After many moons between activity on my enclosure project, I have finally managed to make some reasonable progress. I was motivated mainly by Bruce's temporary home becoming more than temporary given how long he has been in there. Also by my tendency not to finish projects like this. With that in mind, I decided to focus on the bottom enclosure that will be Bruce's permanent dwelling. After all, it would make good practice for the upper enclosure that is a fair bit bigger, which will make it more difficult to manage on my own. Better to start with something a bit easier to handle.
To get to this point, I have cut the base and backing boards. These are MDF that I had in the garage that I thought to use rather than running out and buying melamine or similar. I sealed them with two types of pond sealer. The first is what gives the boards the blue colouration. It is a think grainy substance that dries in an almost rubbery texture. Over that is two coats of a clear sealer that is much thinner, more watery in texture. Both these products are non toxic as they are designed for fish ponds.I also sourced glass to fit all three other sides. The front and right side cut to fit fixed and snugly. The left hand side toughened and bevelled to be hinged as a door.
I have also made a series of flyscreen panels for the top and sides for ventilation. I am so close to finishing. I am two pieces short to complete the final panel from the top of the enclosure. I made three for a couple of reasons. Firstly it will make it easier to access the top when the lighting is in place as I will not have to remove the whole top to reach in. Additionally, I made the assumption that smaller panels would provide greater strength to support light fittings as the spans are smaller. I still have to figure out how I am going to secure the side flyscreen panels. They fit well enough but are not fixed to the frame as yet.
The part that I have found the trickiest has definitely been the mounting of the glass door. The glass is cut as per the dimensions provided to me by the frame manufacturer. It is a very tight fit. Not having done this before I was looking for some insight as to how to hang the door. After a visit to my in-laws to look at their TV cabinet, which, just happens to have the exact same hinges, I set to it. I drilled holes in the aluminium box sections that frame the top and bottom of the door to take the hinge mounts after measuring and marking the right locations and size of hole required. Then comes problem number 1. The joints for the framework are solid metal and penetrate a fair way into each span. Some of them have channels on some of their faces. Others do not. The one that penetrates the top span framing the door does not and covered the hole such that I could push in the hinge mount. Shattered.
I decided to cut my losses and drill a second hole at a point past where the joint pieces penetrate the span. This will leave me with a somewhat unsightly surplus hole in the span, but, at least the door will mount. After drilling the second hole and mounting the door in it's hinges, physics gets in the way. Physics or geometry or something. As the hinge is further along the span of glass, their is part of the glass pane protruding out the back of the hinge. Originally I had planned to have the hinges mounted right up in the corner as I had seen on the TV cabinet. This means that the glass panel essentially opens in place. With the hinge place further along the span, the part of the glass behind the hinge starts to protrude in the opposite direction. Problem being that the glass panel is such a tight fit that as I tried to open the door, the edge trying to move into the enclosure straight away gets caught on the aluminium frame and cannot get past it. So the door will not open. There in we have problem number 2...This story does have a happy ending as you can see in the photo above. With some belated lateral thinking, I decided to drill a hole in the metal joint, just deep enough to take the hinge mount in its original location. With a little fiddling I got this right and low and behold we have a working door! Having said that, there is no way that the handle and locking mechanism I was supplied will fit as the glass is cut just too snug. Good for no escaping animals. Bad for fitting a lock. I am going to see what other options I can come up with, but, for now a small piece of the plastic beading used to mount the other glass panes will do just fine as a temporary way to secure the door and leave it possible to open it easy enough. Of course I still have a somewhat unsightly hole surplus to my needs from the door mounting experience. But, the outcome is otherwise satisfactory.
So there you have it. A little work left to do on this one this week should see Bruce installed very soon. From there it will essentially be rinse and repeat on a bigger scale and hopefully without the same mistakes!
