Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It has been a while since I posted the unfinished cage project, Other than a few good coats of polyacrylic, sealing it up with silicone, and the heating. I am very close to being finished. Comments welcome and Thank you for viewing our post.

Eric & Heather Baker

I like the rustic look.

Questions/comments:
1. What is the rectangle on the floor? Looks like a cutout covered with glass or acrylic. Is that for a heat pad?

2. What kind of snake or lizard is going in there?

3. Is the wood inside already coated with something? If not, consider using Repti-Shield. It is so much more durable than waterborne polyurethane. Even if the wood is coated, sand it and consider the product.

I just made a wood top for a glass tank (again), only this time I sealed the inside face with Repti-Shield. Previous tops were sealed with either paint, waterborne polyurethane, oil-based polyurethane or adhesive shelf paper. All worked, but this last top was easy (1 coat of Repti-Shield and I was done) and will hold up to anything. I have a test piece of plywood coated with the product. I've left it outside in the sun, heat, cold, morning dew and rain for two weeks now. No effect on it at all.
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Mark

Thank you for the compliment.

Questions:

1. I routed a 12 by 25 inch rectangle out to hold the 1/4 inch piece of acrylic. Then under that a 11 inch by 24 inch section was routed out to hold the heat tape. Hole were drilled to allow air flow to the flex watt heat tape. A radiant heat panel will also be used.

2.

3. Yes, I used the polyacylic.

Thank you again for the comments and the help.

Eric & Heather Baker

Couple more comments, all for your benefit. As always, my suggestions are based on my toying around with cage setups over the years, not on me being some expert on every detail.

1. A very nice material to place over a cutout for a heat pad is expanded PVC. You can order 2ft x 2ft sheets (or larger) from a plastics company such as US Plastics. What I do is go to sign shops. Thus far, they have agreed to sell me scrap pieces. Some of this scrap is 4ft x 2ft sections.

2. Radiant heat panels rock. Good choice there. Best heater IMO for cages large enough to deploy them.

3. One last time just to be a pain.. cured Repti-Shield is odorless and like a piece of plastic laid on the wood. Can't beat it.
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Mark