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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2017 17:48:35 GMT
So we are back talking about making cages again lol.
What plywood can I use to make the frame? Using plywood to make it cheaper as obviously I need to build a monster of a cage system.
We are thinking 220cm across, 60cm deep, 110cm high. This will be split down the middle and will have three levels in each side. 40cm, 26cm, 20.5cm in height, obviously 120 in length. This will be two cages - for whoever.
We will then make the same thing again, and place it on top of the first, to make a grid of four. Obviously Alfie's levels will be different heights to the goos need to figure that out still lol.
The Cara works out at 19,488 for each pair of degus, and for Alfie respectively.
Just need to figure out the cheapest most cost effective way of making it.
We would paint it.. so colour doesn't matter..
Need help and suggestions!
I also stumbled across something on IKEA that I'm toying with..
I'll explain that in a moment as I've got to redo it on my laptop.
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Post by deguconvert on Nov 28, 2017 18:19:48 GMT
Doors within doors . . . Large doors that will open the full width and height of the cage for cleaning etc. purposes, with smaller doors set within for all the other needs when you need/want access.
I like the sizes! As for stacking them, make sure that your floors can bear the weight of the cages.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2017 18:35:03 GMT
What are you referring to re the doors lol? I'm a tad confused haha!!
Floor will be fine with the weight...
The IKEA thing is good, but far too expensive for me. For the carcasses that can be made on there with glass front doors would be £600... that doesn't include any shelves...
So I've abandoned that idea even though it would look amazing.
What plywood is safe/cheapest? x
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2017 20:29:20 GMT
Also how important is depth compared to length?
Lots of stuff I could upcycle but they're not deep enough, they're 40 or so rather than 50/60 deep, but very long.
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Post by Emziedee on Nov 29, 2017 2:00:37 GMT
Ohhh I need to be thinking about this soon too! We put through planning Permission to convert the mezzanine level into a master bedroom and the space over the dining area downstairs will be a glass floor/roof for an extension of our roof terrace. Planning was accepted yay! but means the goos will be relocated to a room on the ground floor, and that needs to fit in with the modern furniture down there.
I have a built in large wardrobe that is an option as i'd just have to put shelves along and have a glass/mesh door combination for ventilation. Also it's a lot cooler down on the ground level.
I've got till spring to think of something as the man doesn't want cages in the rooms 😫
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Post by bouncy on Nov 29, 2017 10:20:14 GMT
Ply is fine, provided you have a strong timber frame. Thickness of ply will depend on how frequently you place the timber struts. With my build, I only used something like 4mm, but I have a steel frame, with support no further than 40cm apart, and mdf shelves.
If you have carcasses 40cm deep, you could use two the same and join them to create 80cm?
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Post by bouncy on Nov 29, 2017 10:22:19 GMT
Ohhh I need to be thinking about this soon too! We put through planning Permission to convert the mezzanine level into a master bedroom and the space over the dining area downstairs will be a glass floor/roof for an extension of our roof terrace. Planning was accepted yay! but means the goos will be relocated to a room on the ground floor, and that needs to fit in with the modern furniture down there. I have a built in large wardrobe that is an option as i'd just have to put shelves along and have a glass/mesh door combination for ventilation. Also it's a lot cooler down on the ground level. I've got till spring to think of something as the man doesn't want cages in the rooms 😫 Sounds like you're planning for four goos!  |
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Post by moletteuk on Nov 29, 2017 10:38:31 GMT
Plywood is good for the carcase, I've used hardwood plywood because the surface is harder and denser and should be harder to chew than softwood ply. I think they call it hardwood non structural ply at Wickes. 18mm is easiest to work with but you might get away with 12mm for some of it, particularly if you use some brackets or blocks to make the connections better, I would think Cal will know best about this.
I don't think 40cm deep will be any use to you because you would have to make up for that with width or height and you will run out of room with you needing 4 cages.
Are those shelf spacings right for 110cm total, they only add up to 87cm?
