Advice for building a custom enclosure ?

[Sarahandpix]

Hi guys, I am going ready to build a custom enclosure from an old armoire. I will definitely be cutting the sides and front out so that I can screen it but I am thinking about leaving the back solid wood and possibly having all of his branches and what not attached to the back. Has anyone ever built a custom cage? I would love any advice. Also trying to figure out the best route for setting up the bottom. Ideally trying to find an easy way to set it up to drain into the lower cabinet of the armoire. And advice or pictures would be much appreciated!!

 

[JoCarp]

Mine isn't done yet, but I'm doing the same thing. There are some pictures on my albums of what I'm doing if you want to look at those. For drainage I ended up getting a half inch square dowel that I nailgunned to the base at the front of the enclosure. I then nailed a quarter inch piece of plywood on the dowel sloping down towards the back of the armoire. I picked up a "bar drain" that I'm going to put into the floor of the enclosure and then use PVC piping from the drain to a bucket. The bar drains are good because the go about 1.5" deep to let stuff fall in, but you can pull the "basket" out of the drain to remove whatever falls in and my thought was it would be harder for my guy to get some junk that is at the drain. I'm going to use greatstuff pond and stone foam and possibly that black plastic pond liner for the floor so that the wood doesn't get saturated and everything should flow to the drain. If you have questions let me know and I'll be happy to help if I can!

Good luck!