Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey guys thanks for the help and tips with my cages. 2 are almost done just need the glass. would have been done sooner but work has been crazy

anyways i got another question as usual

can you use a nail gun to put the cage together fully or are the wood screws better? i have a finish nail gun and a brad nail gun, of course the finish nail would be the one to use, with 2 inch finish nails.

thanks
judson
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Beach Beardies

3.4.11 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)

Are you using a plywood, melamine, or MDF?

Edge-joints or a combination of dados and rabbets?
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

I agree with Chris its probally better to now the exact materials before gving the appropriate answer.

However, I never use brads alone in any cage. I use them in conjunction with wood glue in my case Elmers Pro-Bond (which is awsome by the way). I mearly use Pneumatic brads for quick an easy clamping.

If I didn't have a pnuematic nailer I would defenetly use screws, or glue alone.

Good Luck
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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
0.0.11 Red Bearded Dragons
1.1 Rhinoceros Iguana's
1.0 Green Iguana
1.0 Ball Python
1.1 Cream Golden Retrieviers
1.0 Pomeriaian
0.2 Catus Terribilis
0.1 Spouse
0.0.1 Youth -coming soon-

ill be using melamine, just like my other cages i just built.

have a 1 1/4 inch brad nailer and a 2 inch finishing nailer.

dado cuts are done, wood glue is also used.

just thought id see if i could use the nailer instead of the screws, be a bit faster, just wanted to see if it would hold up
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Beach Beardies

3.4.11 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)

Since you're using dados I assume the majority of the surface area of your joints will be particle-board to particle-board? In other words, you won't be gluing a melamine surface to a particle-board interior?

In that case, glue and brads would likely be fine as you'll have the strength and surface area of the dados.

What you want to avoid is situation where you're gluing melamine to particle-board as most glues bond to melamine very poorly. In those cases you can use Roo-glue (which chemically bonds to melamine and glues normally to particle board) and screws, preferably confirmat style screws.

With the typical dado you'll only have a small amout of area where melamine will touch particle-board so you can use regular glue.

Don't worry about this too much as you can always go back and reinforce the joints with screws later.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

thanks for the help
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Beach Beardies

3.4.11 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)