Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Someone from a cornsnake forum referred me to here, saying this is the place to ask about building questions; I'd love any help you guys can offer. I'm a college student and most apartments/dorms don't allow snakes; I just have one corn, Annabelle, who's kept in a 24" L x 22" W x 14" H Vision cage. My project for this summer is to design and build a cabinet/box that will hold her cage on one side and then have miscellaneous storage on the other. It has to be lightweight, on wheels, and look nice and the part of the cabinet with Annabelle in it must be lockable. I have a tentative design drawn up but I'm very inexperienced with constructing things like this so any input is most welcome.

Base: 28" deep x 4' long (length is split between a 30" section and an 18" section, the 30" one is for the cage)

Front: 25" H x 4' long (the cage side has a door opening from the top and the front to allow complete access, use a safety hasp for a locking mechanism?, misc storage side is split into a small 8" H cubby hole and a larger 17" H shelf)

Back: same dimensions as front but with air holes drilled on the cage side along with a cut-out for electrical cords

Any ideas/comments for improvement? And what would be the best material to use as far a durability, (light) weight, and aesthetics goes? I like melamine but it's heavy so I was thinking about maybe using pine and varnishing it?

Thank you!!!

You could use a melamine base with plywood sides & back and some pine or beech at the front for appearance. If it's on castors the weight is not an issue unless you need to get it upstairs but two could easily manage it. Attach the castors to a timber strip or square under the cage to distribute the weight.

You can use a hasp but you can get lockable hasps for the sides and have a cam lock on the top as well. Having the double opening causes a few problems in the locking department.

You couls also make the front door from Plexiglass if you wanted to be able to see more of the cage and have the cam lock on the Plexiglass door and lockable hasp on top.

Also, you can get material cut by someone like a cabnet builder for a few dollars as long as you know the measurements - makes life a lot easier if you don't have the tools.

Hope this helps a bit.

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Mark Chapple
Reptile Cage Plans
mark@reptile-cage-plans.com