6'X2'X2' Enclosure Build

[ulintze29]

I rescued my 3 year old bearded dragon Shelley on March 13, 2013. Her previous owner did not “have the time” to take proper care of her. Her UV light was an Exo Terra that was over a year old, a 150 watt infrared heat lamp that kept the basking spot at 115+ degrees, and was kept on a diet that consisted of lettuce and carrots (along with crickets and superworms). All of her calcium supplements, vitamins, etc were years expired. She has a custom made enclosure that measures 46” X 19” X 19”. Here is a picture I took of her right after getting her set up at home, and her current enclosure:





I decided that I wanted to build a larger tank for Shelley since she glass surfed and enjoyed running around on the ground and climbing on everything. During that last week of March, I made some rough sketches of what I wanted her enclosure to look like, as well as all of the dimensions. I decided to build a wooden enclosure with a base and a functioning canopy. I made my way to Home Depot and had them cut four 4’ X 8’ sheets of birch into the sizes I needed in order to begin my project.

 

[Spike1etta]

Pictures have to be hosted on photobucket or the likes and then link put in post here otherwise photos will not show up. Directions are at top of forums.

 

[ulintze29]

Thank you, will do.

 

[ulintze29]

Figured out the issue with pictures. Seems to be working after I switched to Photobucket instead of using Flickr. Since I currently live in an apartment, I did not have room for a large project like this. Luckily, given the nature of my job, I am able to do everything at work during breaks, after hours, etc. This was my very first shot at woodwork, so I wasn’t expecting everything to come out perfect. I started off by making a frame based upon the “blueprints” I created. Everything seemed to go well until I found that it was not square by a longshot. I disassembled the old frame and decided to take a new route. I glued and screwed the wood panels of my “base” together, knowing they were already square. From here, I just built up the frame from the inside. I know, I know, it probably isn’t the best thing anyone has seen, but it works and hold the weight of my 200 pound body with ease. Here is a picture of the finished stand:





After the stand was done, I moved on to the enclosure itself. This was easy as I glued and screwed the pieces together and simply sat it on top of the stand. I kept from “sharing” a floor from the stand to the enclosure, that way the two pieces can be separated when moving. I moved the enclosure and stand to an upstairs storage room where it was out of the way due to the size it had become. After doing some research, I decided to just go with a linoleum flooring as a substrate. I fitted the tiles and simply stuck them to the wood. After the flooring was in place, I used a water based silicone sealer to seal all of the corners, and then proceeded to use an all purpose water based sealer on all of the inside wood and linoleum flooring.

I apologize for the lack of pictures through the next several steps, my phone broke and none of the pictures were backed up before I sent it in to Warranty Repair.

Now on to the fun part-- styrofoam. Credits to tatteberry and dragonov, as I used both of your designs as inspiration for mine. I started by cutting a 4x8 sheet of styrofoam to 70.5”x22.5” (size of open floor inside enclosure). From here, I cut a basic shape out of the middle so that the base layer would be one uniform piece, making it easier to glue, carry around, etc. I went layer by layer cutting rough shapes, then shaping and blending them together. Every few layers I would use one single piece cut for the back and sides so I would be able to glue the entire background in sections rather than all at once. I was not gluing at this point yet, I simply stacked the pieces on top of each other.

 

[ulintze29]

Shelley has a rock she likes to sleep under in her current cage so I wanted to create a similar feature in her new enclosure. Her rock is currently her basking area as well, so it tends to stay in the upper 80s underneath it during the day. I began creating an open area out of the styrofoam, then added two more similarly cut pieces on top, creating a hollowed out space. I then cut a piece of styrofoam to cover the opening. My plan is to leave this “cover” unglued from the rest of the background, that way it can be removed if needed.







Sorry for the low quality photos, there is not a lot of lighting in the loft area where the enclosure is.

After I was happy with how the styrofoam looked, I made sure the pieces were square against the back and sides, then stuck toothpicks through all of the different layers. When everything had been toothpicked, I was able to remove the background form the enclosure and set it on the ground.