# two in one Christmas present. Hectic DIY



## mudgudgeon (Jul 8, 2012)

My son and I have two EWDs about 18months old. They are currently in a 4ft tank and they have outgrown it. 

I decided to build a big indoor enclosure for them and wanted to get my son involved as much as possible, he's 10, and always asking me to do stuff in the garage with him.

I bought some timber and a sheet of melamine as a starting point, wrapped a bit of paper around it and gave it all to my son as a Christmas present, with the promise that we would build a new enclosure together.


sooooo! we have been working on it, and its come a long way, but still got a lot to do. I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe oit might be ready by next Christmas, could be a Christmas present two years running 

Specs

1.8m wide
2.2m high
1m deep
made in parts to fit through an ordinary door
approx 1/3 of the bottom will be water, running, filtered water
water fall with different levels,
heated basking rocks, UV lights and heat lamps above basking spots.
lots of hiding spots. lots to climb on. lots of glass for clear view into the enclosure

So far we have built the back half of the enclosure, it is timber framed, with ply panels, it will be painted on the outside, maybe camo, or forest foliage camo.

we have roughly built the bulk of the fake rock background.


this pic shows water feature, a couple of different pools one above the other. Heat cord embedded in polystyrene, this will be rendered over to create a heated rock.



full frontal.
the yellowish part is the water feature, water will be pumped to the top, run down through channeled through a couple of different pools, into a large pool at the bottom (yet to be made)






rendered polystyrene rocks.
tested water falls and ponds (minor tweeking required to reduce splashing)

will post more pics.


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## ZsaZsaGaboa (Jul 8, 2012)

Sounds brilliant. Keep us updated with pics!


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## Josh1321995 (Jul 8, 2012)

PICS????? Sounds awesome!!!


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## mudgudgeon (Jul 9, 2012)

having trouble uploading pics 

they keep getting corrupted or invalid file :?


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## Telise93 (Jul 9, 2012)

Looks awesome!


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## fourexes (Jul 9, 2012)

Awesome.


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## Jessica29 (Jul 9, 2012)

Looks fantastic!! Can't wait to see it finished!!


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## Grogshla (Jul 9, 2012)

wow


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## Jande (Jul 9, 2012)

Oh that looks amazing. Very brave working vertically, too. Haven't been there yet myself but I bet it's a nightmare. :lol:
Keep the pics coming!


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## JrFear (Jul 9, 2012)

hurry up and finish it i wanna see the finished product lol


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## Rissi (Jul 9, 2012)

What a lovely father!
I'm to drag my dad back into his cabinet making days and make me an enclosure...for my python that is, not me.


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## mudgudgeon (Jul 9, 2012)

JrFear said:


> hurry up and finish it i wanna see the finished product lol




haha, me too! its proving to be a mission.



Jande said:


> Oh that looks amazing. Very brave working vertically, too. Haven't been there yet myself but I bet it's a nightmare. :lol:
> Keep the pics coming!




its not too bad, once the styrene was set up, I work in sections from the top down, anything that drops is dropping onto un-finished work.

I'll post some details of some of the techniques I've used later. I work in building, so I've used techniques borrowed from all sorts of building stuff.


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## maddog-1979 (Jul 9, 2012)

is it just me , or is there a cyclops head in your background?


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## mudgudgeon (Jul 9, 2012)

maddog-1979 said:


> is it just me , or is there a cyclops head in your background?



GOLD!

there are a couple of faces in it when looking at pics  no intention of it at all, and it doesnt look quite the same live!?


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## yewherper (Jul 14, 2012)

That is gonna look awesome!


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## Jaws07 (Sep 14, 2012)

This is awesome! Any updates?


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## Dreaper (Sep 14, 2012)

maddog-1979 said:


> is it just me , or is there a cyclops head in your background?



cannot unsee this now


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## mudgudgeon (Sep 14, 2012)

Jaws07 said:


> This is awesome! Any updates?



Nah, no updates. All the big mean faces scare me now :-( I haven't managed to go near it for weeks :-(


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## 777Reptiles (Oct 30, 2012)

looking good, any updated pics?


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## mudgudgeon (Oct 30, 2012)

Nah, see above, but make it months not weeks 

Hoping to spend a chunk of this weekend on it. :shock:


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## Marzzy (Nov 8, 2012)

mudgudgeon said:


> Nah, see above, but make it months not weeks
> 
> Hoping to spend a chunk of this weekend on it. :shock:




It looks like Jesus carved this out for you 
Not finished yet ? I'm dying to see it finished.


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## mudgudgeon (Nov 12, 2012)

Now that scarey cyclops face is gone ^^^ I managed to do a bit more on this 
It's darker than I want at the moment, but it should dry a bit paler, and a lot of the coloured pigment will wash off too.


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## mad_at_arms (Nov 12, 2012)

How many coats of grout do you plan on doing?


