# 3 Bay Enclosure



## Skitzmixer (Nov 11, 2012)

I'm looking at building a 3 bay enclosure for my pythons.

My main concern is how im going to support the 2 middle shelfs (so the top and bottom of the middle enclosure), with the weight of the glass + the animal and everything thats inside it. I'd really rather not have the whole thing come crushing down. Has anyone attempted to do something like this and come across any problems? The size im looking at doing is around 1200x600x1800, split up into 3 1200x600x600 enclosures. 

I'll put the whole thing on some wheels as well so i can atleast move it around if i need. 

Any help is welcome.

Thanks


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## Chicken (Nov 11, 2012)

If you make it out of melamine it will be no problem, just make sure you sit the top piece on top of the sides instead of screwing them in from the side, if you know what i mean. Perhaps someone else will explain it better. Otherwise unless your putting 20kg's of sand in as substrate it'l hold


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## Skitzmixer (Nov 11, 2012)

Yeah sorry i should of mentioned that i was planning on using melamine. Nope i completely understand what you said  Thanks

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think what i might do is get some brackets as well just for extra support..


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## Skitzmixer (Nov 15, 2012)

spoke to a cabinet maker and he believes that it will not be able to hold the weight. I'm sure i've seen people do it before, if you have any photos of your 3 bay enclosure can you put them up for me so i can show him that it can be done..


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## maddog-1979 (Nov 15, 2012)

same dimensions as you are making, shelves have 3 screws in each side, 4 across the back. each enclosure holds the weight of a big branch, big rock and a bucket of sand. no worries so far after nearly 12 months







oops, mines not melamine, it's fingerjoined pine boards


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## Justdragons (Nov 15, 2012)

View attachment 270767
this taller one is one i built and it was quite strong as it was but when i cut 100m strips and put them in on edge to take the track and hide the lights it really made it strong. 100mm of melamine on edge has quite a bit of strength..  hope that helps


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## Skitzmixer (Nov 15, 2012)

justdragons said:


> View attachment 270767
> this taller one is one i built and it was quite strong as it was but when i cut 100m strips and put them in on edge to take the track and hide the lights it really made it strong. 100mm of melamine on edge has quite a bit of strength..  hope that helps



Aww the picture didnt work  
Nice, i have no idea what he's on about then. I've always thought that it should be fine, its not like im putting 50kg of weight on each shelf, its only for a bredli, coastal and BHP, bit of a mix i know haha. I'm not using sand as a substrate so the only real weight is branches / hides / and the pythons. Even then they cant be enoguh to make the enclosure buckle.. I think i'll ignore him and go ahead with my orginal plan 

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maddog-1979 said:


> same dimensions as you are making, shelves have 3 screws in each side, 4 across the back. each enclosure holds the weight of a big branch, big rock and a bucket of sand. no worries so far after nearly 12 months
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Looks absolutely stunning! How thick is the pine board? Im assuming its 16mm or something very close. Was staining it a pain? I've tried to stain pine before but it just come up horrible, must of been something i was doing.


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## maddog-1979 (Nov 15, 2012)

it was easy mate, just used decking stain and slapped it on there, couple of coats of varnish and it was done. and yep 16mm pine, it's just the pre fabbed boards you get from bunnings, 1800x600


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## Rhyce (Nov 15, 2012)

I've built 2 3 bays out of melamine. i use 16mm thick. I screw 4 into the sides and 5 into the back. My have fake floors in them and the can hold my 2 olives which are 2.2m long and a big log each and a few branches with no probs. I dont even use brackets.


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## someday (Nov 15, 2012)

ummm, i dunno if im on the right track but this 1 pops up on google images alot when i look for tank ideas and it looks like a 4 bay.


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## Skitzmixer (Nov 16, 2012)

someday said:


> ummm, i dunno if im on the right track but this 1 pops up on google images alot when i look for tank ideas and it looks like a 4 bay.



I'm not going to lie, thats a little creepy.

