# Extreme Giant enclosure building project



## Guest (Aug 9, 2010)

Although Beetlejuice is still only 13" I've already begun putting together his "big boy" enclosure. 

I made it as big as I could, even though he'll be mostly outdoors when he's big enough. It's mostly gonna be for then entire month of July (when ambient temps can reach up to 110Ã?â??Ã?Âº :shock: and hibernation) It's roughly 100"Lx42"Wx32"H.

I also chose to go with polyurethane and stain (MinWax Sedona Red), just because it looks way better than paint and drylok. Using MinWax's high-build poly, I put 3 coats on the outside and 5 coats in the inside. Five coats is admittedly over-kill (When I was building my chameleon cages, I cut a piece of wood as a test, stained it and applied 3 coats, then left it in a bucket of water for 3 weeks and it was perfectly fine) but better safe then sorry. 


Here's the first photo. Look at that perfect angle! Still not really good at these. Damn things are hard!






Here's the frame with the side panel in:





Same side panel, indoors with flash. I love the polyurethane because when the light hits it just right, it looks like amber.





Inside bottom panel, awaiting another sanding and its five coats of poly:





Outside of the bottom panel. Looks like hardwood flooring! I like to assemble the panels inside (cuz that's where the TV is!) and put it together back outside.





That night it occurred to me that I might not be able to get this thing in through the back! I'd have to carry this monster to the front and bring it in that way. But it barely fit - had a quarter inch on each side!





Finally got this beast in the house. (It's sitting on the front in the pic. The "top" is the back and the "right" is actually the bottom. 





And one more of the cool amber effect of the poly:






So there it is. Coming along nicely, I think.


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## Dom3rd (Aug 9, 2010)

Looks great to me so far...


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## slideaboot (Aug 9, 2010)

Nice job on choosing that red stain. Looks RAD!


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## Guest (Aug 9, 2010)

I really like the two tone wood look. I think this is the way I will do it.


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## slideaboot (Aug 9, 2010)

FIREEVT said:


> I really like the two tone wood look. I think this is the way I will do it.



Agreed. Really cool, unique look for a cage.


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## Stef41 (Aug 9, 2010)

Beautiful! 

Can't wait to see the finished product!


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## Guest (Aug 9, 2010)

Thanks for the comments, guys!

The two-tone look came, more or less, by accident. When I was building my first chameleon cage, I really liked the red stain. But when it came down to assemble the cabinet at the bottom, I thought to have the whole thing the same color would be too much red. I decided to just keep it natural with just the poly. I thought it's be a cool look, really unique.

It came out better than I thought and I really love the way it looks. I decided that every enclosure that I build will have the same look. 

Here's that first chameleon cage (the very first enclosure I ever built)






It measures 7x2.5x2.5 (actual cage space is 6x2.5x2.5)


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## chris allen (Aug 9, 2010)

I like the look also. Look forward to the finished cage pictures!


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