# Just Another Stupid Conversion (lots of pics)



## saximus (May 2, 2012)

This is my first attempt at one of these; all of my other enclosures are made from scratch. It is going to be for my albino Darwin so I wanted something a bit fancier that is all black to contrast with her colours. I cheated with the "paint" and went for pond sealer. It has small particles in it so it gives a really cool rough texture and it's the perfect mixture of gloss and matte for my taste. It also means I don't have to use another sealer afterwards to make it water/poo proof.
So here it is. I hope you guys like it.

Before I started mutilating it:






After a coat of paint and a litter dam:





Added the top basking shelf:









Added the lower basking shelf:





Shower drains make quite nice looking air vents:





A couple of coats of paint for the shelves and the front frame, installed the heat emitter and some glass tracks:





Some LED strip lighting all the way around the inside:





The (almost) finished product:





I just need to bribe a friend who works with glass to make me some doors and it will be done.

Total cost: about $250 including heat emitter and using scrap melamine and dowel I had from old projects.


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## Dragonwolf (May 2, 2012)

Hey Saximus, I'm converting almost the exact piece of furniture atm. Mine is the taller version though (2100mm). I'm planning to leave it the woodgrain colour and to divide the lowest section for storage and a hiddy hole for my Bredli. What are you planning to us for heat?


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## Red_LaCN (May 2, 2012)

That looks good! I never would have thought of the shower drain lol,it makes sense. I have a friend with a very similar TV cabinet which i want to do up for my own which i plan on getting February next year. The led light strips look great also,i dont know where i have seen them before in an enclosure but i was hunting some up just last week on ebay having a look.
Please post final pics when its all done and decorated inside?


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## saximus (May 2, 2012)

@Dragonwolf the heat emitter screwed to the bottom of the top shelf (the thing with the red light) will heat the upper shelf and also provide basking heat for the lower shelf.

@Red_LaCN I don't think I'll be decorating it. I might put some fake vines around the uprights for the shelves but I want the snake to be the main attraction.


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## Kam333 (May 2, 2012)

saximus said:


> This is my first attempt at one of these; all of my other enclosures are made from scratch. It is going to be for my albino Darwin so I wanted something a bit fancier that is all black to contrast with her colours. I cheated with the "paint" and went for pond sealer. It has small particles in it so it gives a really cool rough texture and it's the perfect mixture of gloss and matte for my taste. It also means I don't have to use another sealer afterwards to make it water/poo proof.
> So here it is. I hope you guys like it.
> 
> Before I started mutilating it:
> ...



Is there a dress code for this place?


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## Dragonwolf (May 2, 2012)

I was curious about those heat emitters and am considering using one in the cabinet I'm converting. I'm also going to experiment with some halogen spots. For the doors I'm sourcing some 4mm thick perspex so I can have a full door without having to edge it (also I work with children so I don't want glass in case they lob something at it). 
Thanks for posting this.... it's given me a bit of a push to get the project moving.


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## Red-Ink (May 2, 2012)

Very nice Dan... I'll hit you up for some LED tips when I get off my but and start building my new ones.


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## damian83 (May 2, 2012)

Kam333 said:


> Is there a dress code for this place?



Scales no footware required,occasional furry corpse


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## Shotta (May 2, 2012)

niice enclosure!
Love the paintwork did you have to do anything special to get the texture like that?


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## jaylikesbeef (May 2, 2012)

Great pics and ideas mate! Don't quite get the topic of the thread though :lol:


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## saximus (May 2, 2012)

6Hajime6Saito6 said:


> niice enclosure!
> Love the paintwork did you have to do anything special to get the texture like that?



Thanks 
The pond sealer I used actually has small granules of something (I'm assuming sand) so it just dries with that texture. Otherwise I would just mix a handful of sand into whatever paint you're using and you'd get the same effect.



jaylikesbeef said:


> Great pics and ideas mate! Don't quite get the topic of the thread though :lol:



I was just taking the piss out of myself because there are a million threads about people doing conversions like this


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## Shotta (May 2, 2012)

saximus said:


> Thanks
> The pond sealer I used actually has small granules of something (I'm assuming sand) so it just dries with that texture. Otherwise I would just mix a handful of sand into whatever paint you're using and you'd get the same effect.
> 
> 
> ...



oh cooly cool 8) will remember that
be sure to put some pics of it up when it has its inhabitants


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## pretzels (May 2, 2012)

i was going to buy pretty much the same unit for my conversion! i will also be cheating and using the pond sealer paint haha. looks awesome! feel free to come and do mine for me!!!


