DIY Enclosure Series - Part 3

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!

DIY Enclosure Series - Part 2

As stated in the first post in this series, the aluminium box framing for the enclosure that I am building arrived a couple of weeks ago.  I have not progressed too much since then for one reason or another.  I am please to report however, that things should pick up from here.

Here is a picture of the bottom enclosure loosely assembled.  You can see the framework goes together nicely with the combination of different joints and profiles of metal going together rather like a jigsaw.  The only bit that takes any time is making sure that you have the right piece in the right place.  Again, much like a jigsaw, they only go one way if everything is to come together correctly.  If you enlarge the photo, you can see the pieces of dark black PVC beading that will secure the glass panels when they arrive.

Speaking of glass panels, they should arrive this week.  After a bit of too a fro with different suppliers, a friend of mine who works for a window manufacturer has come through with the goods as it were.  As far as construction materials go, they form the last big pieces.  I will have to get hold of a little more fly screen building materials, but, they are just consumables as I have all the tools that I need and will be quick to lay hands on.

This second picture here is of all the framework loosely assembled, just to see if I had all the pieces and that everything was in order.  Good thing I went through this process as I not only found out how careful you need to be putting the right pieces in the right places, but, also that there were some components missing from my shipment.  An email or two sorted that and I received the required materials in a second postal delivery.

So now what I need is a little time to start the construction elements of the project.  I have cut one of the base pieces for the enclosures out of MDF that I had in the garage for another purpose that is no longer required.  Due to the nature of the profile of the tube that takes the MDF, it is the only material for the panels of the enclosures that must be in place prior to knocking everything together.  Once I have all the pieces I can firmly fit everything and then mount the glass and fly screen panels later.

I was very happy with the first base piece that I cut and it fit well.  The second one I managed to cut a little narrow and I will have to redo it.  Fortunately I have enough material on hand to be able to do that without having to purchase more.

Overall, the process is progressing.  Just slowly.  I hope to pick up the pace now.  So stay tuned!

DIY Enclosure Series - Part 1

Ever since Bruce came on the scene, I have needed to do something about a permanent home for him.  In reality his arrival accelerated the need I already had to provide permanent accommodation for Lacey through her adult life.  She can only live so long in a 20 litre tub after all.  As much as it is ideal for her now, in a year or so, it will be completely inadequate.  Add to these requirements my general interest in DIY lately and you find me where I am today.  On the cusp of starting to build my own custom enclosure for both Lacey and Bruce.

I read an article in the current edition of Scales and Tails magazine that went into some detail the merits of building your own enclosure using tubular aluminium to construct a frame on which to encompass the various materials that make up its faces.  I set upon this concept over and above what I had been thinking, which had centred on using melamine to construct a wooden home for our reptiles.  I like working with wood.  That is not to say that I am any good at it.

The article described the tubular aluminium as being available with different profiles.  That is to say with different extrusions on it that would help simply secure different materials such as glass and wood.  With this and other basic information in hand I set about researching the manufacturers of the aluminium tube and what options were in fact available to me before setting about designing what I wanted.

The two images in this post are what I came up with.  The are produced in Google Sketchup and are to scale as a result.  I sent the designs to a couple of manufacturers and based on the great advice, help and the products themselves of one of them, I ordered the framework for my new enclosure.  I am very pleased to report that it arrived today!  So let the fun begin...

You can see in the images that I have designed a two storey home for the critters with Lacey to be in the penthouse and Bruce in the basement.  The void in between is where lighting for Bruce's pad will sit.  I have also included flyscreen panels on the top and sides for ventillation.  The left hand sides of both enclosures will have toughened glass hinged doors.

I am really looking forward to the interesting challenge of this piece of construction and will keep the progress recorded here.