$400 screen cage no thanks Ill make 1 just like the professionals for less then $150

[ChamLB]

Nice work! Not everyone has the skills, the tools, the time. Good for you. You should post the specs you used.

 

[tenchijin]

I was just planning to make one myself. It really shouldn't be too hard as long as you measure carefully and cut clean. I made a hinged screen top for an aquarium the same way in the past.

 

[broderp]

I was just planning to make one myself. It really shouldn't be too hard as long as you measure carefully and cut clean. I made a hinged screen top for an aquarium the same way in the past.

I just made a small screen for my exo Terra terrarium, a simple 24 X 18 screen. Took me over 2 hours. The worse part was inserting the screen and getting it tight. I'm just not cut out for that. The aluminum mesh would tear when I tried to use the roller tool and stretch it into the channel. I think I stabbed myself half dozen times with aluminum shards in the trimming. Kudos to those with the patients to to this.

 

[EveryGreen]

Wish I would have done this

 

[tenchijin]

I just made a small screen for my exo Terra terrarium, a simple 24 X 18 screen. Took me over 2 hours. The worse part was inserting the screen and getting it tight. I'm just not cut out for that. The aluminum mesh would tear when I tried to use the roller tool and stretch it into the channel. I think I stabbed myself half dozen times with aluminum shards in the trimming. Kudos to those with the patients to to this.

LOL I didn't have that much trouble making screens so I think this will work well for me. The screen top I made was hinged and had a little handle for lifting. That gives me some experience with screwing into the aluminum frame without stripping. Should be a fairly easy task compared to some of the other cages I've built.

 

[Mtnlaurel]

This is really fantastic! it looks professional. I'm impressed!

 

[OldChamKeeper]

The worse part was inserting the screen and getting it tight. I'm just not cut out for that. The aluminum mesh would tear when I tried to use the roller tool and stretch it into the channel. I think I stabbed myself half dozen times with aluminum shards in the trimming. Kudos to those with the patients to to this.

And that's just the times you stabbed yourself. I've done it too back when I used to build my own cages, but back then there wasn't a screen cage to purchase that was mass produced with machinery like now.

I saw, tons, of injured or sick reptiles in my time. More than anybody should outside a Vet. There were plenty of times where a homemade cage wasn't done just quite right and the animal would get injured. Other times the cage just didn't hold the animal, nothing like the power a 15' Burmese python has when it wants out of a crappy cage.

The corners always need that extra attention when building a cage. If you can't get those right then you are better off buying a cage made by a company and pay the money for it. To the few who have the skill and the time (time is money, some forget that) then kudos to making your own stuff, I still do too. I've chuckled more than a few times at people who tell me they will build themselves a cage cheaper than a store bought one...then after spending the money on the materials they still come buy a cage later. Sometimes it's cheaper to just make the correct purchases up front.

If you don't have the skill, buy a quality cage for the sake of your critter. If you can build one, cool, but nowadays if I'm going to really build something I'm going to build something.... unusual.

 

[WAMBO]

Got my extra large Reptibreeze on sale at Petco for $54