# First melamine enclosure attempt



## roobars (Oct 6, 2012)

Hello people,

I am getting sick of having enclosures all over the place, and most of my snakes need to upsize their homes for comfort  I am going to have a stab at building a custom stack, that can be moved around like lego.

The first 3D model for one of the lower enclosures: 

2mHorizontalEnclosureWithCenterSupport by Liam's 3D Models - 3D Warehouse

After putting this together, I realised that sliding glass doors are a bit of a pain, and noisy, and not what I want. I am looking at alternatives such as hinged glass, but that leads to the structural question regarding how much hold a hinge would have in melamine (advice welcome). 

I was thinking of leaving the enclosure without vents in the structure, and having some sort of mesh doors. This would seemingly provide ample ventilation, security to keep snakey in, it would be lighter than glass so I could put them on hinges without any drama, and they could be partially covered in winter to keep the heat in. Thoughts?

This is just step one, many steps to go before this gets under way (including quotes for all materials, which I am not looking forward too)

Thanks guys, I would appreciate some advice from knowledgable individuals.


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## buffcoat (Oct 6, 2012)

Let's say you have a 2x2x2 enclosure built. For the door you cut a piece 2' square, cut off 2.5" of that. This piece becomes your dam for substrate. Cut a hole out in the center of the other piece to whatever size you want for your viewing window. Attach plexi by drilling holes and mounting inside or out. Put 2 hinges on the dam and attach the door. To lock.it you can get 2 gasp locks from a dept store and use something to "lock" it with.

Go to your local home improvement store and buy vent covers. They are super cheap. Drill 3, 3" holes on both sides and put your vent covers over them. Like I said they are super cheap and one side is covered in super fine mesh.

Make sure you pre drill holes before screwing it together. If you don't, you will split the wood. Use an aquarium/marine grade sealent on the edges inside. 

Hope that's not to confusing.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk 2


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## saximus (Oct 6, 2012)

roobars said:


> After putting this together, I realised that sliding glass doors are a bit of a pain, and noisy, and not what I want. I am looking at alternatives such as hinged glass, but that leads to the structural question regarding how much hold a hinge would have in melamine (advice welcome).
> 
> I was thinking of leaving the enclosure without vents in the structure, and having some sort of mesh doors. This would seemingly provide ample ventilation, security to keep snakey in, it would be lighter than glass so I could put them on hinges without any drama, and they could be partially covered in winter to keep the heat in. Thoughts?



You can build a front door with a recess for a piece of glass. This option is usually cheaper than sliding doors of about the same size because your glazier won't have to bevel the edges so it's less work and for something that size he can probably just use an off-cut. I've done exactly that (linked below) and found that a couple of medium sized hinges hold it perfectly well. If you're really paranoid you can get hinge strip stuff that you cut to size so you could have a hinge that runs the entire height of the door.
I don't think the mesh door is a good idea. Your enclosure will basically hold no humidity if one side is open all the time. The other problem is that, depending on what's going in it, most snakes will break through mesh really easily or rub their noses on it. I'd suggest putting small vents in the back wall. This way it won't affect your "lego" type design and you can still stack them side by side or on top of one another. If you have a look at the vents I put in, they are a couple of bucks from Bunnings and allow plenty of airflow (actually ended up being too much for mine even though they seem small).
Hope that helps.

http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/diy-zone-5392/just-something-whipped-together-153474/


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## roobars (Oct 6, 2012)

Thanks for the feedback, I like your doors saximus. Did you route them and recess them yourself? I was thinking more along the lines of frameless glass doors but that would be a good option.

Here is the basic idea for the 1m enclosure portion of the stack.