Never the less thats what im after. Thanks 

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Rhyce said:


> I've built 2 3 bays out of melamine. i use 16mm thick. I screw 4 into the sides and 5 into the back. My have fake floors in them and the can hold my 2 olives which are 2.2m long and a big log each and a few branches with no probs. I dont even use brackets.



Thought it could be done, awesome im ordering the melamine today! Thanks Everyone.


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## Skitzmixer (Nov 26, 2012)

Thought i'd chuck up some pictures of my enclosure build so far. 
Made a box:



Add the shelfs:



Added the Back / Wheels:



Almost finished product:



Next trip is off to bunnings to see if i can get a special order in some black tracks and some black vents, measure up the glass and place it in. 
I've got 2 proherp heat mats for 2 of the spaces, they'll be in the bottom and middle. Might even put a half shelf in the 2 bottom ones and mount the heat mat too that, give the snake 2 spots to bask at -maybe? I'll eventually get one for the top as well, just dont need it at the moment. I'll be getting some LED lights and lining them up around the inside, i did want to mount some nice lights in there, but i cant seem to find lights with a flush mount that dont stick out alot. [Ideas welcome].

Ill keep updating it as i go


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## sharky (Nov 26, 2012)

Thta's looking great! I love the black colour  Keep up he good work


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## Skitzmixer (Nov 27, 2012)

Thanks  its my first real attempt at building something. So far so good i think. 

I'm trying to work out which way i want to go with lights, either using the downlight GU10 style lights, mounting them on a 45 degree angle from the top rail to the roof (if that makes sense, so their hidden behind the top glass rail) or just run some 5050 SMD strips with a few switches for each of enclosures. I dont need it to create heat, more just so i can turn it on for viewing purposes. 

I like the idea of the coloured SMD strips but i had one in another enclosure and never actually used it, so maybe ill just stick with the white ones.


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## Stuart (Nov 27, 2012)

Mate it looks great, well done.

For lighting Im using LED lighting strips mounted behind the front glass rail supports shining in. That way you should only get the ligh rather than seeing where it is coming from. Hopefully the LED strip turns up today and I'll get some pics up.

Personally I would steer away from coloured strips just because they may not match the fixtures of the internal decorations once they are in place. Just my opinion of course


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## Skitzmixer (Nov 28, 2012)

SniperCap said:


> Mate it looks great, well done.
> 
> For lighting Im using LED lighting strips mounted behind the front glass rail supports shining in. That way you should only get the ligh rather than seeing where it is coming from. Hopefully the LED strip turns up today and I'll get some pics up.
> 
> Personally I would steer away from coloured strips just because they may not match the fixtures of the internal decorations once they are in place. Just my opinion of course



Think you hit the nail on the head, i'll be getting a 5M LED strip and wiring them up so they have individual switches for each enclosure. 
Did you just ebay them? I found an aussie seller with fairly cheap prices through ebay.


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## Skitzmixer (Dec 20, 2012)

Finally got around to adding some lights to the enclosure. Its all controlled by a switch on the front of the enclosure 

Next is glass tracks, a bead of no more gaps along the edges to seal up the joins and then glass time and we're good to go, hurray!


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## Stuart (Dec 20, 2012)

Looks great mate, well done. I like the idea of "feature lighting"


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## mad_at_arms (Dec 20, 2012)

erebos had some black glass track for sale on here a while ago.
From memory he had to order it directly from cowdroy.


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## Skitzmixer (Apr 3, 2013)

*Finished!*

So a while has passed since i started the enclosure. I thought i better atleast show the finished product.

I have one switch for the middle enclosure which has an MR16 50w downlight pointing onto a tile for my BHP and then the top and bottom enclosures are red MR16 LED's wired up to another switch (they have heat mat's in them) i only really see these guys out at night so i thought a red light would be enough to allow for viewing (it gets loads of sunlight during the day anyway).

Temp wise having 2 heat mats on the top and bottom seems to be working well, i'm able to maintain a nice even temp through out all of my enclosures. 




This was taken from my phone so i'll take some more photos later and upload them 

Enjoy.


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