# Designing Enclosure



## mysteryman (Apr 27, 2011)

just wanted some opinions on the size of my proposed enclosures.

View attachment enclosure.pdf


are the individual box sizes enough to keep adults of the different breeds?

i can jumble the boxes around if anyone can recommend a better way off making them fit (working size 3.6m Long x 1.8m / 2.0m high) - my tv wall is only 3.7 / 3.8m long

i can't wait to jump in and start making this bad boy

once my size is set i can start on the nitty gritty stuff like doors, hinges, locks and of course heating (thinking heating cable)

thanks in advance

Pete


----------



## woody101 (Apr 27, 2011)

looks good id love to see the end product


----------



## AndrewHenderson (Apr 27, 2011)

I can't see you having any dramas with those sizes. just one thing... make sure you are going to be able to manouver it around through doors and stuff, I just have enough room down hallways etc to turn a 1200mm X 1900mm long into the rooms.

Andrew


----------



## woody101 (Apr 27, 2011)

make each enclosure seperate then join them together


----------



## cactus2u (Apr 27, 2011)

looks good. Might find the reps a bit distracting when watching the Plasma tho .I know that I would & make that spot for another snake


----------



## mysteryman (Apr 27, 2011)

oh i forgot to mention the whole thing would be 600mm deep.

access wouldn't be an issue cause i'll be assembling it in the lounge room, stuff the idea of moving it / transporting it.

problem of making each individual enclosure is i would use twice or 3 times the materials 

but i think if i did sell the house it might have to stay there, cause i wouldn't really want to move it, at least i could list it on Aussie pythons market place "snake enclosure + 5 bdrm house + 2 car garage" - will swap for GTP's


----------



## FusionMorelia (Apr 27, 2011)

how will you address the vibration and sound issues with snakes and the massive heat output from lcd tv?


----------



## saximus (Apr 27, 2011)

NatoRey said:


> how will you address the vibration and sound issues with snakes and the massive heat output from lcd tv?


 Exactly what I was thinking.

Other than that it looks like it will end up being very cool


----------



## mysteryman (Apr 27, 2011)

hmmmm i didn't even think of noise / heat from the tv, i guess thats why we all ask the q's

i already have the plasma, but i'm not sure if the heat output would affect the boxes too much as i'm not fully enclosing the tv. the tv will have full ventilation at the back (where most of the heat ends up) and overhead will be open as well.

do you think the sound from the tv will affect the snakes? i don't really ever have it up too loud cause it would wake up the baby (human, incase you were thinking otherwise).
also not really in to sound systems / bass so it's just normal talking volume tele, maybe the odd wiggles dvd.


----------



## saximus (Apr 27, 2011)

Yeah well if it's sitting right on top it wouldn't need to be up very loud to go through the whole rack. There have been a few threads about how much sound affects their behaviour that you might wanna read through. I'm not sure what the general consensus is about it though so you might be alright


----------



## abnrmal91 (Apr 27, 2011)

I wouldn't think the heat would be a issue but you would get vibrations I would imagine. Vibrations seem to have different effects on snakes depending on the vibration. I am no expert but my brother playing guitar/drums does seem to annoy mine sometimes. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Virides (Apr 27, 2011)

Acoustic Foam can be laid under the TV or even sandwiched between two boards if the foam doesn't look nice. This will absorb vibration and some of the noise directly. The rear of each enclosure can also have this foam which can help with any reverb sound between the wall and the enclosures. Think of it like sound shielding and not necessarily proofing.

The location of the TV won't be a heat issue other than radiant heat which the wood will be insulating against.


----------



## FusionMorelia (Apr 27, 2011)

foam between the boxes and its not the volume u worrie about its the weird threatening vibrations rattling through the whole thing.
the heat mainly comes out of the top of the tv but if built right you could use the heat from the tv to add extra heat taking stress and wattage off your heating system... combined with acoustic foam could make fore something unusual and functional

edit, you have to have 30 cm ventilation for an lcd/plasma on each side or it can be a fire hazard, its in the guidelines of your tv manual and warranty 
the heat coming out of the new flat screens is rather large i used my heat gun just then and the back of my tv unit(vent area) is flowing between 44 and 56C
and thats just 2 vent area...


