Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey All,
I'm going to be building a new enclosure for my Timor shortly, that will be 4'long x 2'wide x 5'tall. It will have plywood for the bottom 1 or 2 feet, and on 3 sides, and acrylic on the 4th side, and all the ply will be stained and coated with outdoor use Helmsman polyurethane (and allowed to air out for awhile). What thickness would you recommend for the ply on the sides? The bottom section which holds the substrate is probably going to be 1/2", but what about the upper portion, should that also be 1/2" or would 1/4" be sufficient? Again this will be for a timor monitor, so I don't think he would be stong or heavy enough to break even 1/4" ply, also the enclosure will be for one monitor at the moment, however there is the possibility that I get a mate at some point in the same enclosure. Thanks!
-Eric

>>stained and coated with outdoor use Helmsman polyurethane (and allowed to air out for awhile).

Water based or Oil?

As far as thickness in cages I perfer main suport IE sides to be made of 3/4" material. The bottom can be made of thinner materila depending on the other sides but I perfer 3/4 overall. Again it really depends on the type of joint and style of cage.

Good Luck
-----
Jeremy

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

1.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow RTB's
1.1 Hypomelenistic RTB's
0.2 Pastel Hypo RTB's
2.0 Double Het Stripe Albino RTB's
0.1 Suriname RTB
0.1 Anerthrystic RTB
1.0 Ball Python
1.1 Rhinoceros Iguana's
1.0 Green Iguana
1.1 Cream Golden Retrieviers
1.0 Pomeriaian
0.3 Catus Terribilis
0.1 Spouse
0.0.1 Youth -coming soon-

Hey, nice to hear for a nother timor owner, there arnt alot of us out there. a few months ago I built an enclousure for mine that works AWESOME. it is 3 wide 2 ft deep and 4 feet tall. I used the plans i found on treemonitors.com, @ http://treemonitors.com/quickandeasy.htm. This cage uses only a little plywood for the bottom. however I had some left over for the front and back. I used an old window for the door and I made a sort of "sandwitch" with tile board on the outside and something called FRP(Fiber-reinforced plastic) its alot like the inside of a shower. you can find it at lows. using the two thin materials held together with silacon makes walls plenty strong and you can save some money by not worying about the plywood. it works great dealing with the high humidity that timors need. there is no frame work with it and it only took 2 days to build. It cost about 200 dollars to build but I think it will last alot longer than any sealed wood, and is less toxic if the walls would ever chip. Also the web site has a great idea that I have found works great. I used some caulk to glue some sheets of burlap to the walls for some more places for him to clumb.timors claws arnt sharp enough to tear it so it has lasted 6 months and doesnt look like it needs replacing at all. I highly recomend this cage and if you have any questions please dont hesitate to ask.

joel

p.s. if i can figure out how ill get a few pics up tomarrow.