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## mudgudgeon (Nov 12, 2012)

I've used acrylic render, most of it will get two coats, but I started with a spatter coat before render, so the first coat of render went on fairly thick.
where the water feature is will have three.


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## Marzzy (Nov 19, 2012)

Updates ?


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## JasonMini (Nov 19, 2012)

Looks Awesome!


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## mudgudgeon (Nov 21, 2012)

Marzzy said:


> Updates ?



Pushy buggers you lot! lol


Maybe some progress this weekend.


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## picaloandlola (Nov 22, 2012)

This is amazing ! Incredible work ! I wish my dad would help me build an enclosure haha


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## Wing_Nut (Jan 3, 2013)

Any updates?


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## lizardjasper (Jan 17, 2013)

how's the cage building going? Finished yet?


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## mudgudgeon (Jan 19, 2013)

Wing_Nut said:


> Any updates?




Updates? Well, Christmas came and went! I'm now aiming for Christmas 2013! :lol:


I've actualy done a bit this week, I've got time off with my boy, so we're trying to get it done.
Will post some pics later.

- - - Updated - - -

I've nearly finished framing up the front and base sections of the enclosure.

View attachment 278441





I've changed plans a bit as this has developed, I have to cut and change some of what I did previously.
The cabinet will be three sections.
It will have a base, which will include a pond for the water feature, a sump filter system. It will be glass on two sides plus the front, it will be fully sealed in case the water feature leaks in any way.

The back section as in previous photos will be cut to sit on to the base, otherwise it stays the same.

The front section in the new photo also lifts off the base. It will have a curved glass door in the centre (It's from an old shower screen that inspired me to kick this project off). It will be glass on the front, mostly glass on the sides with vents top and bottom on both sides.

So now I just need to finish some wood work, get some glass cut to size, seal and paint all timber, seal the tank section and set up the filter system, finish building some rocks, finish rendering it all, wire up and fit lights, CHEs, thermostats, LED lights, find some logs and vines etc!!!!!

At the pace I'm working, should be done by Christmas 2016! :lol: Lucky EWDs live a long time!


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## mudgudgeon (Apr 22, 2013)

so progress is still slow on this :? I'm studying full time now so don't have much time at all to look at this  should be studying now!

I've sealed up the base with polyurethane water-proofing ready to make the tank section, I scored a sheet of glass to make the tank section in the base, then busted some of it cutting it up so now I didn't have enough to finish the base! grrrrr ebay to the rescue!! :lol:

Oh well, I had enough to silicone some in and progress on some of the fake rocks so the water fall rock section is close to finished.

No pics, ran out of time last time I was working on it, will put some up soon.


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## DeadlyDanny80 (Apr 24, 2013)

Reading through this thread I must say I'm keen to see the finished product... I'm a big EWD advocate & it looks like one hell of a palace your putting together for them... Nice work


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## mudgudgeon (Apr 30, 2013)

a few pics




this one showsmy sump filtration compartment, it has a removeable "rock" lid over it. Its the last part of my water fall and hides the filtration part. I still need to add some glass and finish of a bit of pipework.



This one shows the tank section, the blue poly styrene still needs to be shaped then rendered to finish of the rockery in and around the tank



a larger view, you can see the sump section, covered with its lid and part of the water feature



you can see a hole in the floor, all parts of this will be hooked up with valves to a single drain outlet for easier cleaning.
the rocks in the pond will have lots of crevices for yabbies and feeder fish to hide in

still some rendering to do. I picked up some cheap glass the other day, so next thing will be to finish the glazing of the base so I can seal it all up and do some testing.

the base has all been sealed with polyurethane bathroom sealant so it will be fully watertight.


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## Trent005722 (Apr 30, 2013)

Looking great. So jealous. That water part is going to be a son of a b to clean


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## mudgudgeon (Apr 30, 2013)

hah! I hope not.
I've had a water feature in my current enclosure for a couple of years now, it uses a sump filter and stays surprisingly clean. I change the water every couple of weeks. I've set it up to make draining it as easy as possible, then glass etc will just need an occasional wipe down.
I intend to have the enclosure as a living ecosystem, it will have live plants (hopefully), live peat moss/soil mix etc and live insects, live worms, live fish, live yabbies etc. I've experimented with it a bit and hope I'll be able to get it to work so cleaning will be minimal, the insects and bacteria etc take care of a large part of "cleaning"


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## bohdi13 (May 1, 2013)

sorry for my laziness if someone has asked but i just skipped to the end to see the latest pictures... what foam is that?!


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## mudgudgeon (May 1, 2013)

the blue is high density polystyrene, it is very firm, you can saw it and carve it and sand it smooth with sand paper. when it is melted a bit with heat, it ends up with a shiny smooth hard surface 
most of the rest of this was done with normal white polystyrene.
all of it I picked up from working on building sites.


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