120 Gal Bubinga Plywood Vivarium build for DART FROGS, with waterfall (SLOW BUILD)

[xTimx]

I used shellac to water proof something for my tortoise. It was a wooden cage, and it molded pretty quick.

the shellac would be applied on the outside of everything not the inside. so it wouldnt mold.

remember the tank will be waterproof (as i'm doing right now)

also remember, shellac is NOT to be made as a waterproofer.

 

[JZC]

Seal the wood I meant. It didn't work but it loomed nice. Idk.

 

[josh_r]

Sorry to be fussy but could you list the tools, saws and etc you are using? How you are getting those dead on plywood cuts and so forth.

Snark, if you want to get dead on, clean cuts from plywood.... Having a high tooth count on your circular blade really helps. A 90 tooth is reeeeal nice. Also, having a zero clearance insert on your saw will really help a clean cut and prevent chipping on the bottom side of your cut. I'll explain the zero clearance better.... The slot in your table saw that the blade raises through has a gap between the blade and the table. This gap allows the end grain of the plywood to chip as the saw pulls the grain off and chips the wood instead of cutting it. The zero clearance insert is something that you can replace your current insert with (assuming your table saw has replaceable inserts) The insert has no gap between the blade and the insert. This ensures that as the saw blade cuts through the wood, the bottom side of the plywood is firmly supported all the way to the end grain and the zero clearance does not allow for splintering or chipping. A zero clearance insert is very easy to make. You can use high grade ply or melamine. Cut out a perfect fitting insert for your saw and do not cut the slit for the saw blade. Once the insert is cut to size, lower your saw blade below your table and install the insert. Once it is firmly in place (you may have to clamp it) you then turn the saw on and slowly raise the blade. The blade will cut through your insert perfectly and you get zero clearance. If you do not have the option of replaceable inserts for your saw, you can make a saw sled with zero clearance. There are several good videos on youtude for construction a zero clearance saw sled. This is VERY helpful in cutting plywood and melamine covered products.

Great job on your build Tim. It's looking really good. I look forward to seeing that bubinga with a finish on it. It's a very nice wood.

 

[The Snark]

So the saw goes from a fly cutting effect to a guillotine. Sweet. My mentor took saw blades, removed the teeth and honed the edge to razor sharp - vertical on one side. He would then slice the exterior veneer before making the actual cut with a regular blade.

 

[josh_r]

So the saw goes from a fly cutting effect to a guillotine. Sweet. My mentor took saw blades, removed the teeth and honed the edge to razor sharp - vertical on one side. He would then slice the exterior veneer before making the actual cut with a regular blade.

That would work too, but it seems like a lot of work just to cut some ply hahaha! I bet there are a lot of uses for a razor shard disc like that! thats a cool idea though!

 

[The Snark]

That would work too, but it seems like a lot of work just to cut some ply hahaha! I bet there are a lot of uses for a razor shard disc like that! thats a cool idea though!

My mentor (and boss) was a master carpenter. His attention to detail and his skill was unreal. While I'm the first to admit I'm carpentry challenged I've always loved watching real top pros at work and seeing their finished products. As example for ultimate fussy finicky, that guys house. All the doors in the place would close -and latch- by themselves if opened less than 90 degrees. At 90 degrees they would stay open. He spent 6 weeks hanging 9 doors on their custom made bronze hinges (permanently lubricated sintered load bearing surfaces) and specialized latches (which were made by a gunsmith friend of his).
When working with him it was an endurance trial. All his power cords had to be rolled up exactly a certain way. Nobody was allowed to touch his hammer or hand saw. One day we were putting clear heart redwood finishing planks on a garage door. I'd carefully drive the nails down to 1/4 inch then ever so carefully drive them home with a nail set. My boss would drive them with two hits of the hammer. I did 1 1/2 planks while he did 16 1/2. His planks, 'elephant tracks' free of course, had the nails in perfectly straight rows. His carpenters pencil was a sharp utility knife. His fine measurements were in thousandths: 'Let's add about 30 thousandths to that cut for sanding'.

