Move Over Plastic! New ShowerSurround (Tileboard) Caging

[JuliusSqueezer]

$10.88 4x8 sheet of Tileboard (aka Shower Surround)
$10.32 six 8' 1x2s
$9.45 18"x24" 1/8" acrylic cut in half to make two 9"x24" doors
about 14 bucks worth of hinges, knobs and misc hardware

Total cost= about 45 bucks

Not paying $175 for a 4 foot precision cage but totally ripping off the design...well, not priceless. It was a lot of work but still!...


and here is the mess I made that I'm way too tired to clean up right now

[muzixman]

Nice cage great price,is that one mine and if so does that $45 include shipping J/K

[haroldo359]

that is absolutely great brett.

[BWSmith]

Cool Brett. Bring that to the cookout, I have a great spot for it

[trinitywolf]

Looks good Brett. Is it good and sturdy?

[keller346]

Hey Brett are you putting caps on the screws that are on the inside or are you cutting them?

[haroldo359]

lol... keller. you stole my question. i was about to ask that.

[keller346]

LOL...I'll sell you the rights to it

[JuliusSqueezer]

Thanks guys...There is a 1x3 running inside the lower lip for the hinge screws to bite into. The only thing exposed are the nutted bolts on the plexi holding the other side of the hinge. I will cap those before I put anything in it.

Is it sturdy? Yes, very.

[ironkladd]

How big of a snake is going in there?

[MTB Mamba]

Looks good Brett, how much time did you put into building it?

[gibsonhtp]

maybe this seems like stupid question, but how did you exactly put it together, it looks like there's no screws, did you glue it together or what.

excellent job on the craftsmanship though, top notch

[gibsonhtp]

also i was wondering where to get the tileboard, or what i should ask for exactly, i went to home depot down the street here in vegas, and of course they had no clue what i was talking about.

[Stormyva]

Great looking cage Brett.

gibson... welcome to RTB! You can pick up the Tile Board (Shower Surround) Material at most Home Depot and Lowes stores. It is approx 1/8" thick hard board (same kind of material as peg board) with a sealed face.

[Diablo]

Great looking cage JS. Good job!

[haroldo359]

brett, is there any exposed wood anywhere, or is it all covered with tileboard? i figured there was some kind of wood because of the paint and paintbrush. what kind of paint, semi-gloss or high gloss? and what kind of glue did you use to mount the tileboard? tub surround liquid nail?

[toker]

Looks great!! Why dont you make me up one or two

[NicoleRussell]

Now that Brett's engaged, I think we should build a dog house for him out of this stuff---and mail it out after the wedding---this way he's have somewhere "sturdy" to sleep when Mrs. Squeezer has enough of him

[schatzie001]

Very nice job there Brett - Which of your lovelies is going in there?

	Geek Auto Linker or Gallon Geek Auto Linker Gallon - United States liquid unit equal to 4 quarts or 3.785 liters

[JuliusSqueezer]

ugh...I've been outta town since right after I posted this. Lemme see if I can get all the questions right...

"How big of a snake is going in there?"

hmm I dunno who's going there yet. Either 2 copperheads or 1 cottonmouth likely. The coppers are a little over 2 feet each and the cotton is maybe 2 and a half right now.

This is my "prototype cage" I am going to build about 25 or 30 of them eventually and replace all the glass tanks. All 4 foot cages. Since they have double doors I can put in a divider and turn one into two 2 foot cages for the little guys so building small ones doesn't make sense.

How much time is hard to say...I spent a lot of time scratching my head and wondering how to make things work and I had to make a few trips for supplies. I think in all about 10 hours but only about half of that was actually working on it.

How did I put it together? I used 1x2s to frame a sub floor then I tacked the tile board down with white brads AND ran a bead of liquid nails. I don't for some reason trust either by itsself. I framed the side panels and then glued and tacked tileboard inside and out on the framing so that no ugly brown side shows. this makes the sides about an inch thick but hollow. Then ran "rafters" out of 1x2 for the top and ran a 1x2 down the front middle for a support and a place for the doors to come together....and a place for a divider if needed later. Once this is done I tacked and glued the top piece on. The way it's framed inside, I can easily put a "celing" piece of tileboard if I want and that would even leave a hollow for the wiring if I chose to light it. But for this one, I was trying to stay minimum to see how cheap I could build it and I ran out of tileboard. Sooo I just painted the inside top white. (Tileboard is white laminent on one side and brown on the other) Then on the front since it's the only part you can see when they are all stacked up, I chose to use no nails and just glued the strips on. All the hardware is then screwed through so that will help hold in case the glue doesn't. But ...I don't see that being a problem. Liquid nails is some tough freakin glue. On the back side, I used a 4 inch hole saw and cut two 4 inch round vent holes 1 inch from the top even with both door knobs. I also used the same hole saw and cut 4 inch holes in 2 pieces of scrap tileboard. Then I liquid nailed some window screen covering both holes and then placed the scrap board over that sandwiching in the screen aligning the hole on the scrap with the hole in the back of the cage....anyway that's basically how it's put together. You can't use this stuff I don't think without some framing ESPECIALLY if you intend to stack them. There is a one inch gap under the floor. I think I'm going to pake a chickenwire pocket thing under there to insert a heat pad. And I am going to calk the inside with white silicone alomg all the edges....then QWhen it dries and doesn't smell funny, I'm going to put a snake in and see if it can get out.


Haroldo...I dunno, it's the leftover paint from when I pained my mailbox post.

Nicole, I don't need no stinking dog house. I like sleeping out under the stars.

Thanks again for the compliment guys. Since I admit I ripped off precision's design a bit, I pronbably better not make any for anyone else but feel free to copy or use ideas in part or in whole.

	Cottonmouth Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus) - Also known as a Water Moccasin.