1m Horizontal Enclosure by Liam's 3D Models - 3D Warehouse

- - - Updated - - -

And the vertical component for the 'Stack'

0.5M Vertical Enclosure by Liam's 3D Models - 3D Warehouse

- - - Updated - - -

Some possible combinations for a 'stack'

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=d3455f0ca9040c70419d6a1036e3e18d

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=23737b9a530fb8e6419d6a1036e3e18d


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## BIGBANG (Oct 6, 2012)

hey mate i am a cabinet maker (well was for over 10 years) you can get holes cut into your glass doors and there are hinges designed for what you want, if ya speak to the glazier they should be able to help you out or a company called HAFFLE', if you are hinging the doors from the sides dont make the doors wider than thy are heigh as they will sag an look crap. also are you thinking of the glass door being inset or external closing?? if they are inset you will need up to a 5mm gap all round the door, this will be able to act as your vent if you want but you will need something for them to close against....maybe a strip at the bottom to dam ya substrate will work, but by using frameless glass doors you hit another problem and that is locking the doors.....good luck mate will be good to see how they come out


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## roobars (Oct 7, 2012)

BIGBANG said:


> hey mate i am a cabinet maker (well was for over 10 years) you can get holes cut into your glass doors and there are hinges designed for what you want, if ya speak to the glazier they should be able to help you out or a company called HAFFLE', if you are hinging the doors from the sides dont make the doors wider than thy are heigh as they will sag an look crap. also are you thinking of the glass door being inset or external closing?? if they are inset you will need up to a 5mm gap all round the door, this will be able to act as your vent if you want but you will need something for them to close against....maybe a strip at the bottom to dam ya substrate will work, but by using frameless glass doors you hit another problem and that is locking the doors.....good luck mate will be good to see how they come out



Great help mate thanks! Can you tell me where the doors would sag? do you mean at the hinges? or bow the sides?

Thanks


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## BIGBANG (Oct 7, 2012)

hey mate if you have a door that is wider than it is tall, im not talking about buy 20mm but if its 100mm+ it will sag on the opposite side to the hinges, example if you have a door that is 300mm heigh x 500mm wide the bottom corner opposite the hinge will sag, u will have a 5mm gap between the bottom of your door and the inside of your cabinet (if set internal) at the hinge side and it could be down to 2mm of 1mm by the time you get to the otherside of the door, this can sometime be countered to a degree by keeping your hinges as as close as possible to the top and bottom of the door but in glass this can reduce its strength. and if you have 2 doors in the unit closing togerther not only will the bottom look out but the gap between the 2 doors will be out as well, to tops will hit and the bottoms will have a gap. the other thing with having swinging doors over slide doors is if the entire unit is not perfectly level the doors will not sit properly anyway, maybe consider hinging the doors from the bottom but you'll need adjustable hinges in any case, glass hinged doors are gunna cost alot more than sliding doors or framed doors cos the glass you will need to use will need to be thicker and stronger, hope this isnt to confusing for ya,

i use sliding doors in my enclosures, they are simple, easy, cheap, and can be removed completely from the encloser as long as you have installed them correctly


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## damian83 (Oct 7, 2012)

you can also get hinges with a rubber gasket that goes over the edge of the glass like a clamp if you dont want to get holes cut in it, they used them heaps in the 70-80s in tv units


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## BIGBANG (Oct 7, 2012)

damian83 said:


> you can also get hinges with a rubber gasket that goes over the edge of the glass like a clamp if you dont want to get holes cut in it, they used them heaps in the 70-80s in tv units


yeah i know the on ya talking about, ya see them on dvd cabinets and stuff like that, i have nevr used them as we producd high quality joinery so always went with the holed version, i'm not too sure with those clamp type one so wont recommend them from my experience, also i think they leave a fair gap down the side where the hinge clamps to the door, not big enough to loose an adult carpet out of but might loose juvi's or smaller breeds out of it


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## damian83 (Oct 7, 2012)

BIGBANG said:


> yeah i know the on ya talking about, ya see them on dvd cabinets and stuff like that, i have nevr used them as we producd high quality joinery so always went with the holed version, i'm not too sure with those clamp type one so wont recommend them from my experience, also i think they leave a fair gap down the side where the hinge clamps to the door, not big enough to loose an adult carpet out of but might loose juvi's or smaller breeds out of it



True, just an option I had thought of a few weeks ago


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## Dreaper (Oct 7, 2012)

rounding the bottom edges off the glass and putting a few drops of cooling oil into the tracks. they slide perfectly without a sound.


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