My favorite anecdote of him. We went to bid on a garage door replacement. The door was a monster, 18 1/2 feet by 8 1/2 feet. I saw the bid he mailed and thought he had gone around the bend. 1 aluminum door with hardware and electric opener, $125. We will remove and haul off the old door. (About 1/2 our shops cost price). What I didn't notice but he did was under the 5 or so coats of enamel paint the old door was made out of 7/8th inch clear Honduras Mahogany. Over the following 5 years all the wood work in my boss's house was replaced with that beautiful red brown lumber, oh so lovingly installed by a true master of his trade.

 

[josh_r]

My mentor (and boss) was a master carpenter. His attention to detail and his skill was unreal. While I'm the first to admit I'm carpentry challenged I've always loved watching real top pros at work and seeing their finished products. As example for ultimate fussy finicky, that guys house. All the doors in the place would close -and latch- by themselves if opened less than 90 degrees. At 90 degrees they would stay open. He spent 6 weeks hanging 9 doors on their custom made bronze hinges (permanently lubricated sintered load bearing surfaces) and specialized latches (which were made by a gunsmith friend of his).
When working with him it was an endurance trial. All his power cords had to be rolled up exactly a certain way. Nobody was allowed to touch his hammer or hand saw. One day we were putting clear heart redwood finishing planks on a garage door. I'd carefully drive the nails down to 1/4 inch then ever so carefully drive them home with a nail set. My boss would drive them with two hits of the hammer. I did 1 1/2 planks while he did 16 1/2. His planks, 'elephant tracks' free of course, had the nails in perfectly straight rows. His carpenters pencil was a sharp utility knife. His fine measurements were in thousandths: 'Let's add about 30 thousandths to that cut for sanding'.

My favorite anecdote of him. We went to bid on a garage door replacement. The door was a monster, 18 1/2 feet by 8 1/2 feet. I saw the bid he mailed and thought he had gone around the bend. 1 aluminum door with hardware and electric opener, $125. We will remove and haul off the old door. (About 1/2 our shops cost price). What I didn't notice but he did was under the 5 or so coats of enamel paint the old door was made out of 7/8th inch clear Honduras Mahogany. Over the following 5 years all the wood work in my boss's house was replaced with that beautiful red brown lumber, oh so lovingly installed by a true master of his trade.

Sounds like the type of person you want to mentor you. this is the type of stuff that separates the masters from ametuers... shoot.. how do you speel that?? that is pretty awesome. where was this?

 

[The Snark]

That was in Pasadena, California. Working with him and his partner was a major learning experience in a number of ways. He was a neatness and order fanatic while his partner was a 'just throw it in the truck' slightly organized chaos type. I would be traded off between them. His partner was also a top pro in his own way. He started as a SeaBee in the navy. He was assigned to an island in the south Philippines repairing PT boats. They got word the Japanese fleet had cut them off from their supply route in Australia. So him and his crew cobbed together a boat from spare PT boat parts, loaded it almost to the shear line with fuel and drove the hunk of junk about 800 miles down to Darwin, dodging Japanese patrols and bailing water the entire way.

 

[josh_r]

That was in Pasadena, California. Working with him and his partner was a major learning experience in a number of ways. He was a neatness and order fanatic while his partner was a 'just throw it in the truck' slightly organized chaos type. I would be traded off between them. His partner was also a top pro in his own way. He started as a SeaBee in the navy. He was assigned to an island in the south Philippines repairing PT boats. They got word the Japanese fleet had cut them off from their supply route in Australia. So him and his crew cobbed together a boat from spare PT boat parts, loaded it almost to the shear line with fuel and drove the hunk of junk about 800 miles down to Darwin, dodging Japanese patrols and bailing water the entire way.

