In a leo post you had wanted me to tell you how I made the water proof cages. Now I have the pics, and can explian it.
First off the product is called Plastic Laminate, and you may recognize certain brand names such as Arborite. This is the material people use on their counter tops, such as this one:
Use on counter
In cages it is best to put it on before assembling it, or you will probably have to take them apart. Second it doesnt work very well if your applying it onto a painted surface, its WAY better to put it on bare wood.
The first step is to choose the type of contact cement you are going to use. There is a water based and a lacquer based. The water based has less of an odor (way better if doing it inside), but takes longer to set (about 30 mins). The laquer based takes only 5-10 mins but really stinks. I always use the lacquer for convenience, and no it is not dangerous for herps once cured.
Here are 2 different types of contact cement:
Lacquer based cement
Water based cement
These are what you can use to apply the contact cement with:
Once you have your wood ready, and your laminate ready, you apply a thickish coat of the contact cement onto your wood AND laminate. Depending on the type you use (water/lacquer), wait untill it is not tacky. I wait untill it just turns dry. Make sure you get it on every exposed surface possible (right to the edges, dont worry about it dripping over the edge, its easy to clean off). The pics below show it only partly done, this is so that I could show the diff in colour, so dont follow that bad example.
Once it has lost its tackyness place the wood on the workbench (glue side up). Place long rods (metal seems to work best, but wood also works well) across the wood about 8" apart.
Then place the laminate ontop of the rods making sure that the wood and the laminate do not touch each other.
Once you have lined up the 2 peices to where you want, take out the center rod. Push the center part down, it will stick right away. Once the first part is stuck continue one from the center out. I cant stress this enough, once you have put the two together it will be almost impossible to seperate them with out breaking the laminate, so make sure you get it right the first time.
Once the two peices are completely together, get a hard (preferably rubber) roller out, and roll it from the center out. I apply A LOT of force into rolling, use as much of your body weight as you can to make sure it turns out. You must make sure to get all the air spaces out or else you will have a bulge in your cage, and it will be fairly brittle.
Here is an example of improper rolling, done by rolling from the outside in.
Now that the laminate is on the wood, you will probably notice that its fairly cold, this is just it curing. You should keep it in a somewhat warm area (above 65f, but below 90f). You are also able to cut it right away. When I do mine there is always about 3-5" hanging over the edge (i do this so that if it goes on crooked it will still cover the peice of wood). I trim the excess laminate using a router, you can use a saw but it will most likely chip and look kind of crapy.
Finally it is done. Once it is on it is VERY strong. Because its a pain cutting both the laminate and the wood seperatly, I wait till the laminate is on then i do all my cutting (the wood to the right size, and for the grooves). The only weak areas to water are the joins. Wherever you have a joined peice, always silicone it.
Here are some cages using this method:
Cage 2
Cage 3
There are too many pics for this post so some are in link form.
I cant explain stuff very well, and I know that I probably left stuff out so if your are confused in any way feel free to ask away.
Kyle
Thanks for the very informative post! How expensive is this?
Linear Mode
