably) effort of a year and a half ago, hopefully never to be repeated by me (it exhausted me).

Internal dimensions are 2.4 metres x 2.4 m x 1.2 m, but with all of the trimmings it goes floor to ceiling (just short of the 2.75m ceiling). A mock rock cliff built into the entire back wall adds to the climbable surface area to make up for the lack of depth.

All electrical appliances (on/off switches, timers for the basking lights, mercury vapour plant lights and flourescent lights, as well as 'kill switch' thermostats to turn off all heat sources on a hot day and dimming thermostat to control ceramic heat emitters for spring and autumn) can be accessed via a drawer at the front, on the bottom. The whole thing is on wheels (with brakes) that can support half a tonne of weight, but they are covered from outside by painted wood panelling similar to the outside of the enclosure.

There is an internal divider made up of three parts (wood above and below, glass in the middle) and is removable. All of the glass (front and side panels, as well as the partition) is 6.3mm laminated. Access is via the sliding front panels, which have aluminium frames and glide on bearings.

At the time this photo was taken the plants I had in there were native Cordyline sp, but I've since started using big, tough, Lomandra grasses which I rotate with ones kept healthy outdoors.

The enclosure currently houses three monitors. Two are visible in the photo, the one on the right was around 1.5 metres when this photo was taken.


http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/auction/Jan/20041218424206244707343.jpg

[crocdoc]

front view

three monitors can be seen in this angle.

http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/auction/Jan/20041211718942577412947.jpg

[meow_mix450]

very nice, wuts the cost of all that???

Meow

[asphyxia]

Well Done, how about a close up of the Monitors next


Cheers
Brian

[Edwin]

Thats a really nice enclosure, wow!

[BoidKeeper]

Amazing!
Cheers,
Trevor

[crocdoc]

wouldn't have a clue on the price, for I hate to keep tabs on the costs of hobbies. Takes all of the fun out of them.

Here are pics of a couple of animals, though.

female

http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/auction/Jan/20041216133716173154788.jpg

female again
http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/auction/Jan/20041214200804340938111.jpg

and again

http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/auction/Jan/20041215866866246324264.jpg

male

http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/auction/Jan/20041214591351021768484.jpg

male again

http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/auction/Jan/20041213428576741363283.jpg

[dean85]

nice set up and amazing lace monitors
where are they available?

thanx dean

[Grant vg]

Amazing job!
Well Done!

gvg

[crocdoc]

not available in Canada, I don't think, unless you convince Steeve B to part with his :) Shouldn't be too hard, he doesn't seem overly impressed with them.

[crocdoc]

oh, thanks for the comments, everyone!

[mykee]

Ok, am I missing something, or are the pics not working?

[Linds]

:jawdrop: I think that has to be the nicest custom enclosure I have seen to date! :jawdrop:

[carpetman]

Very nice job!! Beautiful monitors

[manville]

It is wonderful..really nice

[Jeff McFadden]

Very impressive enclousure. Great monitors as well.

[chuck911jeep]

wow!:eek:
I think those laces are in really good hands

[C.m.pyrrhus]

Seriously wickedly cool..nice job! It is enjoyable to see the set-ups that folks take the time and money on, only for the desire to give cool homes to their collections. Nice work.

[CDN-Cresties]

Sweet enclosure, it looks amazing!!!

-Steve-

[Dani33]

INCREDIBLE!!!

[Bighead]

Beautiful. How did you do the background? I've been trying to figure something like that out for my beardies.

[crocdoc]

oh, don't get me started on the rockwork! I had the whole process explained in steps on one of the monitor forums, but then they changed format and the post was lost to the ether.


The abridged version: I carved up a 'model' cliff out of dense polyurethane foam, made a mould out of latex (and a support mould out of fibreglass) then used the latex mould to cast the cliff out of pigmented polyurethane elastomers, with sand and crushed rock bits thrown in for effect. Sounds simpler than it was.

There are simpler ways of doing it for something the size of a beared dragon, though. You needn't make a mould (I had reasons for making a mould for mine but it would take a while to explain).

1.Get some dense polyurethane foam (you can even use the 2 part kits to make your own foam, or get some aerosol tins of insulating foam).

2. Spray and/or carve the foam into roughly the shape you want your 'rocks'.

3. Find a real rock with good texture. Get some latex or silicone and paint it on the rock (do a few layers, or add some cloth to back it up) and peel this off when it cures. This will be your texture pad.

4. Cover the foam with coloured polyester resin (the stuff used to make fibreglass) and, before it hardens, use your texture pad to make imprints on the surface to give it texture (make sure your texture pad has silicone release spray if you are using latex). You can throw sand on the curing resin for extra effect. For resin you can either use a Bondo type substance, or get regular fibre glassing polyester resin and thicken it with talcum powder (and add pigments, sand etc).

5. let it cure in a well ventilated area until it stops smelling.

Whenever working with polyester resins, use a gas mask with a proper filter and do it in a well ventilated area.

Here's a photo of me working on one part of the 'cliff'.

http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/auction/Jan/20041224611580640577393.jpg

[Dani33]

I found this site with how to for making backgrounds. Hope it helps!

http://cichlidinspiration.net3services.com/

Go to construction and back ground.

Wow crocdoc - that is certainly a lot of work. It looks like it would be worht it!

[Blazin]

STUNNING! ZOO QUALITY IF NOT BETTER!

[sketchy4]

that reminds me of something a millionaire exotic animal collector would have in his house like in some movies lol. awsome enclosure.

[Sunrunner]

Wow is all i can say

[Tim_Cranwill]

Pretty slick looking enclosure, Doc. Nice work! :)

Maybe next time you're back visiting the 'Peg, we can build one of those bad boys in my basement. I'll buy the beer, you bring the monitors. ;)

[crocdoc]

haha... Labatts for a lacie...

Mind if I think about that one?