[pumilio123]

This is a thread from me, originally post at chameleonforums:

Hi,

first of all some words why I started to build aluminium cages on my own:
Here in Germany we dont have many professional suppliers for aluminium cages. Reptibreeze are available, but on really high prices (which will go up !), but I wont spend money on cages which will last just 3-4 years because of rust problems with their cheap metal screen.
The other source is Terry Thatcher from UK, their cages are excellent, the best available, but the costs are as high as the quality and for persons with bigger numbers of animals a real problem.
So thats why I started to build those cages at home, nearly all things used in the building process are easy to get, most of the tools are probably in every households toolbox.

Here are the things needed:



The only unusual thing here is the rivet pliers on the left and the rivets in the box, the other things should be known.



Here we have silicone on the left, E-profiles in the middle (for opening the front) and plastic aluminium connectors. On the top is a lil oversized big drill machine for creating the holes for the rivets, smaller drill machines, or accu drill machines are possible to, aluminium is in comparison to other metal sorts easy to machine.



For the framework I use cheap aluminium square profiles, for fixing the aluminium screen with rivets, I use flat aluminium plates which are as broad as the square profiles (in my case 20mm = 2cm)



The last parts of the "buying list" are plexiglass / glass, for cutting the front windows and aluminium screen. On the picture is a spool of alu screen and an already cut out part of alu screen.

All those mentioned materials are relative cheap:
Aluminium square profiles round 2€/meter
Aluminium flat parts 20mm broad 1,2€/m
Aluminium screen round 5€/m² (if purchased in spools)
Rivets 500/ 20-30€
E-profiles 4-6€/m for down and up part together
Glass 4mm 30€/m², plexiglass a bit cheaper

If all those things are buyed, the work can be started ! The first step is to cut the aluminium square profiles and the flat parts in the right size. This can be done by the supplier (many offer this for free!) or with a middle class disk saw. As mentioned before, aluminium is not difficult to handle.
After that the alu screen should be cut in pieces with the right size. Here its important to be careful with the screen if you are interested in perfect looking cages, if the screen has a dent its nearly impossible to get it out again. The aluminium screen can be cut into pieces with a normal household scissors.
Its a good job while watching TV or listening to the radio
Afterwards you can start to fix the screen and the flat alu parts with clamps:



Now the boring machine must drill some holes through the flat alu part and the square profile. The rivets and the rivet pliers are now needed to fix the screen:



Attention: If you have never worked with a rivet pliers before its better to test it on small remaining parts. At first I used to work with a pneumatic rivet pliers which is really easy to handle, but extremely expensive, so I lend it out from the company of a friend. When I started to build more of those cages it was no good solution for me to always take this pneumatic one when its unneeded in the company so I buyed a normal rivet pliers (this version costs me 40€, but there are cheaper available too). When I first used this new one I did it with way to much power, the result was a rivet pliers stucking right in my former perfect alu screen

After finishing the complete top of the screen terrarium it should look like this:



After finishing the first sidewall, like this:


8

And after doing this with all three sidewalls like this:



Tomorrow or on Thursday I will post pics of how to building the front with E profiles and I will explain what I use for the drainage of those cages

Hope this is helpfull for some people

Greets
Benny (and sorry for the numerous mistakes !)

[pumilio123]

And the second part:

So here comes the second part, again first of all the needed things at the beginning:

Here you can see a silicone tube, two E-profiles, one for the top and one for the down part, a sellotape and some rags to clean the E-profiles and the aluminium surface. The E-profiles and the aluminium square profile surface must be fat free so that the silicone connects them well



Our saw and some already cut plexiglass parts, which will make the front of the terrarium:



On this pic you can see the two E-profiles, the left is for the down part and the right for the upper part. The one for the upper part has to be always some mm higher than the other one:



Here are some pics of how I put the silicone on the square profiles. I use old nails or old wodden parts to put the silicone on them. It's important to work here with small amounts of silicone, if you dont, the silicone will squeezed out when the E-profile is put on it.







After that I put the E-profile on the square profile. Now I fix this E-profile with sellotape s that I can do the same thing with the other E-profile soon afterwards




One day later I can put in the front plexiglass parts and the terrarium is nearly finished !



For the bottom part I use a special construction made of glass, as an alternative you can use plastic boxes or for the case that no substrat is needed its of course possible to cut some plates for it





So for the end I sum up the pros and cons:

- if you want to build just a single cage and if you dont have the tools, it's not a keen alternative to the cages available
- time is an issue, at the moment I'm really fast in building those cages and I always cut bigger numbers of all materials, but anyways I think I need minimum one hour per cage, or even 1.5

+ you can build cages which fit perfect for the space you have
+ especially if you start to build cages with voluminas up or over 1m³ you can save much money !
+ all those materials are made for all long live, I guess minimum 10 years
+ the options are numerous, you can choose the bottom part you need, for example you can build something which is perfect for species which lay their eggs relative deep in the ground, with other profiles it's no problem to put in some walls on the sides to keep the humidity high etc

Greets
Benny

[jpstodwftexas]

Danke für das Teilen. Nette Idee. Ich mag den sauberen Blick der Rahmen. Haben Sie erwogen, vordere Schirmtüren zu bilden? Seien Sie einfach, die Seiten Glas für Sorten auch anzupassen, die hohe Feuchtigkeit erfordern

Thank you for Sharing..

Nice Idea..I like the clean look of the cages..

Have you considered making front screen doors?

Would be easy to adapt the Sides to glass also for species that require high humidity

[jpstodwftexas]

please let me know if the Yahoo Bable fish translator works good

[pumilio123]

Haha, with some fantasy I can understand it, but to be honest, some sentences doesnt make much sense So better write in English than in babbelfish German
I will probably built some bigger cages (50x50x80cm) with one screen door, but at the moment, those plexiglass fronts are a cheap solution with excellent vision.

There are other profiles like this here:

which can be upgraded very easily. I will use them for bigger cages to be flexible regarding the future usage of the cages

[jpstodwftexas]

Probably why it is called Babblefish

keep us updated please

[Elizabeth Freer]

Benny ~

Thanks for the time you spent photographing, building, and sharing your cages!!

May I inquire as to who will live in them?

Elizabeth

[pumilio123]

Hi Elizabeth,

of course you can Planed for now are various chameleons of the genus Bradypodion and Trioceros, Abronia graminea/deppei/taeniata and hopefully this or next year some green geckos

Greets
Benny

[Elizabeth Freer]

Originally Posted by pumilio123

Hi Elizabeth,

of course you can Planed for now are various chameleons of the genus Bradypodion and Trioceros, Abronia graminea/deppei/taeniata and hopefully this or next year some green geckos

Greets
Benny

YAY, Benny ~ Something told me green geckos were on their way ! Good wishes for those chams in the meantime. They sure have handsome homes .

[cokeinacan]

This are great. come this spring I'm going to build one of these for outdoor use. Thanks for sharing your build.