HAHAHA! Wow!!! What a story!!! That is pretty intense. I couldn't imagine that journey! You would hate the carpentry skills here in Lima Peru. They have this "if it fits, all good... if it doesn't fit... it's still all good" kinda mentality... I have seen some incredibly sketchy things done here... And down right dangerous technique.. On the plus side.. in Oxapampa and Pozuzo Peru, I have seen some INCREDIBLE wood working and carpentry skills. But that is due to the heavy german influence that originally colonized the area.

Got anymore stories like that?

 

[The Snark]

In Thailand the carpentry would be about the same. As they say in the trade, wood butchers. In Thai the axioms are mai pen rai, nothing, never mind, and mai som chai, I don't care. And yes, when you have German influence, the disciplined perfect fit mentality, things are decidedly different. A comedy here came down when Thailand imported and/or copied German plumbing fittings. Ultra precision fit that used O rings. You could buy the fittings anywhere but the O rings apparently seemed like unnecessary luxury goodies and weren't available with the Thai's trying to get by using great gobs of plumbers teflon tape on the non tapered threads.

In keeping with the original vein of this thread would be a friend and I building our first house. The rot set in big time after we poured the concrete then discovered it had set over the week end in 2 drain pipes. Our first chore every morning on the job site was to pour muriatic acid down those drains in the forlorn hope they would eventually clear. The next fiasco was trying to build a built in kitchen. First we wracked our brains for 2 solid weeks trying to figure out the perfect kitchen design. Finally my buddy got smart and brought his wife down to inspect the room. She strolled in, sized the place up in about 5 seconds, then told us exactly where everything should go. Then when putting in the cupboards and counters, there was a major no fit along one wall. We wracked our brains again for an hour before we figured out what we did. When framing that wall we put a chalk line on the floor. A Friday evening and we were dog tired. My buddy had placed his end of the frame on one side of the line while I placed mine on the other side. Tada! A 100-80 degree wall depending which room you viewed it from. Then we jackhammered up the concrete slab 3 times, once to find where we had connected the cold and hot water pipes, once to find the washing machine drain pipe that had gone missing and we hadn't noticed, and once for one of those concrete filled drains.

Carpentry wise our efforts were downright frightening at times. We bought a huge load of particle board on sale and attempted to make closets out of the stuff. Mixed in with the wood crud were rocks up to 1/4 inch. I think we murdered about 10 carbide blades and the finished results of the closets were frightening by any sane persons standards. Then we failed the gas pressure test about 10 times until the inspector told us a trick. (The test is for the pipes to hold 10 lbs pressure for 24 hours. But the valves were only designed for 2 PSI. So just cap all the pipe ends until after the inspection). Then we blew up a kitchen wall by have both legs of the 120 volt meet at a light switch connector tab. "Why is there a hole in that wall?" His wife asked. And in plumbing in the heating air conditioning unit I accidentally slid down behind the monster and was trapped upside down. It took my buddy almost a half hour to unbolt the unit and get me out, mostly because he kept cracking up laughing at seeing my legs sticking up.

And for some history and deja vu, my buddy on that house was also in the Pacific Theater during world war 2. He was in the signal corp and became an unknown celebrity. He was a photographer and got assigned to general Douglas MacArthur personal retinue. You know, the 'I SHALL RETURN' dude talking about going back and wresting the Philippines from the Japanese. Well, the big M, known to the those close to the arsehole as the big BM finally did return. Take a look: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped....jpg/300px-Douglas_MacArthur_lands_Leyte1.jpg
My buddy took that shot. The story goes the first time the landing craft brought BM ashore the pilot just drove the 'Duck' up on the beach. (They are fully amphibious. Mac was furious and slapped the sailor around. He then had him back the duck out into the water so he could be photographed wading ashore. Then he went back to the ship, changed clothes and repeat about 6 times until he was sure they had got the best possible pictures. The BM was a super egomaniac.
Then the crowning glory was the mayor of the town where Mac had his residence before fleeing laid out the red carpet for Mac. Big fan fare, bands the whole pile of goo. Mac had his driver driver straight up to the mayor, he jumped out of the jeep, grabbed the mayor by his lapels then hissed in his face, "Where's my furniture you son of a bitch? I want every stick of it back!" A little while later Mac sent soldiers out to confiscate all the cameras of everyone who might have photographed the confrontation. My buddy got his back, without the film in it.

