New Enclosure *PICS*

[latazyo]

I'm sure he'd give you a baby in exchange for some budweiser, he's got a soft spot (and a soft belly)

[sapphire_moon]

oh no problem there. I will be living close to a budweiser plant (I think??? lol)

[jjnnbns]

only if you've got a bowl of green olives to munch on whilel drinking the budweiser... or perhaps a bottle of Bookers bourbon?? Mmmm

[sapphire_moon]

If thats all it takes for an albino baby boa, no problem!

[MouseKilla]

Amazing cages! Nice looking and extremely functional design. I much prefer the piano hinge style of doors to sliding glass, it's simpler and offers better access it seems.

Do you have a list of the materials you used or was this the product of 236 seperate trips to home depot? lol!

[jjnnbns]

I love having the ability to open the entire face of the enclosure at a time instead of sliding glass back and forth.

Well, I can give a rough list of supplies, but I was at Home Depot more than I was at home! Unfortunately I do not have access to many tools other than my drill, so I had to have the cuts made at home depot and they are not the most skilled carpenters, so I wound up driving to a friends garage a couple of times to use a saw and clean up some cuts.

THE LIST:
* this will be to build ONE, so I bought twice as much*

4x8 oak plywood (3/4"), I used this for appearance and it's not necessary to get the oak or birch, as they cost well over $40US
-One sheet will be enough to make the top (4x2) bottom (47 1/4" x 2') two sides (18" tall x 24" deep) and the back (46 1/2" x 16")
--I build this way so that there is a small space under the floor of each cage so that when they stack the heat tape or UTH is not pinned. The gap is approx. 1/2"

Marine enamel, I put two coats on each enclosure and barely made it with a quart (I expected it to take much more so I bought a few cans!!!) ($17/qt)

To trim it out (and effectively create a litter dam) I used red oak 1x4 ($1.50/ft) and 1x2 ($0.79/foot)
-To trim the bottom I use the 1x4 at 49 1/2" for the face and (2) 24" pieces along the sides.
--The top uses the same lengths but only 1x2, and then I also cut two 13" strips of 1x2 for the vertical facing.

The doors are more work than I thought however. Each is made of 1x2 to the proper dimensons, and I fasten them with 6" "L" brackets to hold together strong and then cut plexi or acrylic to fit. After the cost of wood, brackets, hinges, and fasteners to lock the doors, the cost wound up being around $25 each (two doors per enclosure, so it costs $50 per unit!)

All in all I would estimate that it cost close to $150 per unit (hopefully under) and a lot of time actually goes into it. Next time I may end up purchasing either vision or boaphile, unless I can gain access to a nice work shop...

Hopefully this helps out a little, and that I didn't miss anything, but I am at work right now so I am typing this off and on and for some reason in the 'quick reply' box so I may not make as much sense as possible!

Happy herping,
Brent Strande

[MouseKilla]

That's awesome, thanks.

I wasn't sure what the best choice of sealants was but that sounds reasonably priced and should do the trick.

It does sound like you spent a lot of money on the hardware for the doors but that all comes down to how you want it to work, whether you want two doors or one, what hinges, handles and locks you choose. You could go either really cheap or really expensive on that stuff according to preference. Once again, nice work!

[jjnnbns]

Worst thing with the doors is that there is nothing all that expensive in them, each L bracket is $1.50 so thats $6 per door and the generic bolt locks are $2 apiece and each door needs two, so thats another $4. Knobs are only $1 each, wood cost is around $5 per door, and plexi around another $5 or so per door... coming to $21 excluding screws, silicone, and finish