----------



## Just_Plain_Nuts (Apr 27, 2011)

I wouldn't worry too much about the heat or sound, Virides idea can be used if you are worried. What are you making it out of? And what glass are you using?


----------



## mysteryman (Apr 27, 2011)

16mm melamine is the main body material, and i'm leaning towards perspex doors on hinges rather than sliding doors as i think the perspex will hold heat a bit better than glass (safer with the kidies around too)

The boxes on either side of the tv will only come up just under halfway of the tv's height, but i guess i'll have to keep an eye on it. 

If it doesnt work i'll just fill the tv compartment in and buy another snake.

Keep the advice coming, loving everones thoughts on my new project


----------



## woody101 (Apr 27, 2011)

If your anything like me and my 50inch i also have my cages next to my tv and i spend hardly anytime watching it once i can see my snakes


----------



## mysteryman (May 5, 2011)

Update:

I have ordered the melamine from bunnings cut to size today. My pieces added up to 7 full 1200x2400 sheets $210 for the 7. I did shop around with a couple timber suppliers i deal with at work and they were offering $55 / sheet which is crazy compared to bunnings $35ea.

I will pick it all up tomoz, bring on the DIY weekend


----------



## Red-Ink (May 5, 2011)

Get the wall sockets behind the enclosures rewired to have two or more in there on seperate circuits. You may max out the load running all that power of the same circuit.


----------



## AndrewHenderson (May 5, 2011)

Just_Plain_Nuts said:


> I wouldn't worry too much about the heat or sound, Virides idea can be used if you are worried. What are you making it out of? And what glass are you using?


 

Neither would I, check out derek roddy's video clips on you tube.... If he can do blast beats on drums and play with a band in his room with the snakes and they still eat and mate no dramas. I've asked him about this before and he reckons it has had no effect on his snakes.


----------



## mysteryman (May 10, 2011)

My Work will be getting a water Cutter in a few weeks, i'm thinking of using perspex doors and cutting the holes for hinges + Locks with the new machine so i don't crack the panels if i were to drill them. i know glass would be ok for the smaller sections but i'm a bit worried about the larger ones. especially with small kids playing in the house the last thing i need is to carry spare glass panels in the spare room for when (not if) the kids smash the glass.

unless y'all can suggest a door material better than glass or perspex?


----------



## zuesowns (May 10, 2011)

The only thing you should be aware of is having an enclosure at ground level, if you can avoid that, it's such a hassle to clean and even view your reptiles. 

I am thankful that my second enclosure I built had a high enough stand that I could view and maintain the enclosure without laying on the floor!


----------



## Virides (May 10, 2011)

mysteryman said:


> View attachment 199499
> View attachment 199497
> View attachment 199498
> 
> ...


 
As long as these are to be swing doors and not sliding doors, toughened glass would be a viable option here.

If you were interested in using our handles I can give you the hole distance requirements and buying in bulk we can come to a special order price for them - Virides - Stylish Enclosure Enhancements


----------



## mysteryman (May 10, 2011)

being 1.8m tall i dont think i could put it on a stand and still get it in a doorway, but a good thought.

Virides - thanks for the offer i would love to buy some of those handles, will be in contact when the time comes.


----------



## woody101 (May 10, 2011)

Wow looking good mate cant wait to see it with the reps in it how long did it take to build ?


----------



## jham66 (May 10, 2011)

That is looking good Peter! All done in one weekend? Is it built in sections so you can carry it in piece by piece and construct in its final resting place? If not, then I hope there are no corners!!.... LOL never fun moving large items into or around houses!!

Can't wait for the next pics...


----------



## mysteryman (May 11, 2011)

the whole thing is made in 2 halves, but they are still pretty heavy. the lounge room is straight through the garage door so access wont be a problem.

build time was half a day on saturday and a few hours monday night, i tried to work on sunday but the mrs pulled her mothers day rank on me. (keep in mind the built time didn't include cutting the pieces to size, bunnings did that for me)

i'd be more than happy to help others with their plans for making enclosures as i love working on cad and stuff like that. also with the water cutter coming soon i can cut panels to size much faster and easier than bunnings could

basically i started with my shape as per my original post and then added the material thicknesses in plus taking into account where panels would overlap and join. then i got all my cut sizes off the drawing and added the depth of 600mm. i have a nesting program so i put a list of all my panel sizes into it as well as the sheet size and it shows me the best way to cut it out of the sheets as well as telling me how many sheets i need.

i just handed the nesting pages to the guy at bunnings and away he went.