Bear in mind the wood comes in 2.4x1.2m sheets, so you could go to 2.4m overall length and 1.2m high for no extra cost if you have the space in your room.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2017 13:01:05 GMT
moletteuk the shelf spacing are right because the not adding up to 110cm is the allowance for the width of the wood pieces.. that's how Cal works stuff out, the actual height of like air space because obviously the wood of the levels takes up some of that room within the 110cm. 2.4 long and 1.2 high is fine  The wall space we have decided is 2.6-2.7m ish so that's cool and a good idea! Mom said we can use her garage so Cal has no excuse re having nowhere to work 😁 just need money lol. I'm getting a new phone and should get £180-£200 for my current one so I'll put that aside. If we built them one by one, I could transfer the goos and then sell their cage one at a time to recuperate costs. It's such a shame re the IKEA thing. They're the perfect size. Each wardrobe is 60 deep and 1m wide. There's then two different sizes. The carcasses aren't dear it's the doors on the front with having glass 🤔. I'm struggling to decide what to do re doors. If we did the cages tall rather than long (at least 1m wide still though) and used the IKEA carcass.. how would I do doors? Each carcass would contain several full levels like 7-8 plus so putting a door on every single level would cost a fortune.. I'd also want Perspex/acrylic or glass to keep the mess in.. How could I achieve that without putting runners on every single level? Somehow do like 3 sliding doors, 1/3rd way up each so I can access all the levels still? What would it fix to? 🤔🤔🤔 make 3 of the levels stick out slightly more than the others so that the runners go on those ones and the glass/Perspex can go up? 🤔 If I had the money I'd do the IKEA carcasses with the glass doors and fix them with magnets.. but in total it was £600 lol the glass doors were £65 each rude. It would also help being able to drive so I could pick up things second hand 😑
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Post by winic1 on Nov 29, 2017 13:30:41 GMT
Doors within doors . . . Large doors that will open the full width and height of the cage for cleaning etc. purposes, with smaller doors set within for all the other needs when you need/want access. I like the sizes! As for stacking them, make sure that your floors can bear the weight of the cages. Have you seen bird cages? There's a big door for accessing the cage and putting in/taking out large items. But then there's smaller hatches, big enough for your hand and a food bowl or so, so that you can slip things in and out of the cage without having to open it all up and let the birds get out. Or think of the movies, when they've got someone locked in a room/cell, and there's the little slot of a door for slipping the food tray in, or the little square door for talking through, without opening the big door and allowing chance for escape. Little doors within the big doors. |
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Post by Emziedee on Nov 29, 2017 14:20:30 GMT
Ohhh I need to be thinking about this soon too! We put through planning Permission to convert the mezzanine level into a master bedroom and the space over the dining area downstairs will be a glass floor/roof for an extension of our roof terrace. Planning was accepted yay! but means the goos will be relocated to a room on the ground floor, and that needs to fit in with the modern furniture down there. I have a built in large wardrobe that is an option as i'd just have to put shelves along and have a glass/mesh door combination for ventilation. Also it's a lot cooler down on the ground level. I've got till spring to think of something as the man doesn't want cages in the rooms 😫 Sounds like you're planning for four goos! Ssssssssh 😉 He'll never notice, he'll have had a few pints and think he's seeing double 😂 |
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Post by moletteuk on Nov 29, 2017 16:11:49 GMT
I'm still not convinced about the shelf spacing, I could be getting confused but it looks like he's allowed 23cm for the shelves, which is almost 6cm per shelf for 3 levels plus top, they should be around 2cm which makes the spacings a more sensible.
I think it's not a bad idea to build one and see if you want to make any modifications. Bear in mind it will probably be easier to get wood delivered and glass cut to order in larger amounts.
I suspect the Ikea carcases will have quite a lot of little holes on the inside, especially if there is a shelf that goes in, these would all need to be covered with metal, also, most flat pack furniture just has a very thin panel in the back that isn't suitable for bearing the weight of degu shelves, also probably edges to protect around the front depending on how you do the doors, nice looking edging is expensive.
