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I want at least a foot of substrate in my cages for Uromastyx. The substrate is undecided right now. Let's say I use sand and I make the cages 3' x 2' x 2'h. How would I support the bottom cage to hold the top ones?? I may want 2 or 3 cages and the dimensions are off the top of my head..... My first thought was to use plywood, but that's alot of extra weight. Is there any other material I could use that would support what I want, in a realistic price frame?

Thanks, I hope this stumps a few people as it does me.
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0.1 Chameleo Calyptratus 1.2 Tangerine Leopard Geckos
1.1 Blue Spiny Lizards 0.1 Uroplatus Phantasticus
0.1 Moroccan Uromastyx 0.1 Bearded Dragon
0.0.1 Yellow-Throated-Plated-Lizard
0.1 Okeetee Corn Snake

Plywood is light in weight compared to melamine. With 1ft of sand, believe me the cage material weight will be nothing in comparison to the sand. What's wrong with plywood cages? Alot less weight than melamine. Plenty strong too if built right.

>>I want at least a foot of substrate in my cages for Uromastyx. The substrate is undecided right now. Let's say I use sand and I make the cages 3' x 2' x 2'h. How would I support the bottom cage to hold the top ones?? I may want 2 or 3 cages and the dimensions are off the top of my head..... My first thought was to use plywood, but that's alot of extra weight. Is there any other material I could use that would support what I want, in a realistic price frame?

Well, the best thing to do would be to figure out what substrate you're going to use and how much it will weigh. That will allow you to determine how much support you need.

Plywood is actually a pretty strong and inexpensive material. It will be stronger than melamine, MDF, MDO, OSB, particleboard, and all of the other engineered woods I'm familiar with. You may need to add some internal bracing, but I don't see why plywood couldn't be used.

If you need more strength than plywood can supply, they you're talking about solid wood, either "softwoods" or "hardwoods". Or perhaps some sort of frame-and-panel construction that mixes solid wood and plywood. Using solid would will entail more difficult construction techniques (since solid wood expands and contrats with changes in temperature and humidity), and more expense.

I don't know if this is exactly what you are looking for, but you could find a welder in your area and make a metal shelf unit. My brother made some simple shelves in high school metal shop that can hold a lot of weight. Then put wood cages on each shelf. Shouldn't cost too much.

Smacks
"Redundant Man who is Redundant"

Thanks for the input, I didn't think plywood would hold three cages with 25 Kg of substrate in each. I want to put braces in the cages for extra strength but I don't know any construction techniques that would help hold the kind of weight I'm planning on.
Let's say I want each cage weighed 200 pounds, the bottom one would have to hold 400 pounds. Where would I have to place the braces and what kind of joints would be best to use? Or am I overthinking this and making too big a deal of it!?!

Thanks for help
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0.1 Chameleo Calyptratus 1.2 Tangerine Leopard Geckos
1.1 Blue Spiny Lizards 0.1 Uroplatus Phantasticus
0.1 Moroccan Uromastyx 0.1 Bearded Dragon
0.0.1 Yellow-Throated-Plated-Lizard
0.1 Okeetee Corn Snake

I am just finishing a double decker for my Uro's. I used a high grade plywood, so it will look nice inside! Here is the link to the plans I used, with a little adjusting:

http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages

You can make the substrate dam as deep as you want, depending on how deep the substrate.
By the way, 1 foot of sand is not a good idea, they cannot burrow in sand, it will just collapse on them!!! If you want a burrowing substrate you will need a clayish soil that will hold up the walls of the burrow.

Have fun!
Beth