[postskunk]

I finally finished my Wheeleri tank. I've been working on it for a while and it's a little different then I original intended it to be but I'm happy with the way it came out and I think Dingle Berry is too.

I made it out of
verious plywood and 1x2s/1x5s/ect
molding
egg crate
plexiglass
expansion foam
Styrofoam
grout
and a bunch of other stuff too



and here's a few angle shots


the transparent part in the middle is plexiglass so I can throw a heat pad on it


the lid


I stuck the light on the inside so it was out of sight, it was like 9 bucks at lowes


I left the back open for maintenance


and I stained it and sealed it with a couple of coats of polyurethane





and there's my little buddy checking out his new crib

I'll probably add some more wood, some dry grasses, or some other stuff to spice it up a little.

thanks for checking it out

-Matt

[giglamesh]

thats bloody brilliant how did you do the under ground section

[Klowne]

Good looking tank, and your gecko's name is simply awesome

[postskunk]

thank you very much,
First I bent an open top box on my aluminum brake the size I wanted it.
Then I line the box in tin foil and dropped a peace of plexiglass so I had a backing I could dill into, and gurrila taped it off.
Then I filled the box with expansion foam and let it dry and expand.
The I pulled it out of the box and cut out the tunnels until I got it the way I wanted it
Then threw on a couple of layers of grout

it was the first thing I made for the tank and then when I got to a point were I started trying to match stuff in place I found out that it needed to be much more squered off on the side that was going to butt up against the glass.

So I made a new box and sprayed the edges with foam to fill the gaps around the edges
Then I put 2 more layers of grout on it smoothing them them out to match the edges of the box with one of those concrete flat spade things, and let it dry
then I had to make a brace to lift it to the glass and hold it in place, out of 1x2s and 1x1s

hope that makes sense I don't always explain things so coherently, it all makes sense when I'm typing cause I can picture it in my head but sometimes it gets lost in translation. here's a few other pictures for reference.







I cant find any from before I covered it in grout

Thanks again for the great complement
-Matt

[giglamesh]

cheers something i may have to look into on my next project. and i know exactly what you mean about being lost in translation. everything makes sense in my head then when its on paper your just like what on earth was i talking about

[postskunk]

if I was doing it again I would have made the box to hold the underground part out of plywood or 2x4s and loosely screw it together instead of aluminum so it held its shape better while the foam expanded, this should make it easier for you if you want to try it.

and thanks for the complement Klowne

-Matt

[joris]

good job , it looks great!!

[postskunk]

caught dingle berry sleeping up here today, I guess I forgot to let him know he's supposed to be terrestrial gecko

[oli]

that cage is terrible it sucks balls

[Emilylovesherps]

Originally Posted by oli

that cage is terrible it sucks balls

LOL awesome.

But really, will you come to my place and make one? I'll take you out to the sandbar here in Jupiter, FL on the boat as payment