Hi Jackie,



Well glad to see another woodworking person among us here .When i build cages that are going to be bulit complete i sue a few different methods Depending on the the desired look the person wants.I use dado's Biscuits,Dowels & the Kreg system jointery.

Dado's are by far the strongest and also the most complex joint to complete in large woods sizes due to the tooling used . Dowels are secong due to needing the correct tooling to align them all w/o a slipup ($5k-7k for the boring machine alone which is neumatic and bores both verticle & horizontal)Then Biscuits can be be aeasy setup with just proper align ment as there forgiving if you are off L-R due to the blade is oversized and allows for the biscuit to swell with the glue. Both Dowels & Biscuits can be just as strong as a dado or other "Mortised jointery" when everything is clean and glued with a proper glue. The Kreg system is used in alot of shops noedays for joinging faceframes & sometimes in boxes for cabinets depending on the desired look.This system is a angled counter bore that uses washer head screws that can be set in the counter bore to be hidden They also make a variety of wood plugs in which to fill the counter bore thus leaving the screws unseen and with this i like the fact that if you use say Maple plywood and use cherry plugs you get a very unique look on the finished product much like a old style pegged look and when using different woods together really give the product a very unique appearance.





As to the Plastic cages nowmade i really cant give alot of feedback on long term durability as i dont own any of them . I do know that the "standard method" uses a heat welded plastic rods that are thermily fused much like stick welding. i would think that with proper preperation of the surface that this can be a longterm strong welded joint.I would say for Overall use & appearance that the plastic cages appeal for mny reasons.

Shipping is cheaper , cleaning IMHO is the same with a properly made wood cage and the fact that Plastic cages are 1/3 or so the cost of a quailty wood cage is appealing to most as well as the weight which is far lighter.But i must admit.. lol i biased as i work with wood for aliving so to me nothing beats a well made well put together wood cage. If itsdone right it will be around for MANY MANY years of use and can look just as good as the day it was bought. And to me Plastic cages will always look like a plastic cage no matter how well built it is . I have yet to see any plasticcage builder that can make a cage , habitat that looks like it was truely made for the house or buisness and will never have the charm & style of a well built wooden enclosure. While a plastic setup can look sleek and cool in your herp room its still a plastic cage when its in the living room. While a wooden setup can look all those thing in the herproom and be a masterpeice in the living room.I have been working on some new desings lately since cabinet work has slowed down alot and have comeup with some IMO very cool concepts in wooden cages that are built as entertainment centers with all the perks of a nice custom entertainment center to house TV, steroes, cd,DVD etc etc along with a very nice enclosure in the bottom as the base . maybe ill scan a few in and see if i can post them next week ...
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