RE: uroVIVAstyx : side panel 1 and 2 completed keep us updated i wanna see what its like when it all done
Re: RE: uroVIVAstyx : side panel 1 and 2 completed For sure BeefCake! Everyday I'm strugling to decide on which project to work on ... Arcade of Vivarium. Now that almost everyhting is bought, money is not the bottleneck anymore ... It's TIME. (But TIME is money... :wink keep watching... PS: I just received my temp gun. It a fun nifty device. Once you start measuring temp with it, it's hard to stop... my desk is at 27.7 Celcius!
uroVIVAstyx : Mika wants a new home... Good morning everyone, here the last progress of the uroVIVAstyx project... Tuesday I did all the slots for the final assembly and ... well, that's about it It take a lot of time to take measurements an plan everything. Measure twice cut once... In my case it's more measure 5 times, cut once and end up with 2 right panels... But it seems I did everything right so far... Last night, I've assembled the 2 front plates for the 2 floors. Tonight I should assemble the 2 shelves to the back panel. Friday night, It's "quality time" with my girlfriend, So the vivarium should be fully assembled Saturday. I'm ordering all my stuff (bowl, rock background, lights) this weekend. A friend of mine is a supplier for Hagen's, so I can get good prices I'm including a picture of my all time favorite Dobe Mika with my 2 shelves. It can give you an idea of how big this thing will be. I thinks she thinks that's her new home :wink: Cheers Jay
UroVIVAstyx : Wood Assembly completed!!! Hello everyone, This is an update to let you know that the wood assembly of the uroVIVAstyx is completed!!! YEAH! Here some pics to show the progression: Here's the middle shelf assembly. I'm using #20 biscuit + glue + clamps. Lesson learned : - You never have too many clamps... Once assembled, you have to let it dry, since you don't have any clamps left !@#$ Lesson learned : - Somehow, when using Cookies for joints, you always end up with glue everywhere... Here's the lower shelf assembly. Lesson learned : - When the glue start to harden, it's hard not to panic... After that, I clamped the side panels to the shelves. Lesson learned : - You never have too many clamps... - Somehow, when using Cookies for joints, you always end up with glue everywhere... - When the glue start to harden, it's hard not to panic... Yeah, I know, it's the same lessons, but I was out of inspiration Now, what's next??? - I need to sand that thing to remove the glue and prepare the surface for stain/varnish. - build the access ramp to go from 1st to 2nd floor - Install all the electronics/electric stuff (lamp sockets, dimmers, fans, digitaldoc5, ...). - Buy and install the glasses. - Setup the enclosure (will be done by my girlfriend) I bought 8 ceramics lamp socket today. These will be used for all lighting and heating devices. Also, all my stuff from Hagens is ordered and I should get it Wednesday: - 5 * 24"x24" rock background - 1 * med water bowl (for food, higher than food bowl = good against sand) - 2 * med caves - 2 * basking lamps 100W/150W (controlled by a dimmer if necessary) - 1 * ceramic heater 150W (controlled by a dimmer if necessary) - 2 * reptiglo 10.0 26W compact fluorescent. So that's it for tonight, more news to come in the next few days... Good night Jay.
RE: UroVIVAstyx : Wood Assembly completed!!! That rock background will most likely be a problem. Uros like to clmb and scratch on vertical objects, since those backgrounds are cheap foam, you uro will tear pieces out and will prolly injest some, which will impact it. Also, the medium cave will work for babies but the opening is to small for juvies and adults, infact adults need an extra large cave in order to fit inside, even the large is to small for them. Just a friendly warning, I'm not trying to knock what you ordered. Hagen makes great products, I usually have to make weekly orders for the stuff of theres that we carry versus monthly orders for any of the other brands.
Re: RE: UroVIVAstyx : Wood Assembly completed!!! Thank for the background warning dragonguy. I guess I should have asked the question on the forum first ... :cry: Since they're already ordered, I'll install them anyways, but I'll keep an eye on the uros. If I see that they start to rip it appart, I'll change the background for something else (custom wall rock) ... As for the caves, luckilly, I have in fact ordered 2M + 2L. I my uros eventually gets too big for the large ones (and I wish that happens), I'll get those XL or make some myself ... I've heard the the grows rate of a uro is really slow, so I should be OK for a few years right?? BTW, do you think I should install the 4 caves right from the start or install the M ones first and swap them for the L when the uros get bigger? Where would you place them? I've got 2 floors (5x2) and each should have the required temp gradients?? Jay
RE: Re: RE: UroVIVAstyx : Wood Assembly completed!!! I would use the large ones first don;t even bother with the medium, or maybe just put one in, uros like short hides and the large is pretty short, but is deep enough he can hide comfortably. Uro's do grow very slow, so the large should last you until it growns to about 9-10 inches.
