15 years in the making - Custom Enclosure

[Sticktongue]

Well.. I’ve literally been building this in my head for 15 years. Small ideas and adjustments here and there. I’m 2/3 of the way done at this point and couldn’t help but at least share a little now that it’s in my house!

The cage itself is 24” deep, 54” wide, and 48” tall. It will have glass sliding doors, and the sides will be glass as well. Of course, complete with a full drainage system, foggers, misters, etc. the entire inside is waterproofed using FlexSeal, thanks to James Cross for that advice. The base, is 28” deep, 30” tall and 55” wide. The extra 4” depth allows me to plumb everything from behind. Inside, I’ll store my drainage bin, fog and mist reservoir, all of the electrical, and hopefully, my cricket and roach bins.

The unique portion is the next step to build. It will be able to be 1 large cage, (2) 27” wide bays, or (3) 18” bays. The deviders will be removable to allow for this. I chose to go this route so I can be flexible long term. From housing smaller species like the Kinyongia that’ll go in this to start, to housing a pair of Panther sized Chams, or even a Parsons due to it being so large when fully opened up.

Theirs a few other cool features that I’ll wait to unveil untill it’s complete. Stay tuned!!

 

[GrannyK]

How exciting!! Looks to be coming along nicely. Love the little helper too

 

[Decadancin]

Following!!! Love a good build progress thread .

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

X2. I am following this build. I am looking forward to the final build and enclosure with chameleons.

Best Regards
Jeremy A. Rich

 

[naterowley]

This is coming along wonderfully! Love the details and progress pics

 

[Tkrd69]

Awesome looking build. See you have a building inspector on site. Can't wait to see it finished.

 

[Sticktongue]

Update. I built the top and got the divider inserts mostly done….

The top. Half way during the build I had the idea to make the top removable. This allows for a few things.
1, if the screen ever gets ripped and needs replaced, it’s a lot easier to do so by taking the top off and working on the bench VS assembled to the cage.
2, it can help me with my long term solution for my dividers. Being able to lift the top can help me remove them.

I got the screen all laid across the bottom, inside portion of the top and stapled and pulled it tight as I went along. Once I got it all stapled up along the perimeters, I then moved to stapling along the wooden slots that are for 2 purposes.
1, stability in the screen along this long stretch of cage.
2, it allows the dividers stability (see below).
Once I got that stapled, I took a Dremel and cut in-between the slats to open them up.

Ok, then to the dividers….. I realized my plan wasn’t going to work around 2AM Saturday morning while laying in bed not able to sleep. Two problems. 1, I made the cage frame 48” tall planning to use some corrugated plastic I already have for the dividers. They are waterproof, and flexible so easy to manipulate and get into place. Well, when I added the removable top mid project this now means the corrugated plastic would go to the bottom of the top and wouldn’t be able to go inside and between the slats for stability…. Well I couldn’t sleep so I finally got up at 4:30 and got working. This is when I realized my corrugated plastic is actually 36”x24” , not 48”x24” like I thought. Brainstorming to make what I have work, I figured out I can splice them together using wires. Think about political signs.. they use wire to slip inside and into the ground. Same concept. Just cut a 6” piece of wire, 3” goes in one piece, 3” in the other. Well other problem is, the slots run horizontal along the narrow side…. So, I had to cut them down to the correct width (22” inside to inside of the wood) and use the 24” precut width to now be my vertical. So ya put (2) of those together and you’re now at 48”… still short from going inside the slats! No problem, just add another 2” to the top and it fits perfectly. Hopefully that made sense cuz I didn’t get pics of how that worked you’ll see a gap in one of the pics, I havnt made the filler piece for one of the sides yet. For stability, I screwed 3/4” corner brackets in a few locations along the back wall, and the front 2x2. This keeps it in the correct place without moving around.

The bottom piece is on hinges and allows me to open it up to either air the cage out or clean it, similar to the reptibreeze access door. It also isn’t completely sealed so it’ll allow for air flow into the cages.

I’m already way over budget, hence why I’m using what I have for the dividers even though it’s less than ideal. Sometime in the summer or something, I’ll either get a full 8’ corrugated sheet and do the inserts the same but in 1 piece, or, I’ll get 1/4” ply that is also flexible and flexseal it. To be determined but likely will do corrugated plastic.

Hope you followed my rambling

Next step, plumbing the fogger, drainage, and airflow fans.

 

[Sticktongue]

Still wonky on the inserts because I Havnt done anything more since my last update, just took a pic with a jungle dawn turned on to show it a little better.