A cabinet conversion... in miniture.

[RedFox]

So first of all why are photos so annoying to load? I had to resize them all so hopefully they work.

Anyway, I recently moved from Melbourne up to QLD and left my old 4x2x2 melamine enclosure behind. This meant a new build. So after seeing some really cool cabinet conversions recently I headed down to the buy back shop (a shop thing at the local tip) to see if I could find something that would be suitable, to house my adult woma.

This is what I found:

It is an old jewellery display cabinet, with a glass display part up the top and storage at the bottom. Although it is way too small to house my adult woma, it will be perfect for my woma hatchy, well at least for a little while.

The first thing I did was pull it apart and give it a good scrub.


And that is as far as I've gotten with the cabinet so far. I plan to have the one side completely melamine so I can put the vents in without having to try to holesaw the glass. Put a shelf in underneath and have a hinged swinging door instead of the impractical sliding ones. The back glass panel will be pulled out and replaced with the sliding glass doors from the front. With the top of the enclosure I plan to mesh half as humidity is a problem up here and put the back panel of glass over the other half. So the front will become the back and the back will be the front. Hopefully that makes sense. Well it will anyway when it is finished.

 

[RedFox]

I worked on the cabinet a little bit today, and will post pics of that maybe tomorrow afternoon. In the meantime, I have being busy making a Rockwall. First thing I did was go to Coles and get a couple of broccoli boxes.

Then I cut, carved and scratched it until I was semi happy. It might have been better if I had planned it out. I made a little cave thing to the right and a shelf to hold the heat tile panel thingo I made using a heat cord.

Oh and I went to Kmart and bought the plant on the left, which I pulled apart. The one on the right is one I prepared earlier. The plant part is from Ikea.

Once again putting pictures up was frustrating, so hopefully they work.

 

[smileysnake]

looking good mate...and yeah try and get rid of most of the glass as it is too hard to keep temps right...job going really well so far make sure you keep us posted....

 

[reptalica]

Love ya work RF......looking schmicko!!

Sometimes the best results stem from little planning.

Oh and I went to click on the pics to get a larger view but they don't enlarge. FYI.

 

[Porkbones]

Looks good so far.and yes the whole resizing of pics and now not been able to do it from my phone anymore is a huge pain.i really dont know why all of a sudden things changed when it came to doing the pics

 

[mudgudgeon]

Looks cool!!

I'd suggest painting the glass where you will have foam etc up against it so you don't see the foam from the outside

 

[RedFox]

I'll see if I can fix the pics later when I have finished work. I have being uploading them from my phone. Up here keeping heat isn't a problem but proper ventilation is, so it will end up with three glass sides and one plywood side, which the Rockwall will be attached to. I'm going to drill stacks of holes in the melamine wall and have half the roof with mesh which will hopefully bring the humidity down.

I have the day off tomorrow so will hopefully get a bit done. I have finished the rockwall now and the plant bases. I also made a water bowl which still needs a couple more coats of pond sealer. Will be a bit of an upgrade from the vegemite lid he has at the moment.

 

[RedFox]

Can't get the photos to work on my laptop. Explorer doesn't want to load pics. So I've installed tapatalk. Hopefully it works.

I forgot to mention I reinforced the polystyrene with plactic chopsticks and wood. I then mixed up some acrylic render, pva glue and water and applied it with a paint brush. This is it after two coats. I used a toothpick to texture it.

I also decided to attach some of the grass on top of the arch/cave area. The grass was too long so I cut it in half, tapered the end then tied all the loose pieces together with cotton.

This is the shelf where the heat tile will sit.

And my not so helpful little helper. She managed to destroy one of my paintbrushes while I was having lunch and waiting for one of the coats to dry.

I ended up doing four coats so it is nice and strong.

 

[RedFox]

So even with the best of intentions, I have not managed to work on this much in the last few days. I went to bunnings, one of those things I do every once in a while to remind myself why I hate bunnings, and got some supplies.

I have now painted the steel framework black and have replaced the white melamine panels with plywood, which I will stain dark so it sort of goes with the rest of the furniture.

I have now got the go ahead to keep it in the lounge room, so super happy with that.

In the meantime, I thought I would post the rest of my DIY Rockwall.

This is after the first coat of paint. I mixed up some acrylic paint, pva glue and water and sprayed it on using a cheap spray bottle.

Then the finished producted. For some reason the colours look a lot different using my phone's camera, but it will do for now.

I placed the tile there to make sure it still fits. I actually have a bit of melamine with the heat cord attached and the tile on top that will sit in the shelf when it is in the enclosure. I also bought no more gaps in a baked earth colour to finish the shelf, seal the tile to the melamine and to go around the airholes I will drill into the rockwall.

Finished the plant base and am about half way through completing the water bowl.

 

[emmalene_bunny]

Everything looks really, really good! Your woma is going to love it & I'm super jealous of your talent, I don't think I could make anything like that!

 

[harlemrain]

That looks amazing I agree emmalene, I couldn't have a hope of something like this haha well done

 

[RedFox]

Thanks for the kind comments.

I worked on the actual cabinet a bit more today. I mentioned earlier that I was painting the metal black. After sanding the old paint back and then applying a few coats of black paint, I can say it took a lot more time then I was expecting, but the final product looks so much better.

I also replaced the white melamine panels, half of which were quite badly damaged, with marine grade plywood. I stained the wood with a jarrah colour which has made it a lovely reddy Brown colour.

I then used black silicon to reseal the glass and seal the wood panels. I think I did a fairly neat job so thought I would show off.

Looks a bit different to the original now.

 

[Rogue5861]

Looking good mate, the paint and panel change has given it a new look.

Cant wait to see it all setup and back together.




Rick

 

[sharky]

You can build me an enclosure any day! That is bloody awesome

 

[RedFox]

I have finished the top with half mesh, half glass.

I put wheels on the bottom.

I am also waiting for my lights that I bought off ebay to arrive and will take final pics when I have them installed.

I also mounted my thermostat and am now running the heat cord to check temps.

I have now pretty finished the cabinet just need to give it a good clean and add a few finishing touches.

After seeing a few recent DIY's using hebel I decided to have a go at making a hebel hide. So I went to bunnings and they gave me a good price on some broken blocks. I carved away at it and am now waiting for the paint to dry.

 

[RedFox]

I finished this a few weeks ago now. I then had a bit of wait until my lights arrived.

I got a warm white and a yellow. I have them on timers with the yellow being a sunrise and sunset and the white on for daytime.

I then put my woma in who hid for three days before going into shed. He has now sloughed and so I thought I would put up some photos of him exploring his new home.

He spends his days in his "den" under the heat tile.

 

[Rogue5861]

Looks great man, im sure ya Woma loves its new home


Rick

 

[5potted]

Looks great can you PM me the supplier on eBay for the lights?

 

[Riffherper]

Awesome job mate. Also interested in the lights of you could please post or pm details.

 

[phatty]

love it redfox that is a awesome job you have done there
did you just paint over the hebel like i did