Drill some pilot holes to keep the wood from splitting.
Your viv looks awesome! I built mine out of melamine and they are more Function > Beauty types. Eventually I want to do some made from wood with nice stain and some more furniture look to them.
Allanonswrath is correct, I predrilled every screw hole so it wouldn't crack. The only thing I didn't predrill were the screws for the vents. I only have one lizard, so making a furniture piece wasn't as big of a deal as it would have been if I had multiple dragons
Well I'm sure you have read what a Zoo I have at my house, so functionality was a bigger concern for me at the time as well. Eventually they will look nicer though. I really do like yours though, it has a nice look and is very functional as well. I like the stained wood. It has always looked better than melamine to me. I want to eventually build some 5'x4'x2' enclosures. I'm thinking of splitting them into 2 enclosures. All the power can be routed to the same plug while utilizing switches for Day time and Night time fixtures. I'm also looking into a proportional thermostat that I can use for each enclosure. Right now, I just have a certain wattage light in each. I would prefer to be dimmed/brightened by the proportional thermostat to keep the basking temp constant though.
Sorry to ramble and slightly hijack, but I really did want to say nice job on the viv. It really looks awesome.
haha thank you. I should have showed the wiring, everything is on timers, and the basking light is on a dimmer. We always keep our house at 70 (except at night goes to 65) so once its set on the dimmer, I never have a problem with flux temps. I do check it if its a rare temp change, but haven't had problems as of yet. Our house has a digital thermostat though, and sets to turn down, up at certain times. I'm not sure just a dimmer would be enough on a house that had constant fluctuations in temps.