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## saximus (May 2, 2012)

Haha you're a little far away for me to do it for you 
Feel free to message me if you want any tips though. First tip is the internal angles are 135° so if you want to make things fit neatly you'll need to get your protractor out


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## pretzels (May 2, 2012)

ahhh does that mean i have to use maths!!! maybe ill just leave it up to my brother....heheh. i ended up getting a different unit its a rectangle shape so not as many crap angles! altho i have thought about going back and getting the other unit...i dont want to share with my brother hahahaha. 
nsw..your totally just next door!


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## 53ERX (May 2, 2012)

You are on the other hand, just next door to me 
Interested to see it with the albino and the UV (or are they just blue?) LEDs. 
Might have to go TV cabinet shopping soon, and snake shopping so I have something to fill it with.


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## REPTILIAN-KMAN (May 2, 2012)

SAX looks like the first nite club for REPTLIES !!! 

is it BYO or on tap


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## Virides (May 2, 2012)

When you get around to getting the glass panels, you will need some fancy finger grips to go with your fancy enclosure - Virides - Stylish Enclosure Enhancements or to take advantage of the LED lighting down the sides, the clear acrylic finger grips will highlight well - Virides - Stylish Enclosure Enhancements. To see an example of this - http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...3823_143337902372519_1009246_1910981707_n.jpg


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## imported_Varanus (May 2, 2012)

Nice one, Sax! Like the shelf idea and positioning of the heat pad, well thought out.


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## Dragonwolf (May 2, 2012)

The finger grips look good Virides, I don't suppose you do nice hinges too?


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## Heelssss (May 2, 2012)

Virides said:


> When you get around to getting the glass panels, you will need some fancy finger grips to go with your fancy enclosure - Virides - Stylish Enclosure Enhancements or to take advantage of the LED lighting down the sides, the clear acrylic finger grips will highlight well - Virides - Stylish Enclosure Enhancements. To see an example of this - http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...3823_143337902372519_1009246_1910981707_n.jpg



I like this pic


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## moosenoose (May 2, 2012)

Love the use of the LEDS, very tech savvy


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## J-A-X (May 2, 2012)

WOW Sax, looks nice and classy till the LEDs go on, then it's very disco  can you supply details of the LEDs, like where you sourced them, what transformer you're running (I spotted the wiring above the cupboard.) they look very bright- maybe too bright for night viewing


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## Virides (May 2, 2012)

Dragonwolf said:


> The finger grips look good Virides, I don't suppose you do nice hinges too?



While we would love to say yes, unfortunately we don't. Given our production capability, even if we were able to, they would be very expensive. The production method is beyond what we do currently. We make everything locally and we do not import our products. I hope that somewhere in the near future we could seriously look into this however


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## saximus (May 2, 2012)

Thanks for the nice comments everyone.

Jax that is very well spotted . These are the lights I'm using. They are made for 12V so you don't need a full on transformer. You can just get a 12V plug-pack from Dick Smith or wherever and snip the end off. You're only working with 12V wiring then so it's legal and safe. Or if you really want you could just use a small car battery or similar. At the current levels that they draw it would last ages.
The LEDs are fairly bright but that photo was taken at night with just a house light on behind me so it's not as bright as you may think. In my case they will only be for me to switch on to sit and watch the snake and they will be off most of the time. 

Richard I have to confess I actually came up with the idea because I installed one of these on the roof of another enclosure and found the outside roof was actually getting warm so I was wasting a potential heating method.


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## reptalica (May 2, 2012)

saximus said:


> Haha you're a little far away for me to do it for you
> Feel free to message me if you want any tips though. First tip is the internal angles are 135° so if you want to make things fit neatly you'll need to get your protractor out



You lost me at the "get the protractor out".


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## saximus (May 2, 2012)

Haha well if you've got a drop-saw that will do angle cuts it saves some of that work


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## mudgudgeon (May 2, 2012)

REPTILIAN-KMAN said:


> SAX looks like the first nite club for REPTLIES !!!
> 
> is it BYO or on tap




Just be careful who you're caught kissing once the ugly lights come on :shock:


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## rosequoll (May 2, 2012)

What brand pond sealer did you use? That will be perfect for my frog enclosure once I get it done. Eventually. o.o;;


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## saximus (May 2, 2012)

rosequoll said:


> What brand pond sealer did you use? That will be perfect for my frog enclosure once I get it done. Eventually. o.o;;


Crommelin. It comes in blue buckets and you can get a couple of different colours.


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## abnrmal91 (May 2, 2012)

Looks good Dan


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## kr0nick (May 5, 2012)

IS there an alternative to the crommelins pond sealer that you used Saximus?. I only have Mitre10 where I live and they don't stock crommelins pond sealer. I don't care about the texture as it will be my GTP display enclosure and covered with moss/bark for the background anyway


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## saximus (May 5, 2012)

You can also get Pondtite which is made by Bondall. That's the one lots of people use on here but my local Bunnings just stopped stocking it. Basically any pond sealer should do the job though


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## kr0nick (May 5, 2012)

Hey then Saximus. I will look it up tomorrow. I think I saw it yesterday but only blue


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## mad_at_arms (May 5, 2012)

I really like the choice of vents.


