Building two enclosures

[tnehlers]

We're starting on enclosure #1 for our daughter's dragon. We've had her about a month and she's gone from 6.5" to 9" so we definitely need to get this built. She's currently in a 20L but her new enclosure will be 4x2x2 with a 3' UV and two spotlights - one for basking and one for ceramic heat in the winter.

We got a sheet of Blondewood from Lowe's for $32 and cut out all the pieces. It's nice how it works out to use exactly a full sheet. We've also used a jigsaw to cut the vents out. We're actually using pvc gutter vents because we couldn't find circle vents and the gutter vents were really cheap.

I painted all the interior pieces except the bottom with two coats of sky blue latex. The bottom isn't shown in the picture.

Here we have the back and sides attached to the bottom, the vents on, and the grommets in.

Starting on the rock wall. We're using expanded poly sheets from Lowe's - $7.50 for 6 sheets, 13.5" by 48".

All the foam work is finished and drying.

We laid the top on to get the full effect.

We're calling it a day now. The glue will dry overnight and tomorrow I start grouting.

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Today I grouted. I did two coats of non sanded white, then a thick coat of light brown. The brown coat is drying now.

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Yesterday I painted:

Today I sealed it. I was worried I sealed it would smooth that nice texture to wear down her nails, but it still really has some nice texture. Then we put on the lights, doors, knobs, and trim. Done!! Waiting for UV bulb and hotter basking light, and it has to air out a bit.

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We ended up changing the doors because the wood glue didn't hold after a while. So I got thicker plexi from Lowe's and we put that in instead.

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We are now building enclosure #2 for our dragon. Yesterday we assembled the back, bottom, and sides and today we did the foam. Tomorrow I grout this one.

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I thought I'd share a picture showing the light placement.

Grouted:

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Painted:

I sealed it today too.

 

[halffrozen]

Looking good so far!

And your lighting sounds good too!

Keep it up!

:wink:

 

[tnehlers]

Thanks. I edited the post with the rest of the work we did today. It was a full day!

 

[ju5t1n]

Wow looks great! I'm sure your daughter will love it!

 

[tnehlers]

Thanks! I updated my first post with the grouted picture.

 

[dragonov]

looking good! What are your plans for the front?

 

[tnehlers]

Thank you! We actually just finished it! I will upload a picture in just a minute.

For the doors, I got thin 2x4 plexiglass and had them cut it them down to for two 24x24-5/16 to fit our opening. The plexiglass was thin, though, as I said, so it would bow. However thicker plexi was twice as much money! To prevent the bowing I got an inexpensive strip of hardwood trim, cut to size, and glued onto the doors vertically. Then drilled and installed knobs and put it on the track we got from Amazon.

 

[dom1959]

fantastic job!
thanks for sharing!

 

[tnehlers]

You're welcome. We actually changed the doors and now are working on the second one. I'll update the first post.

 

[Igotadragon]

You said with one piece of wood 4x8 it worked out perfect for the enclosure but in the first pic I only see two sides the back and bottom..did you need more wood for the top piece ?

 

[tnehlers]

Nope, that's actually the two sides, back, and top. We painted those pieces blue, but didn't paint the bottom so it's not in the picture.

We cut the 4x8 piece of wood into four 2x4 pieces, then cut one of those into two for 2x2 pieces (the sides).

 

[Igotadragon]

opps i should read better lol.. and why did you go with blonde wood instead of melamine? and where did you get the glass runners and why did you put the two pieces of wood behind the doors

 

[tnehlers]

opps i should read better lol.. and why did you go with blonde wood instead of melamine? and where did you get the glass runners and why did you put the two pieces of wood behind the doors

No problem.

We wanted a natural wood look to compliment our home style.

Track:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CSK398/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

We originally used thin plexi and it needed the wood to stabilize it. However after a while we ended up ditching the wood and thin plexi and got thicker doors cut. What we have now is .2" thick and works well.