View attachment Cutting layouts.pdf


see pdf for example of my nesting program

just pm if anyone wants help with this sort of stuff


----------



## Virides (May 11, 2011)

mysteryman said:


> i'd be more than happy to help others with their plans for making enclosures as i love working on cad and stuff like that. also with the water cutter coming soon i can cut panels to size much faster and easier than bunnings could



It also means a far easier way to do dove tails and thus a much stronger joint.


----------



## mysteryman (May 11, 2011)

ahhh virides i can tell u appreciate water cutters nearly as much as i do, we may have to work together on a few projects me thinks


----------



## melluvssnakes (May 11, 2011)

Can't wait to see how this one turns out when it's occupents are in there.


----------



## Virides (May 11, 2011)

mysteryman said:


> ahhh virides i can tell u appreciate water cutters nearly as much as i do, we may have to work together on a few projects me thinks


 
Happy to help out


----------



## Just_Plain_Nuts (May 13, 2011)

while we are on machine appreciation , i'll have a cnc machine please


----------



## Virides (May 14, 2011)

Just_Plain_Nuts said:


> while we are on machine appreciation , i'll have a cnc machine please



My wish list:

3D FDM Prototyping Printer
CNC Router
5D Waterjet/Laser

so who wants to lend me $1 500 000? lol


----------



## mysteryman (May 17, 2011)

Verides, good news there is a water cutter supplier in melbourne selling a 3m x 6m machine for $240,000. So u might not need $1,500,000 after all 

Imagine how many snake handles u could cut out of a sheet that size


----------



## Virides (May 18, 2011)

Is it 5D?

5D being Left, Right, Up/Down, Pitch and Roll


----------



## mysteryman (May 18, 2011)

add 35k for the 5 Axis head and u got it


----------



## melluvssnakes (Jun 9, 2011)

Hey how is this set of enclosures going? Would love to see the finished project all set up properly


----------



## mysteryman (Jun 11, 2011)

Still waiting on a spare minute to finish making the doors, water cutter has arrived and working well so completion should be soon


----------



## jham66 (Jun 11, 2011)

How will the water cutter go with cutting melamine? I know it will cut it neatly, but will the residual water cause a problem with the timber? Most of the stuff that Bunnings sell is MR not HMR Melamine (even though their signs stated otherwise, no signs now....) so I think it is OK with splashes, but not sure about cut surface exposure. 

Are you cutting the glass with the water cutter? and sliding or hinged door??

Keen to see the pics too!


----------



## Virides (Jun 12, 2011)

jham66 said:


> How will the water cutter go with cutting melamine? I know it will cut it neatly, but will the residual water cause a problem with the timber? Most of the stuff that Bunnings sell is MR not HMR Melamine (even though their signs stated otherwise, no signs now....) so I think it is OK with splashes, but not sure about cut surface exposure.
> 
> Are you cutting the glass with the water cutter? and sliding or hinged door??
> 
> Keen to see the pics too!


 
I have been told by our Water Jet provider that woods can be cut if they are coated to aid in reduced water damage. Dense woods like hardwoods (specifically tight grain) don't need to be coated. Alternatively the Melamime can be laser cut leaving a burnt edge.


----------



## Samee (Jun 29, 2011)

Update (from my wife's phone)

Here guys have a squize at progress so far. I'm pretty stoked


----------



## saximus (Jun 30, 2011)

Wow that looks awesome. Great work


----------



## Virides (Jun 30, 2011)

Look at all that glass vulnerable to smudging 

I don't think the TV will be attributing to the heat at all since it is all open at the top.

It has turned out just I imagined it, though it certainly looks like the red light district lol


----------



## Samee (Sep 10, 2011)

A bit more of it done


----------

