Melamine snake enclosure .. Difficulty: Expert ?

[Variety]

Im a landscaper and alot of my work involved building decks and hand rails, 2nd attempt at a melamine enclosure 1200 x 595 x 595 and its ended up costing alot more then it should have.
First try i hard to rebuy 2 bits of melamine because the wood split so i pre drilled and eliminated that, had to take 15mm off my sheet of glass so bought a glass cutter and cracked my $45 peice of 5mm curved plate glass beyond repair.

Is it me or do these things look alot easier to build then what they are ?

 

[Ramsayi]

It's you.At the end of the day it is just a box.
Easy to get material cut to size then just assemble like you wrote.Pre drill then screw it all together.

Since you build decks and handrails I guess you would measure twice and cut once? same for enclosures.

 

[Variety]

thats the frustrating part, it is just a box haha. Take 3 this weeknd

 

[dickyknee]

Could not be any easier ... if you can knock up a deck , a box should be a walk in the park.

A few tips , DO NOT use melamine from bunnings , it's utter crap .. get some decent stuff from a kitchen mob.
Getting it cut to size is a good idea too ..

 

[Variety]

Could not be any easier ... if you can knock up a deck , a box should be a walk in the park.

DO NOT use melamine from bunnings

Thanks heeps for this tip!

 

[leamos]

Good to see a fellow landscaper on APS, hot tip is to make friends with any cabinet makers/kitchen guys you might meet on site. Agree with dickyknee the quality of the off the shelf melamine at bunnings is rubbish, the stuff kitchen and cabinet makers use has much better glues used in the bonding of the melamine, particularly the kitchen guys, gotta remember that stuff has to cope with heat and moisture so is manufactured accordingly

 

[ron_peters]

Could not be any easier ... if you can knock up a deck , a box should be a walk in the park.

A few tips , DO NOT use melamine from bunnings , it's utter crap .. get some decent stuff from a kitchen mob.
Getting it cut to size is a good idea too ..

I have used melamine from bunnings for 2 of my enclosures and had no problems what so ever. My only building experience was woodwork at school, perhaps try predrilling all holes and be careful what screws you use.

 

[Pauls_Pythons]

I have built enough of these using Bunnings and Mitre 10 as the main supplier of parts and had no problems. Dont need to spend more by going to upmarket suppliers of materials that will give you minimal benefit to the finished item.
Most important thing is a good saw & appropriate blade. Take your time but as a tradie I would also imagine you are well versed at this and the measure twice rule.

 

[Snowman]

I think the reference to bunnings melamine is just that the laminate is quite cheap. It chips very easily etc. But for $13 for a sheet of 1200x595x13 it's not bad value to house a snake in.

 

[Variety]

My circular saw chipped the laminate bad enough for me to replace it and got bunnings to do it on their ban-saw. Then cracked the glass lol so hopefully this weekend ill be good to go

 

[BigBrad]

The big mobs don't chip the laminate because their saw has a scribe, always run a sharp stanley knife along your mark and cut on the off cut side of the mark leaving any chipping to happen on the off cut only and always use a guide, if your power saw doesn't have one clamp a straight edge down. Hope this helps.

 

[Dreaper]

go to a cabinet maker and have them cut everything to size, its fast easy and about the same costg as just buying the wood from bunnings. after that the rest is east

- - - Updated - - -

if you are using 16mm melamine get yourself a 8g pre drill/countersink drill bit. measure in 8mm for the edge and screw away, just be sure to use chipboard screws. general rule is x2.5 the thickness of your board is the min length of the screw. the important thing about melamine is measuring your drill holes and pre drilling, take your time doing that and nothing should go wrong

 

[Joemal]

Patience and alot of it .Buggered if i know how i made this one for Scrubby as i failed woodwork at school and i have bugger all patience .As everyone has said it's just a box your building so just stick with it .Measures 2.4 X 2.0 X 1.2 .weighs in at about 300kgs .

 

[Rob]

Some good advice in this thread, but also have a look on youtube. I was quite surprised at the amount of decent instructional vids on herp related topics. eg. building enclosures, rodent/hatchie racks, etc.

 

[Jacknifejimmy]

Built my last one in under 3 hours using melamine from bunnings and it couldn't have been easier.
Like everyone so far has said - precice with the cuts and pre drill your holes and it's smooth sailing from there.

 

[jbest]

Don't use an impact driver for the screws lol that splits melamine too

 

[Mace699]

i will say although the melamine from bunnings works fine. it has a shorter lifespan compared to kitchen cabinet melamine as they use moisture resistant melamine. as leamos says the glues that are used make them much more suited for making enclosures out of, as they cope with water spills and what not much better but having said that one enclosure i have made over 5 years ago odd has had a water bowl knocked over and pooled in the bottom many a time and has lived to tell the tale so you may not really notice the difference.

 

[Snowman]

If you are patient then gluing the melamine box together works well to. I've done this before then put some screws in for good measure (after drilling a pilot hole). The glue means there is a lot less stress on the screws breaking the melamine side ways.

 

[Variety]

thanks for the advice guys

 

[wokka]

I have used melamine from bunnings for 2 of my enclosures and had no problems what so ever. My only building experience was woodwork at school, perhaps try predrilling all holes and be careful what screws you use.

The problem with material from bunnings is a bit like a lot of aps users. They buy on price so the product they stock is not always the same quality. Cheapest is not always better, particularly if you value your time.