Graeme Shaw
New Member
I had been toying with this idea for a long time and finally bit the bullet.
I bought an office desk that was for sale locally on eBay for £30 and I designed the table using it as a base.
Any comments and guidance would be most welcome, be it about layout, substrate or lighting.
What they used to live in.
The base for the build.
I figured one sheet of 8ft by ft 12mm spruce faced plywood would do the job.
My local hardware superstore cut it for me.
The build. Basic tools. Hammer, screws, glue, panel pin nails, saw, chisel, tape measure, pencil, straight edge, drill., screwdriver. Standard stuff really.
I stripped the edging from the table for a closer fit for the panels.
Cutting the corner out.
Sides going on. I pinned the sides on fort with panel pins to ensure accurate fit. I drilled in various places and then screwed in screws to hold the sides more securely in place before marking out a screw point every 5 cm along the fixed edges. It took a little while.
Once I was ready I ran a line of waterproof glue along the joint faces and then screwed the panel on.
The tape you can see bellow the wood just ensured no glue squeezed out of the joints and fell onto the carpet.
The dimensions of the table.
Varnished. Two coats inside and out. Lid on the sleeping enclosure to the left.
Lighting bar fitted and lighting roughly fitted. Wiring needs a good old tidy. You can also see where I blocked the two cable route holes in the table with 8mm ply I had lying around in my garage, and you can see the sleeping enclosure with cut entrance (4cm wider than the widest part of the biggest tortoise).
Of course my wife had to have them both in as soon as the lights were switched on. I suppose she had a point in that even as it is with the wrong depth substrate in, it is better than where they were.
Substrate is all wrong so this is just temporary. I want at least 5cm deep of soil in so Nefertari can dig. Hopefully Ramesses will also dig a bit once he realises he can. He has never lived in an enclosure that would allow him to do so previously (that I am aware of).
I hope you like it. I hope that Ramesses and Nefertari like it too. I think they do. There is more work to do though but with your help and advice we'll get there...
I bought an office desk that was for sale locally on eBay for £30 and I designed the table using it as a base.
Any comments and guidance would be most welcome, be it about layout, substrate or lighting.
What they used to live in.
The base for the build.
I figured one sheet of 8ft by ft 12mm spruce faced plywood would do the job.
My local hardware superstore cut it for me.
The build. Basic tools. Hammer, screws, glue, panel pin nails, saw, chisel, tape measure, pencil, straight edge, drill., screwdriver. Standard stuff really.
I stripped the edging from the table for a closer fit for the panels.
Cutting the corner out.
Sides going on. I pinned the sides on fort with panel pins to ensure accurate fit. I drilled in various places and then screwed in screws to hold the sides more securely in place before marking out a screw point every 5 cm along the fixed edges. It took a little while.
Once I was ready I ran a line of waterproof glue along the joint faces and then screwed the panel on.
The tape you can see bellow the wood just ensured no glue squeezed out of the joints and fell onto the carpet.
The dimensions of the table.
Varnished. Two coats inside and out. Lid on the sleeping enclosure to the left.
Lighting bar fitted and lighting roughly fitted. Wiring needs a good old tidy. You can also see where I blocked the two cable route holes in the table with 8mm ply I had lying around in my garage, and you can see the sleeping enclosure with cut entrance (4cm wider than the widest part of the biggest tortoise).
Of course my wife had to have them both in as soon as the lights were switched on. I suppose she had a point in that even as it is with the wrong depth substrate in, it is better than where they were.
Substrate is all wrong so this is just temporary. I want at least 5cm deep of soil in so Nefertari can dig. Hopefully Ramesses will also dig a bit once he realises he can. He has never lived in an enclosure that would allow him to do so previously (that I am aware of).
I hope you like it. I hope that Ramesses and Nefertari like it too. I think they do. There is more work to do though but with your help and advice we'll get there...
