First it greatly changes on the particualr material your building with.



I myself have built many a cage with melamine, one its easy and two its usually true and straight although it can warp if unsupported.



My basic cage is 4' in length by 2' in depth. Actually the depth isn't 2' exact as my cages were built to use newsprint as bedding the inside front to back measurment is designed aroung the newsprint. In my case 23 3/4". The length is exact 4' meaning the interior length is 46 1/2". Lastly my cages were built to be 80" overall stack. With 6" of airspace on the bottom cage and 1" of floor clearance. That makes each units floor to ceiling inside height as 16 1/4". Those a really important I just through that in as a means to demonstrate there are additional factors to consider. My reptile room ceiling is 83", so I needed the 2" for stacking and to antisipate minor fluctuations in the actual floor to ceiling height (house was built in 1954).



To the point my cages are built useing Dado's, glue and brads. The sides go the full height and the floor and ceiling are dado 1/4" into them meaning my floor and ceiling boards were 47" x 24 1/8". I also use 1/8" tileboard for my back and its dado as well with a 1/4 recess on the back thats why the floor and ceiling are 3/8" wider than the inside measurment. For my front I used natural stained wood in a make shift face frame. nailed directly to the front than stained after installation.



I don't use this method any longer as I have designed some more ingenious designs with the help of Chris Harper, and about 2 yrs of planning. But for the time they were easy and fast to build and are still in use after about 3 yrs or so. I use Elmer's probond glue nad it holds incredably well. I actuall made a mistake when asembling two of the first cages, lets just say after I salvages what was left they couldn't be used for cages.



There are some benefits to the dado designed cage. Its easy to assemble without clamps. It can hold alot more weight than the standard butt joint. And when useing glue and melamine the open edge allows a great bonding surface than a butt joint would. I also silicone all interior edges.



Finally I use sliding by pass doors and they can be installed very easy without a though as to where to attach hardware as I glue the tracks in place with locktite power bond an easier to use version of liquid nails.



Hope that helps.



-----
Jeremy



"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" July 16, 1945 Robert Oppenheimer



0.1 Sunglow "Khal" RTB **Coming Soon**

0.1 Snow "Khal" RTB **Coming Soon**

1.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow RTB's

1.1 Hypomelenistic RTB's

0.0.14 Hypomelenistic RTB's

0.2 Pastel Hypo RTB's

1.0 Double Het Stripe Albino RTB's

0.1 Suriname RTB

0.0.15 Normal Suriname Hybrid's

0.1 Anerthrystic RTB

3.6.17 Red Bearded Dragons

1.1 Rhinoceros Iguana's

1.0 Green Iguana

1.0 Ball Python

1.1 Cream Golden Retrieviers

1.0 Pomeriaian

0.3 Catus Terribilis

0.1 Spouse

1.0 Child

[ Hide Replies ]

• Glue, nails, biscuits, screws..... ? - Guttersnacks, Fri Jul 13 14:38:04 2007
• Long response......................... - bighurt, Fri Jul 13 15:37:50 2007
• RE: Glue, nails, biscuits, screws..... - chris_harper2, Fri Jul 13 15:43:10 2007
• RE: Glue, nails, biscuits, screws..... ? - zach_whitman, Fri Jul 13 15:43:54 2007
• not to much to add - HerpZillA, Fri Jul 13 17:53:12 2007
• RE: not to much to add - Guttersnacks, Fri Jul 13 18:27:41 2007