Yearling out door enclosure

NorCal tortoise guy

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image.jpg I am raising some young tortoises right now and want to be able to give them outside time and not stress for there safety
Well I managed to salvage a good deal of chain link and am ready to start this big project
I'm only able to work on this as time and money permit so it will be a slow project (that's why I'm starting now and not in spring haha) but I'll put pictures up as I go! I decited to go big and subdivide for tortoises as needed so this chain link enclosure will be 12 x 24 feet as of now I'm thinking when I'm done raising young ones my indan stars will live in this pen full time. I've put the frame together at this point next step will be to build the roof structure
 

MrMarg&me

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Thank you for letting us know. Sometimes people forget to update their project progress. Then it is always a mystery how it all turned out.
 

Alex Z

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Will be following closely.
 

MountainFox

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Will you be using the chain link as the roof cover? How did you build/attach the roof structure? Are there pre-made pieces (joints and poles cut to length) like PVC pipe? Do the pieces need to be welded, or are they joined some other way (e.g. threaded joints)? I’m intrigued by this idea. I particularly like the height along with roof cover. You could still have large bushes/plants within the enclosure, which isn’t possible with many covered enclosures.

Great work and thank you for the ideas!
 

NorCal tortoise guy

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Yes the roof will be covered in chain link

It is hard to see in the pictures but the roof structure is made of the same pipes that the walls are made of and I bolted and screwed it on with the help of some brackets

there are clamps and brackets made for chain link fencing to hold these polls together
the welding is only needed because i dint know what I'm doing haha I am a handy guy but have never worked with chain link before so am figuring this out as I go! I wanted this to sit on top of the ground so I could take it apart and take it with me when I move but now I know this system gains a lot of its strength from the posts being concreted in the ground so long story short I want to do a little welding to gain back some of the strength I lost by not concreting the posts

Yes the height of this enclosure is very exciting to me! I couldn't believe my luck being able to salvage the parts to build this!

Thank you for your questions!
 

NorCal tortoise guy

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image.jpg I had one day to work on this project this week but this girl had other ideas I didn't want to interrupt her and she was on the nest all day so no progress this week
 

NorCal tortoise guy

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image.jpg Very slow progress this week (spent some time on a closed chamber I'm working on as well) but I did get a little chain link up dosnt look like much just now but I'm confident it will end up very nice
 

NorCal tortoise guy

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Almost all of the roof wire is on! Going to have to shorten the wire I have for the sides then it should go up fast! I will need to line the inside of the pen about a foot up to create a visual barrier. I'm debating on wether to use corrugated metal or cinder blocks for this? I've used wood in the past in other pens but want to use something that won't rot away as fast and attract unwanted pests. I'm thinking I like cinder blocks better but I'm still not sure which way I will go
 

NorCal tortoise guy

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All the roof wire is on and the wire on the two long sides is on next I will do the two short ends and work up the Gate then the enclosure will be done and I'll be able to start work on the inside!
 

NorCal tortoise guy

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Progress was a little slow this week not a lot of work time because of rain but I got the wire on the end with the gate in it and got my brother over to weld up the gate. Got the hinges on order so with any luck at all this coming week I should have the chain link cage all done then I'll start inside think I am going to go with cinder block border then the fun will start as I will be able to start using the enclosure as I start looking for plants to finsh it!
 
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Yvonne G

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Almost all of the roof wire is on! Going to have to shorten the wire I have for the sides then it should go up fast! I will need to line the inside of the pen about a foot up to create a visual barrier. I'm debating on wether to use corrugated metal or cinder blocks for this? I've used wood in the past in other pens but want to use something that won't rot away as fast and attract unwanted pests. I'm thinking I like cinder blocks better but I'm still not sure which way I will go

Cinderblocks take up too much room. @mike taylor , in Texas made pens out of the corrugated stuff and it looks pretty darned good.
 

mike taylor

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I use r panels cut in half . Plus it isn't damaging to the tortioses shell as cinder blocks .This is a good picture of the transition from wood to r panels .I think the metal looks way better.IMG_20180313_164819600_HDR.jpg
 

mike taylor

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Transition metal . When you go to your metal supplier tell them you need the trim caps that go around doors and windows. They sale them in ten foot sections.
 

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