DIY platform

Hi, so I’ve got an idea to jazz up my beardies extremely boring enclosure. Im thinking about doing a platform that goes all the way across (4ft) with 2 ramps, one at each end. The platform will be able to stand by itself without having to glue or nail it to the back wall of the enclosure, which is made of melamine.
Question is, what will be the best thing to use to build it? I’m pretty sure I could use melamine, but I feel like I’ll just break it when I cut it to shape and glue and nail all the bits together. I read up on plywood, and I’ve seen that oak plywood is fine, but would I need to coat it with anything? And if I need to coat it, would I need to wait a certain amount of days for it to air out?
Also while I’m here, I need to downsize my heat lamp because I think my 150 watt is heating up the ‘cool’ end a little too much. Do you think a 50 watt heat lamp in a reflective dome would make a decent basking area? My enclosure is just the standard Reptile One 4ft melamine enclosure.
Thanks ?

Have you thought at all about making it the same way you would make a fake rock structure? Foam and grout? Personally that's how I would do it.

Oak plywood isn't really any different from pine plywood or the like. It's basically pine plywood with a oak veneer on the front and back. You'd want to seal the oak plywood anyways, just like you'd want to seal the pine plywood. So essentially they'd both work, it's just the oak ply would look nicer.

Air out time will be determined on what you choose to seal it with.

What are the temps in your tank now? Usually the wooden enclosures do hold heat better than the glass and mesh top tanks.

-Brandon

I had originally thought about a foam structure, but looking at all the steps and money involved, I figured it might be cheaper, less of a hassle and less time spent to do the plywood one. Maybe I should reconsider.

Temps down the hot end reach 40 degrees no problem. I have a thermostat, so once it reaches 39-40 degrees it switches off until it goes down to 35 degrees then it goes back on (this happens constantly during the day with how quickly it heats up). Cool end is around 30 degrees, but I’m finding now during the day it just slowly heats up, maybe only by a few degrees, but enough to have me reconsider the 150 watt.
This is why I was contemplating downsizing all the way to a 50 watt with a dome.