UroVIVAstyx : Bade to the drawing board!!!! thanks Dragonguy for the advice. It's appreciated... I just realized a few hours ago that the vivarium won't fit in the doorway from my basement (where the workshop is) to the 1st floor..... ****!!! I'll have to redo it again... This time, the assembly should be way faster. I'll modify the design to make it modular : 2 modules of 2x5x2... More news to comes... the sad part, Is that that trial will cost me about 100$ (wood) Well, It's been a good learning experience... Stay tune!
uroVIVAstyx rev 2.0 Well this morning I had a flash about the uroVIVAstyx rev1.0 and what I’ve learned so far... Man that thing is huge, I mean really huge!!! So I started to think who could help me to move this thing upstairs (my workshop is in the basement). Then, I was imagining myself with a friend trying to move it and.... Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! MY VIVARIUM IS 26x59x28 AND IT WONT PASS IN THE DOORWAY/STAIRWAY... sh....t! How could I missed that one!!! The way the stairs are built, they go down and the doorway is on the right. So there's no way I can pass it through the doorway and make that 90deg turn... I even drew the doorway, stairs and uroVIVAstyx in visio and play with the vivarium to see if I could manage to get it through... NO LUCK!!! So Lesson learned (because that one is important): - when building something, make sure you are able to move it to its final destination So after been pissed off for a while, I’ve moved on. Time for rev2. I thought of reusing some part of rev1.0, but decided to redo it from scratch. The main reason being that the solid oak used for the side panels didn’t match the laminated oak plywood... I’m still building it in my workshop, but this time, it will be in 2 part (upper/lower) of 59Lx25Wx24H. These one will clear that turn! So I went back to Reno-Depot (hardware store in Quebec), make them do the major cuts, paid another 100$ of wood, head back home, had diner (T-Bone on the BBQ Mmmmmm!), and back to work! Tonight I did all the cuts and labeled all the pieces. I did the groove for the biscuit for the hot side panels and assembled the 2 hot side panels I wanted to do more, but did had enough clamps... It's funny, doing all this was easy, like if it was the second time I did it... I’ll probably assemble the 2 cold side panels tomorrow morning, the shelves to their front plate Wednesday and the whole thing Thursday, right in time with my Hagen’s Stuff... Good Night! Jay
2 hot side panels are ready! Morning update before going to work... The 2 side panels (hot side) are ready. Here's a picture of them in the uroVIVAstyx !@$!@% rev1.0 aka junk pile of wood! :evil: This morning I routed all the slots for the biscuits on the 2 cold side panels and assembled the first panel out of 2. I couldn't assembled the second one because I was out of clamps! See you later...
uroVIVAstyx : cold side panels assembled! Gooooood Moooorning every one!! This morning, I've finished the second cold side panel assembly. Here's more details on how the assembly is done: step01: design the panel step02: cut the wood step03: identify all pieces step04: mark where the biscuits will be inserted step05: using a router or a biscuit jointer, route all slots required. step06: dry fit. Install all biscuit without glue and assemble the panel to make sure everything fit. You don't want to realize one of the slot is not at the right place when the pieces are already glue!! step07: fill slots with glue, add glue to the biscuits and insert the biscuit in 1 of the 2 slots of each joint step08 : start the assembly by aligning pieces and with a gentle pressure (something not so gentle) close the joint. You can use clamp to apply the necessary pressure to close the joints. step09 : once all joints are made, with a gently "push" (ie with a piece of scrap wood and a hammer and a strength that end up being no so gently), align all pieces. step10: install all clamp to have a nice joint (to close the gap between pieces) step11: using a scraper, remove what you can of glue residue. This will reduce the sanding required for the finishing. step12: Let it dry (follow instructions on the glue container). In my case, I let it dry while I'm at work. Talking of work .... Got to go See you later! Jay
uroVIVAstyx : central section are ready! Late night update... On my last post, there a picture of the cold side panel: There're 2 square pieces 120x120mm (4.75x4.75in) (1 of them is held by the 2 red clamps). These pieces are to position the frame for the fan. Once the glue was dry, I remove those pieces with the hammer in a "not so gently" manner. It works well on the first panel, but on the second, I did some damage... Hopefully, wood is really forgiving. So with a bit of glue and some clamps, I put everything into place and let it dry for the night. The next day, I removed the clamp, do a quick sanding and tada!!! You can barely see it. Also, the damage side is the inside side, so unless the uros complain about it, I should be fine Tonight, I've completed the 2 middle sections. It looks like "deja vu" , but here's a central section assembled And the other one, ready to use (on the HUGE uroVIVAstyx rev 1.0) The last thing to do, to complete the assembly, it to joint the middle section with its 2 side panels. This will be done another day. Cheers!!!