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## kr0nick (May 5, 2012)

same here mad at arms. I looked for shower vents today but couldn't find any so I used sink strainers. $1.50 for two HA. Better then $8-10 for one plastic.


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## brisbaneboy (May 5, 2012)

i would love to know how to set up those leds i have 3 strips that i want to use for my new cages but i have no idea what to buy to get them running and can u put more than 1 strip onto the same transformer thingy


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## saximus (May 5, 2012)

Yeah it's really easy. It's also legal to do yourself if you get the right ones because you are working with 12V.
If you get something similar to the ones I linked in post #25 they come in a 5m length and they have points every 5cm where you can cut it. Then you just connect something like a 12V plug pack to them and you're set. 
To work out how many you can run off one transformer you just find out how much current it draws per length and make sure you don't put more lengths than your transformer can handle. So with mine, it draws 0.02A per 5cm length so for my 1A pug pack I couldn't connect more than 2.5m.
I hope that makes sense...


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## Skitzmixer (May 6, 2012)

what sort of thermostat are you going to use?


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## saximus (May 6, 2012)

Skitzmixer said:


> what sort of thermostat are you going to use?



None for the time being. I tested it in another enclosure and especially with the weather cooling down, this setup doesn't get hot enough to be a problem and the cool areas pretty much don't go above ambient at all. The only time I'll have to think about it will be during summer when it's over 30° ambient and then I'll probably just chuck one of those small ebay ones in (or hopefully my homemade multi-enclosure uni project will be ready for use by then)


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## richardsc (May 6, 2012)

looks good mate,i made one out of one of those cabnets i picked up from an op shop,i took out the shelf above the doors though,but could also make a good under floor hide


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## saximus (May 6, 2012)

That was my idea too but decided it would be too much effort to make another set of doors for the bottom section. Plus it's good for hiding the thermo and electrical stuff


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## Skitzmixer (May 6, 2012)

saximus said:


> None for the time being. I tested it in another enclosure and especially with the weather cooling down, this setup doesn't get hot enough to be a problem and the cool areas pretty much don't go above ambient at all. The only time I'll have to think about it will be during summer when it's over 30° ambient and then I'll probably just chuck one of those small ebay ones in (or hopefully my homemade multi-enclosure uni project will be ready for use by then)



Awesome, man that looks wicked! I'd liek to be able to build something like that oneday. I like how you have the heat panel on 1 shelf and then have tiles above it to create another one.. best idea!


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## rosequoll (May 9, 2012)

Where did you find the Crommelin's? I've called the local bunnings and mitre 10 and have two other places to call tomorrow and I still can't find it. =( I'll use the Bondall Pondtite if I need to, but I actually prefer the PondSeal you used.


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## saximus (May 9, 2012)

Hmm that's weird. I got mine from Bunnings


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## rosequoll (May 9, 2012)

Hm, realised in hindsight that CALLING Bunnings to ask if they have it was pretty dumb. Not like anyone who works there has a clue what they stock. =) I'll pop into my local store tomorrow and check myself. Thanks!


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## brigo (May 9, 2012)

Are the shower drains stainless steel or painted chrome?

I rang bunnings they have them but the prices range from $10-%50 lol

What are yours saximus? They look good, not too bothered if theyre stainless steel or not, was just curious.

thanks.


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## Coastal-Kemp (May 9, 2012)

hey saximus, what size panel did you use?

cheers alex


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## saximus (May 9, 2012)

They are stainless I'm pretty sure. They were a bit expensive at about $12 each but there's only two of them. 

It's a 40W panel. I need to get my *** into gear and test out how well it heats in this enclosure. It works perfectly in my larger enclosure to just create a basking spot while leaving the rest at about ambient though


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## Red_LaCN (May 13, 2012)

Have you done anymore work on it? Updated photo's if so please? I am getting a unit myself and since you posted your thread i have had some of those idea's running through my own head since then.


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## boxhead1990 (May 17, 2012)

yeah bunnings sucks for not stocking pondtite anymore but when i went into bunnings they had a big rack of it at the time if i had of had more cash i would bought several buckets of clear and black haha i no il use it at some stage for something thats for sure


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## J-A-X (May 17, 2012)

Check out the 'non bunnings' hardware places, most will happily order it in for you if you ask. 

Am i the only one a little amused at the fact that we can tell others where to find things at Bunnings ( including which aisle and what else is in that aisle) but the majority of the staff just scratch their heads and chew their gum and shrug their shoulders


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