Your other Mac story. Self publicist to the max, it became common knowledge Mac was going to invade one island. Worried that the Japanese had gotten wind of the impending invasion, an officer on his own incentive took a special detail ashore the night before, attacked a Japanese prison camp where they were about to execute all the prisoners and freed them. That officer was Rod Serling of the TV show Twilight Zone fame. One of the prisoners in that camp was a woman who later became my mothers best friend. She related how they had all been taken out to the edge of the jungle and lined up in front of machine guns then all hell cut loose as Serling and his detail attacked from 3 sides.

 

[xTimx]

quit hijacking my thread damn it! lmfao

---------- Post added 09-17-2013 at 02:50 PM ----------

Not completely satisfied with the waterfall idea. its gonna be a very tricky install. plus i really dont wanna have to deal with the headaches of setting it up and fiddling around with it and if something doesnt go right, i wont wanna have to tear it all down and such.
so i had a few more pieces of driftwood leftover and i hardscaped those into the corner. i like the look of this lemme know what you think ok?
ALSO, the light used is one of the grow and glows that i had bought, and is up in the light socket above me.

 

[The Snark]

It's really hard for me to visualize the final product. Just seeing driftwood instantly equates only to sand fleas. One story I am fond of was they were building up an environment at San Diego zoo and doing the head scratching thing. Then one person noticed some kind of monkey moving broken branches around. They let the monkeys have the run of the new enclosure for a week and they quite artfully rearranged the wood and rocks which the zoo kept.

 

[josh_r]

Wow Snark! You are full of great stories! And Tim..... HAHAHAHA!!!... Sorry man... I kinda influenced it...

I can definitely visualize a great setup in your pictures. I think this will be a very nice setup once finished. Whats going on with the waterfall? I may have some ideas for you.

 

[xTimx]

Well the waterfall is sketchy. There are alot of "what if's" to the structure. Plus it'll be a bugger to move the tank too. If I go the hardscape set up im saving alot of steps when making the tank.
I really like this set up now. The way the wood kinda arches. I have also provided branches so if the frogs are feeling bold they can crawl up onto the branches as well too.
The only thing I have to change is the false floor and thats super easy to do.



cheers!

xTimx

 

[josh_r]

What species are you putting in there Tim?

 

[xTimx]

either Dendrobates Auratus: Super Blue or El Cope

 

[xTimx]

UPDATE:

Got the bottom of the tank filled glue'd with pond liner. then i made another false bottom and wrapped it in screen. glued that down as well too.
set my driftwood pieces in and was working around some ideas for the right side. and the first 3 pics is the set up i will go with.
the left side set of drift wood is glued into place. just going to leave out the right side for now cuz i'll just set it in when its time to put them in. if that makes sense. lol i cant really glue the right side driftwood onto anything. you'll see what i mean when i start to lay down the spray foam.

here we go








These 3 next pics are just another idea i had for the right side driftwood. but i like the first set up better.







if i made any mistakes so far..lemme know. i need to know.

other than that. tonight my buddy will be coming over to help with the spray foaming. more pics possibly tomorrow. positive comments are most welcome!

 

[xTimx]

UPDATE

alright.... so my buddy came by and helped me spray foam tonight. got the background done tonight. wish i would of planned it a lil bit better but its all good.







i'll wait till the back cures. then i'll move onto the side where the driftwood is.

 

[josh_r]

Lookin good so far Tim. Only advice I would have given you was to silicone egg crate to the back of the vivarium as well. This allows the expandable foam to grip much stronger to the back and prevent it from shrinking and detatching due to the high moisture content of the viv. Lets hope you don't have that problem with your background.

 

[xTimx]

Actually the weather shield flex waterproofing material is tacky enough so I think it should be ok.

cheers!

xTimx