Are the glass questions in relation to the ikea option?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2017 16:32:33 GMT
I'm still not convinced about the shelf spacing, I could be getting confused but it looks like he's allowed 23cm for the shelves, which is almost 6cm per shelf for 3 levels plus top, they should be around 2cm which makes the spacings a more sensible. I think it's not a bad idea to build one and see if you want to make any modifications. Bear in mind it will probably be easier to get wood delivered and glass cut to order in larger amounts. I suspect the Ikea carcases will have quite a lot of little holes on the inside, especially if there is a shelf that goes in, these would all need to be covered with metal, also, most flat pack furniture just has a very thin panel in the back that isn't suitable for bearing the weight of degu shelves, also probably edges to protect around the front depending on how you do the doors, nice looking edging is expensive. Are the glass questions in relation to the ikea option? Yeah the glass is in related to Ikea carcass. The runners on a complete self build would be fine. I'll ask Cal later about the measurements, the allowance is for the three shelves plus top and bottom. The problem is finding a cheap wood and acrylic/glass lol! But this time it actually sounds like it will go ahead. |
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Post by moletteuk on Nov 29, 2017 17:48:01 GMT
Great that you think it is going to go ahead  It's only base, two shelves and top for a 3 layer cage |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2017 18:09:11 GMT
He's got muddled from working back and forth between mm and cm 🙄 Gonna add 3 levels in now looking at the left over lol. So one at 40cm high, 2 at 22cm and one at 16cm as a short nesting level. This would give even more CARA! That's allowing a generous 18mm-20mm for the thickness of the wood. Yes I meant to type 2.4m so they'd be 120cm long each whoops. 120cm wide for each one, 60cm deep and 110-120 high So just need to find a wood source now and glass 🤔 |
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Post by titchycatnipsandwich on Nov 29, 2017 18:59:52 GMT
For glass, go to a window place. We used Altrincham Glass simply because it was our closest, but they cut the glass to the right size and rounded all the edges off, and for the four panels for my giant cages it was only ~£100. Which isn't cheap, but waaaaaaaaay cheaper than any of the other options.
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Post by claire on Nov 30, 2017 7:00:14 GMT
Don't know of it'll help but I'll put up a few pics of our home made cage. It's made on sheets of mdf. It's 120cm x 120 cm and 60cm deep. The glass doors are on plastic runners with metal edging. We had the glass cut for us. Luckily my partner us a window fitter lol. The middle shelf isn't fixed it sits in a wooden frame. If you can figure out the best way there's very few edges mine can get to and believe me they will get to anything they can lol I'll try and get some pics and feel free to pm me any questions. Scuse the mess it's cleaning day today lol gyazo.com/b345adca6d06d963ffda8d0b81c012e7gyazo.com/9c491f8f8f54b5284ba4896af10db02agyazo.com/b470fa07e53ffccf944d10bbdc2a45be |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2017 9:30:38 GMT
Thanks Claireh! I'll definitely drop you a message!
So from an online wood stocking place lol for the full carcasses including all the levels for all 4 cages would cost £244.38 plus delivery. This is a lot better than I thought!
My partner is going to an actual timber merchants after his interview today so we may be able to get it even cheaper than that fingers crossed.
Then obviously the cost of everything else.
The cost of glass or Perspex is what worries me the most 🤔
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Post by moletteuk on Nov 30, 2017 11:47:12 GMT
I would stick with the base and 2 full shelves and use the spare space for smaller extra shelves like a nesting shelf or maybe a full length but half depth shelf, or hammock space etc. I think you would find so much low headroom space frustrating in terms of what accessories you can fit in but also for access for clean outs, and it will also be dark. Try mocking the spacing up for a 60cm deep shelf and see what you think.
What are you planning to use for the shelves?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2017 12:51:42 GMT
I would stick with the base and 2 full shelves and use the spare space for smaller extra shelves like a nesting shelf or maybe a full length but half depth shelf, or hammock space etc. I think you would find so much low headroom space frustrating in terms of what accessories you can fit in but also for access for clean outs, and it will also be dark. Try mocking the spacing up for a 60cm deep shelf and see what you think. What are you planning to use for the shelves? Hardwood plywood for the shelves and covering it with cheap laminate tiles like zenaida x Okay I'll refigure the cages and refigure the price 🤔 I agree re hanging space etc.. the extra height can be used for hoppy ledges and hammocks x |
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