Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been thinking about building some cages & I have read a few of the posts on this forum looking for some ideas and there are some good ones.

I saw one post where someone built a very nice acrylic cage but, I really don't want the entire cage to be clear. So, my question is this.

Have any of you ever used any of the pvc or cdpp (controlled density polypropylene) sheets to build your cages? If so, where did you purchase the sheets & what did it cost?
I've noticed some of the newer cages that are being advertised are made of this stuff so it seems there must be a place to purchase 4x8 sheets.

I just can't see spending $300-500 for cages & the melamine is just soooo heavy.

That being said, i'm also considering plywood, especially now that i've seen how nice they can be. I saw some very nice looking cages built by Chris Harper.

I want to make them 6' x 2' x 2'. Do you think I will have any problems with bowing?

Thanks!

BTW, I would also considering trading a working Coca Cola vending machine for (3) 6' cages if anyone's interested in saving me some work.

Eric
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If Jesus is your co-pilot, you'd better change seats!

Well I can't help you at all with the plastic/acrylic types you're looking at, however maybe I can give you some advice on the plywood cages. I just am getting ready to go down in about an hour now and put the last coat of polycrylic over mine (YAY! FINALLY!). At a 6 foot length, you will definately have some bowing. What I would reccomend is just get yourself a 1/4" back (all you need), then in the front put a center support brace. My cages at 4x2x2 out of 3/4" plywood were bowing in the center so I had to put a center support brace, I ended up making swinging wooden doors, using the center brace to double as support and a latch point for the doors.

Personally, I love the way oak looks... and if you know what you're doing then you can make a very nice piece of furnature.

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-Chris

The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

My Website
N. American Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Black Rat (Frankie)
1.1 Texas Bairds (Jose and Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)
1.0 Green Tree Python (Claudius)... coming soon

To be clear your cages are bowing due to the lack of upper and lower lips. If I remember correctly you had good reasons not to use these lips so it was an acceptable tradeoff.

Not so clear in other cases. I know that's what you meant but I'm not so sure that was apparent in your post.

Regardless, I agree that a 6' cage would need a center support, especially if only 1/2" plywood were used.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

Thanks guys!
I really want to make them 6' because they will be for my trio of eastern indigos & they are large snakes as adults requiring plenty of room.

Eric
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If Jesus is your co-pilot, you'd better change seats!

Eric,

Forgot to mention there are other ways to save weight.

One is to build a stack where the floor of one cage is the ceiling of the cage below. These banks of cages have to be placed on casters, obviously, and are hard to get up and down stairs.

But if you want invidual cages then you can make them floorless. Rather than a wooden floor you instead staple PVCX or showerboard directly to the bottom of the cage. The the top of the cage below acts as support to the floor above.

I've done this with cages up to 8' in length.

I've also experimented with using hollow-core doors to build cages. Works pretty well and is very light. Some people are just not comfortable with the idea, however.

You can get an idea of how I do that on Riobravoreptiles.com

He builds racks that way but it's the same idea.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

I have considered making them stacked but, I want to use heat panels on the ceiling & i'm concerned about heat transfer to the floor of the cage above making it too warm.

Eric
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If Jesus is your co-pilot, you'd better change seats!

>>Have any of you ever used any of the pvc or cdpp (controlled density polypropylene) sheets to build your cages? If so, where did you purchase the sheets & what did it cost?

I have not actually made the step to building entire cages from these products. I have, however, done a fair amount of exerimenting with these materials and feel like I could build a cage if I wanted to.

First, if weight is a concern look no further than 1/4" expanded PVC. If you have plastic distributors in your area you should be able to get it for less than $50 per sheet.

Other plastics are just remarkably heavy. Much heavier than most people suspect. In fact many have a greater density that plywood. Granted you can often use a thinner product but you have to weigh your tradeoffs. For me those tradeoffs are cost and weight. Looks are also a concern but I'd gladly give them up for a cheap and light cage.

If you have a thermal welder then polypropylene and polyethylene are worth looking at. A bit heaver, but the 1/4" stuff is very durable.

Regardless, I just don't have enough information to suggest to you how to build a 6' cage with it.

Typically I would suggest thermal forming a sheet to avoid joints. This is how just about everyone does it. But for a 6' long cage you need to bend around the width, not the length. Since your cages will be 6x2x2 this means you need a width of 6.5' (assuming you used 3" lips).

You could use the plastic angle to edge-join PVCX but I just can't say how rigid a 6' long cage would be.

>>That being said, i'm also considering plywood, especially now that i've seen how nice they can be. I saw some very nice looking cages built by Chris Harper. I want to make them 6' x 2' x 2'. Do you think I will have any problems with bowing?

Bowing is easy to avoid with plywood. I would recommend fairly tall upper and lower lips as well as a center support than sits *behind* these lips.

I still believe plywood is a great choice. The 1/2" stuff is not that much heaver than many plastics, it's cheap, easy to work with, and you can seal it however you like.

Remember you can build a 900 gallon aqarium with 3/4" plywood and epoxy and have it hold water for a lifetime. That's durable enough for me

But that also brings up the major downfall to plywood - sealing it. The durable, last-a-lifetime products are hard to work with and/or take a very long time to offgas. The easier to work with products often need to be reapplied every few years.

With plastics, weld it and forget it.

There were some posts from somebody regarding 1/2" plywood cages for Olive Pythons. I wish I remembered the guys name or how long back in the archives to look. They were very helpful posts.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)