Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All,

I will be building a 48x24x48 (rough size will be slightly larger) enclosure for my bearded dragon.

I am planning on doing 2 sliding glass doors in the front.

What is the best way to accomplish this?

Am I best to cut a groove in the wood fram for the doors on a table saw?

Or do they make a track type system that is better?

Thanks!

I've built cages with sliding glass doors for monitors and for snakes. I've used both methods that you mentioned. For a bearded dragon cage I suggest going to a local glass shop and getting the plastic track for the glass panels to slide within. Most glass shops carry the plastic track and it's not very expensive.

What I suggest doing:
* Get the track before beginning to build the cage so you can fashion the face of the cage for the track to fit properly.

* Once the cage is built & track is installed, take the cage (or, at least, accurate measurements of the opening) to the local glass shop & have them cut the glass panels to fit.

The plastic track comes in two parts (top & bottom). I suggest getting enough track to put a piece on each side of the opening so the glass slides into it on each side for a better seal and/or security.

The plastic track will be easier to clean sand/dirt out of than grooves cut into the wood.

Have fun!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

This is an update of a post from a while ago, same info I posted way back when. May be helpful to you. Coincidentally, this cage is 24 X 48 also, except only 24” deep.

My advice is to invest in those corner clamps so you can get everything perfectly square when doing your assembly.

These are the 90 degree miter clamps I would recommend you invest in if you don’t have them- $3.65 each on Amazon

I also built a cage out of plywood and used the plastic track for a sliding glass front. I made an oak frame out of ¾ inch x 1.5 inch that was very strong and square so the rest would be very straight and square on the front side with the door.
I mounted another ¾ inch x three and a half board (poplar, another good straight wood) directly to the frame in front of that. The plastic track (which is exactly ¾ inch wide) sits on top of that board. I mounted a baseboard molding that came right up to the top edge of the track, so there was no way the track could be pushed out.

The illustration hopefully gives some details for you. The blue is the frame of oak, the green is the board the bottom track sits on, the baseboard molding goes on the front and covers the plywood sides on each end. The light yellow is the plywood. The floor is flush with the baseboard molding. The oak frame makes the cage strong and square and provides the overlap for the glass on each side and the top. The top track is mounted directly to the plywood ceiling.

Here’s a bad picture of this cage, but shows what it will look like. You can always modify to suit your build, of course.

Good luck, and post a follow up!

Thanks for the info, very helpful. I was basically planning the same thing you have shown.

I will be for sure to get some pics of it when its done. I will be making it out of 3/4" melamine. Should come out pretty nice, I have made stands/canopies for my saltwater reef tanks. This will be the first go at a reptile enclosure but not expecting any issues.

Any particular reason you did the oak frame then the frame with the doors? Seems like you could have mounted the doors right in the oak frame (blue pieces in your diagram). I guess the problem with doing it that way would be if you needed to service/change out a door (broke it).

I like there to be something around the edge of the glass, as this is a snake cage. So there is the 1.5” frame on each side to make the glass front more escape proof. The oak frame ends up being the solid square to mount the plywood sides and top to. It really doesn’t matter with the sides and back if they are perfectly square, but the glass area should be as perfect as you can get. It ends up very solid so you could stack another cage on top and not make the top sag and pinch your glass. The glass does lift up and out easily. You have to get it cut exactly right. It goes into the upper track only about an eighth of an inch or so. The top track is deeper than the bottom one just so you can lift it enough to take it out the front.
Hope this helps!

Use tracks definitely.

As to the "best" tracks, I bought some used cages that have rolling track setups similar to ones found here. The track assembly links at the top of the page are like what I have. Way cool, way easy to operate, way easy to clean BUT are not cheap.

One nice thing I noticed is on at least one of those sub catgories, they have kits with all the parts you need for a certain size opening. Great deal for smaller projects, beats buying the track in 10' sections and having leftovers.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (05/26/2009):
36.51 BRB
29.42 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Good info...!

For relatively small doors, does anyone have a link where I can find basic aluminum tracks like these simple plastic ones?:

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=2275&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=ssp&utm_campaign=V9120

Small doors probably don't need wheels, especially is the tracks are convexed, and if the glass is rounded and polished by the glass shop...

Thanks

Dan,

I don't believe I have seen an aluminum track with a convex bottom. I would not be surprised if they exist but I'm just not sure.

I have seen basic aluminum tracks used and the glass had a layer of vinyl glazing that slid along the track. Sort of like Vision cages but aluminum instead of plastic.

If it's the look of aluminum you want you can probably find aluminum extrusions the the plastic track can be attached to.

Sorry that the other thread got deleted. Hope you got enough information to make a good decision.
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Currently keeping:

6.10.5 Gonyosoma oxycephalum (Javan, mixed colors)

0.0.3 Rhynchophis boulengeri

0.1 Philodryas baroni

0.2 Lampropeltis triangulum multistriata

0.2 Lampropeltis triangulum gaigeae

0.0.3 Rhamphiophis rubropunctatus

0.0.3 Morelia viridis (Aru & Merauke locale types)

1.0 Morelia clastolepis

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

Thanks, Chris...

I've gotten lots of useful input, and feel I'll be able to make informed decisions now!

Dan