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I know you can't use Cedar as a substrate. Is there anything wrong with using Birch plywood as cage siding on the outside. I'm building a cage with a light inner frame and plywood on the inside and outside. I will use the fancy, expensive Birch plywood on the outside and regular painted/sealed pine on the inside. Any thoughts?

I love birch laminated plywoods and know of no potential toxicity problems. Even the cheaper quality birch laminate from Home Depot et. al. has been great to work with. I like the straightness of the material and the smooth finish on both sides.

And it's the two sided nature of the material that leads me to the only comment I have on your design.

Why not build a series of frames and then route a channel into them and float a pice of this birch laminate in the frames? This will be even lighter than your design and give you birch on both the interior and exterior. The frames could be aspen, birch, or poplar. I think any of those combinations would look great.

To keep the edges sealed it won't be a true floating panel but I've never had a problem with this. Stain and seal the interior of the panels and then use a bead of silicone between the floating panel and the frame. On the exterior skip the silicone.

With the natural flexibility of the silicone you'll still have someting of a floating effect and save a lot of weight.

Not a criticism of your design by any means. Rather just suggesting the way I would do it (and have done it for that matter).

Sounds cool but!

I'm really trying for the furniture look. Like "Nice" furniture. I want it to look like a china cabinet on the outside and a jungle on the inside. Difficult but when it's done it will be sharp. I do worry about the weight. I'm building it in 3 sections, top-middle-bottom so it's manageable and will fit through doors. I've already built the frame for the bottom out of 2X4's to support the weight of the other 2 sections. I've also built the frame of the sides of the top section out of 3/4 X 1-1/2 ripped pieces of 2X4. I'll use the birch on the outside of the front and sides, and pine for the inside and back. The inside will be completely painted and siliconed and the outside will be stained and polyurethaned to a high gloss. I do still need input though.

Thanx for the help. Again!

DZ

I did not realize you had already built the frame. I don't know what further input you need. It sounds like you've got things figured out.

Back to your original point, no worry about birch - it's safer than pine if anything.

Regarding the cage design I mentioned, it does look like nice furniture. Basically the sides, top and back end up looking like the door panel of a shaker cabinet. You can go a bit fancier with a different router bit.

I've always been more surprised more people don't build cages like this. Besides saving weight and being very attractive, it also makes building the panels to unorthodox sizes much easier than with plywood.

Once I buy a home I'll start building cages with this design again.

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Sounds cool but!

I'm really trying for the furniture look. Like "Nice" furniture. I want it to look like a china cabinet on the outside and a jungle on the inside. Difficult but when it's done it will be sharp. I do worry about the weight. I'm building it in 3 sections, top-middle-bottom so it's manageable and will fit through doors. I've already built the frame for the bottom out of 2X4's to support the weight of the other 2 sections. I've also built the frame of the sides of the top section out of 3/4 X 1-1/2 ripped pieces of 2X4. I'll use the birch on the outside of the front and sides, and pine for the inside and back. The inside will be completely painted and siliconed and the outside will be stained and polyurethaned to a high gloss. I do still need input though.

Thanx for the help. Again!

OK! I think the hook just set. Do you have a sketch or small pic of what your talking about? The idea of lighter is really starting to reel me in.

Sorry, no sketches or pics. I have not built a cage like this in some time.

There is a version of this cage that takes away the floating panel. Basically you make a series of frames for the front, back, sides, top, bottom. The frames are made from 3/4" stock of good quality wood.

Instead of floating the panel into the frame you instead route a 1/4" deep recessed area into the inside edge of the panel. 1/4" thick plywood is then dropped into this recessed area and attached with glue and brads. On the inside of the cage the panel is then flush with the frame.

You can also just cover the entire frame with thin plywood but this does not look as good from the outside.

I'm multi-tasking at the moment so I'm not sure how good of a job I did of describing this. Let me know if you have any questions.

Good N'uff man!

Thanx