uroVIVAstyx : 2 levels are fully assembled I’ll right, I just completed the assembly of the second level. Before assembling each level, I did a quick sanding cleanup to remove glue residue. the tool ... the glue residue... the surface is clean... Once all side panels were clean, I assembled them to the middle section. Same process as usual : biscuit jointer + glue + biscuits + clamps On this last picture, you can see one of the 2 level fully assembled (cold side + fan installed). As you can see, I'll have to clean up the new glue residue... Now, I’m at the same point as last week, except that this time I’ll be able to bring the 2 sections upstairs!!! PS: with the jigsaw, I’ve cut the uroVIVAstyx rev 1.0 to transform it into a single level enclosure. Dimension are 5x2x2 (almost identical to 2 new sections I’ve built this week). One of my friend has a snake and might be able to use this enclosure (he only need to add the glass). It’s better than just throw is away... Good night! Jay
uroVIVAstyx : more progress : ready to stain Thanks Nines, it's always fun to have some feedback (so that you don't think you write all this only for yourself) ------------------------------------------------------------ Hello everyone, today I was able to work a few hour on the uroVIVAstyx. I did the rough sanding, did the holes for the 2 120mm fan (on the hot side) and also for the temp station (digitaldoc5). I also found a way to install securely the 2 parts of the vivarium. What I did is add another layer of plywood under the base (floor) of the upper level part. There were 2 goals for that strategy. 1. an easy way to assemble the 2 parts of the vivarium such that they don't move and also that they are aligned 2. Increase the thickness of the original plywood. I've used 1/2 in plywood, but I've kind of forgot that I need to screw he lamp fixtures and others stuff to the ceiling of each level. The upper level ceiling is a 3/4 plywood (oak laminate). The lower level ceiling is the upper level floor. Since 1/2 inch is kind of border line to install screws, I went that way! Here a picture of that extra piece of plywood. Here is when I glued/screwed that extra layer to the floor of the upper level. I installed both part of the vivarium and clamp them together to make sure the plywood is well aligned. The last pictures are the 2 part of the vivarium assembled (on top of what's left of the rev1.0). As you can see, I've temporarily installed the fan to see how it looks Here's a closer shot of the temp station installed: Now, what's left?? - do some stain test to find the right color. - stain+varnish everything - buy the glass - install the wall background - build and install the access ramp to go from 1st to 2nd floor - install all fixture + electronics + wires securely - transfer the project to the girlfriend who will take care to add the finish touch (wall back) So keep posted, more news to come. Jay.
uroVIVAstyx : finally got a colormatch for the stain... quick update. I've finally found a color match for the stain. I should stain the uroVIVAstyx this weekend. as usual, I'll post pic when ready... also, I'm going to the glass shop to get all the 10 pieces of glass requiered for the vivarium. more news later. Cheers Jay
UroVIVAstyx : finally found sliding glass tracks with roller Hello, another quick update. After a few phone calls, I finally found 2 glass stores that carry sliding door track assembly (with roller). The first place was roughly 16$/foot. In my case, I have 2 opening of 5 feet each, so 10 feet. ==> 160+tx=182$ (Canadian) The second place also had a similar setup, but the track itself is sold in 12 feet pieces. In my case, I needed 2x5, so I was OK with 1x12'. ==> 101+tx=115$ (Canadian). The finish is aluminum. since it was cheaper, I went with that one. It includes everything, except the glass. I'll install the tracks, then calculate the required glass size. I'll post some pics when I get the tracks. Jay
uroVIVAstyx : fake wall installation trial Hello, yesterday I was thinking on how to install the wall backgrounds The things is that these background are not built to put many one next to another (the right edge is not the continuity of the left one). So instead of putting them one next the the other and then try to camouflage them with some other decorations (fake plants or else), I've decided to put a piece of 1x2 wood between each rock wall sections. It doesn't look natural, but I guess it's a good compromise. I'll stain varnish that thing over the weekend and install the top panel and access ramp probably Monday... Comments are welcome! Have to go now! Jay
RE: uroVIVAstyx : fake wall installation trial it is lookin good altho i am not 1 million percent sure on wot you are building
RE: uroVIVAstyx : fake wall installation trial Looks great dude, this is a great source of info for those wanting to build their own enclosures!
