Completed Enclosure from Dresser!

[TwelveVacancies]

That looks amazing. Well done!

 

[PhotoBug]

Spectacular!!!!!!! Wish I had some sort of craftiness in my bones!!!!! That is a stunning enclosure!!!!

Two questions....where in your home is it? And does it have sliding glass doors?

Can you take a pic from the top so I can see where the lights are?

Well done!!!!!!

 

[jturner82]

Thanks a lot!

It's actually in my basement, has sliding glass doors, and the lighting is mounted to the inside top of the dresser. My ventilation is on the upper back side of the dresser. I wanted everything hidden to make it look like a nice piece of furniture

 

[PhotoBug]

I want to do this. I have an ld dresser and a dining room china hutch just sittin in my garage. Is there anyway you could give a few more details about materials used and even your rock backgrounds. Anything would be great!!! And pics of how the lights are mounted. Thank you!!

 

[jturner82]

Yeah, give me a day or two, after I get off work tomorrow maybe I can go into some more depth!

 

[PhotoBug]

Awesome!!!! Thank you so very much!!!!

 

[sammmycakes]

i'm in love with this!!!!

 

[KarenInCA]

Very nice. I'm assuming it opens from the front, but I can't see where the glass separates in the middle.
Ours is also on ground level. The other night, he ran from the sofa to his viv (which was opened) and crawled right in to it.
We were going to put it on a stand, but I do like that if he gets lost in the house, he will find his way back to his viv and presumably crawl back in to it at some point.

 

[Agmarshall85]

Can you please tell me what the rock like formation on the left side of your enclosure is....Was it built or purchased? and what is its purpose in the tank?? Is it a hide or feeding area? for some reason that one feature really caught my attention. Your viv is awesome!!!!

 

[MolecularConcept]

Hey there I really love your viv! Can you or anyone else explained how you make those rock backgrounds? I like to think I'm pretty clever but I can't for the life of me figure out how that is done!

 

[jturner82]

Sorry it's been 2 months since I last looked at this thread! I work and have 4 yr old twins, so I'm pretty busy I have lots of pictures to upload, basically from start to finish on this. Once I figure out how to do that, I will explain my process along with the pictures

The rock background is made out of those giant pieces of extruded polystyrene you can find at Lowe's. I just cut it to the length and width of the cage, stacked a couple sheets on top of one another, glued with Lock-Tite Power Grab, then started carving different depths, shapes, etc out of it. Once I was satisfied with that, I bought some "DryLok" and Quikrete cement color (I used 3 colors), dyed the Drylok with the color, and started painting. I put the darkest color on first and worked my way up to the lightest for highlights, letting each layer dry completely before adding any more color.

The formation on the left is also made from the polystyrene and is intended for a hiding space for my beardie, and he never uses it He just hangs out at the top of the cage where no one can see him :lol:

 

[jturner82]

This is what I started with: A $75 dresser from a peddler's mall.


Took all drawers out


Stapled screen on the back top for ventilation (out of site)


Knocked out the pieces of wood in between the bottom drawers to get the "shell" of the "tank"


Took the top drawers out and cut the backs off them just to make a "facade" to hide the lighting


Got drawer "facades" on and everything stained


Added melamine boards to make the "cage". The top was left completely open to allow the UVB lighting to get to my beardie 100%


This is my twins chilling with Rex


My lighting is just mounted to the top of the dresser, stapled the heat lamp cord very carefully, and screwed in the UVB ballast. Cut out holes in the back of the dresser so the cords could go through. As you can see, I left the top of the "cage" open.


Completed product


And here he is, happy as a lark, after eating a bowl full of superworms for breakfast!

 

[popsickle18]

Beautiful job! I love it

 

[CooperDragon]

That looks incredible! Well done.

 

[PhotoBug]

Thank you for posting the detailed pics! I'm sooooo doing this!!!!!