A work in progress

LarryS · 10-11-13, 03:52 PM

My buddy and I have been slowly working on his snake room for a few years now. One wall is entirely Boaphile cages with the exception of the top row. The two top left cages are former Boaphile pedestals that we cut out the fronts to make doors and turned them into cages.

It's kinda hard to see at this angle.
The top right cage we made from scratch, a one off to match the stack. These are all 1/4" material.
In this picture we still hadn't installed the locks.

We have been working on the templates to build 12" tall caging for a couple weeks now and finally get to see the fruits of our labor. Here is the first 4w x 1h x 2d. It is a single door version but we also will make one for his son with double doors and a center divider. These cages will go on the wall opposite the Boaphiles and they will all be 1/2" thick material.
Now on to making doors.

These are 4w x 2h x 2d. The others shown just above will stack on top of these.

marvelfreak · 10-11-13, 05:06 PM

Very, very nice. Great job one the cage you built.

Mikoh4792 · 10-11-13, 06:19 PM

Great work. Does one person take care of all those snakes?

LarryS · 10-11-13, 07:01 PM

Thanks guys.

Mikoh I helped him care for the collection for several years. I did my venemous training there too. Plus at that time he bred his own rodents, several hundred at any given time.
He has since gone to all frozen rodents and reduced the size of the collection. His wife helps clean and feed now. It's still a daily job, he keeps cobras, false water cobras and cribos among others. Very messy snakes!

LarryS · 11-05-13, 07:36 PM

Finally found some time to do a little more work. We made the door template tonight, not much progress, but something!

Here we used an existing template to put the proper radius on the corner of the new template.
Every edge is done with a router and kept as smooth as possible. The template will be used to rout the final edge on the door so the better the edge on it the better the final finish on the acrylic door.

Finished template.

HoldenC · 11-05-13, 10:41 PM

Looks like pro work to me. What "material" are you using for the enclosures?

LarryS · 11-06-13, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HoldenC

Looks like pro work to me. What "material" are you using for the enclosures?

The ones we are building in all but the first photo are 1/2" PVC.

In the first photo we built just one of those, it is made out of 1/4" PVC to match the rest of the Boaphile cages.

We do sell a few, but this is a hobby for us.

Most of the real pros use CNC to do the cutout work on their cages. We spend hours upon hours making jigs and templates to do work that takes those guys minutes.

Once the templates etc are done the work goes quickly but it takes forever to make the equipment to make a new size.

We enjoy it immensely and I believe the quality is unmatched, but hey that's just me!

I like to share the hobby and talk cages, I think we all gain from this in the end.

formica · 11-19-13, 05:52 AM

how did i miss? superb work! that wall of enclosures looks awesome, love the glow of light coming out of black plastic.

thinkbig317 · 11-19-13, 08:11 AM

Wow, blown away! Amazing work!!!!

LarryS · 11-19-13, 07:35 PM

Thanks guys!

No more progress yet, my work is brutal this time of year. No time for the fun stuff.

LarryS · 11-21-13, 07:03 PM

Worked a few more hours tonight.

Made clamps out of some rough lumber.

Glued up the outside

Then the inside

Next we will install aluminum angle in the front top for strength and put in the LED light.

Mikoh4792 · 11-21-13, 07:05 PM

Nice! What are you applying to the seams? Is it a cement?

LarryS · 11-22-13, 05:50 AM

Yes it is a solvent cement, just the typical PVC cement from the big box store. We apply it after assembly, which is not it's intended use, but it works as good as anything we have tried and it is reasonably priced.

Here is a link to a build thread on these cages if anyone is interested.

Heat Folded PVC Arboreal Cage in Projects in Progress Forum

formica · 11-22-13, 06:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LarryS

Yes it is a solvent cement, just the typical PVC cement from the big box store. We apply it after assembly, which is not it's intended use, but it works as good as anything we have tried and it is reasonably priced.

Here is a link to a build thread on these cages if anyone is interested.

Heat Folded PVC Arboreal Cage in Projects in Progress Forum

thats exactly how I used to make acrylic boxes, but I used to use a bar heater after cutting the 90 degree groove, and when thinking about PVC I was thinking along the same lines, but much a much larger heater, thanks for posting the link up, looks far simpler to do with the heat gun, and it really should have occurred to me lol

nice work!

LarryS · 11-22-13, 07:06 PM

Thanks formica!

We were going to build a couple of heater bars for bending but the heat gun works so well we just stuck with it.

I like working with acrylic but it is a PIA! Ever since we built a slant front cage out of plywood years ago I have wanted to do one out of black acrylic with a clear front.

I always liked the look of this. We made it for a raffle prize at the local conservation center.

So many projects so little time.....