Finally Friday!

Well the weekend begins again, early finishes are always a pleasure. During the week I had my last cord arrive, made up a block mount for ceramic light fitting and I also picked up a few last things from work. I decided I was going to use the old light fitting to put in a simulated moonlight globe in the center of the vivarium which will be run off a timer. So of a night when the heat lamp isn't on (also later on when this heat globe blows I will be changing to a ceramic heating one as incandescent globes are not recommended with thermostats) there will still be a light to enable viewing and not disturb the snake (that and the blue light will look cool!).

Needed this cord to run two things off the one thermostat. Both heat lamp and heat cord shall be running off it.

I made this at work, it is just two pieces of 10mm particle board stuck together using contact adhesive. Before joining together I drilled out the center hole with a spade bit and then just cut the channel on the compound saw. The blocks are held together with 4 tiny screws as well, just in case the heat causes the adhesive to become unstuck. Then I laminated the sides in some cheap white and the base of the block, rather simple and didn't cost a thing.

I cut another small block which will be for the thermostat to sit on, this will allow it to sit flush with the rock wall. I had an old cord laying about which will be used for the for the second light fitting. I got some more white gap filler, same as before I'll be using it to fill the joins to just give the vivarium a cleaner look. Some white liquid laminate to fill any of the seen nail holes and imperfections in the melamine and finally some pine o cleen to clean up the vivarium.

Now before any reptile enthusiasts start jumping up and down, I will NOT be using the pine o cleen to clean out the inside, I am well aware of the dangers of using such a product. The sensory overload and problems caused by the chemicals I am well aware of. I plan to get some proper repticlean to clean out the vivarium once the build is finished and the final preparations are made to rehouse my snake. But as we learnt through our work, pine o cleen is a wonder product for cleaning glue and various other stuff off of laminated surfaces, so it will be used and then everything will be cleaned down with mild soapy water.

I stopped at Bunnings this afternoon after work, grabbed the grout sealer, some superglue (don't really need this for the build but I do need a little and it's always handy to have some around for when you need it) and then I went to pet shop and got a 25watt moonlight globe. I also stopped in the glazier and ordered my glass, hopefully they get it done this time.

Once home I got out the rock wall and gave it a coat of grout sealer, to my surprise the 500ml bottle of sealer went a lot further than I expected. After the first coat I had only used 1/3 of the bottle, I thought I'd be lucky to get one coat. While the first coat was drying I worked on the stuff for the vivarium a little, I marked out the block to mount the ceramic light fitting.

Drilled the holes for it and then cleaned it up.

I got the other light fitting and widened one the channels so both cords can run through, will save me drilling 2 holes to feed the cables out and also keep things looking tidier. The cable from the moon light will run along the roof and into the heat fitting, out the back, along the roof again and out through the top back of the vivarium.

Once the cord was sorted, I attached the ceramic fitting to the backing board.

Marked where it will sit inside the vivarium.

My daughter insisted I took a picture of her, she loves the camera. Little poser!

Drilled the holes to attach the backing block, countersunk them.

Then test fitted it and it all sat well.

I went and applied a second coat of sealer to the rock wall, as you can see the product is a milky white colour when wet, this made application so easy as you could see exactly where you had put it. I just used a paint brush to apply it, rather simple and easy and recoat time was 30mins so it was quick. Honestly I wish I had just done this from the beginning, so much better. I rolled the wall onto it's back so I could ensure to get every part of the rock wall.

While waiting for the second coat to dry I attached the screw caps to tidy up the look of the vivarium, I also cleaned off the markings from the top and right side. Filled the joins with gaps filler and just wasted some time looking at some of my stuff.

I applied a third coat of sealer (2 coats to the fogger rock) and left it to dry, after that I was out of sealer. As I said earlier I was surprised how far the sealer went and next time (if there is a next time) I won't be messing about and will just use that right away. I'm hoping the sealer will be dry enough by the morning, it does say it dries fast but it also says it takes 7 days for it to reach its full cure. So I don't know if I can wash it down in the morning or not, If I can then I will be installing the rock wall and begin fitting the thermostat, thermometers, heating, lighting and branches to the vivarium.

Things are coming along nicely, once my glass is done then I will pretty much have everything I need except a few small item I will need to pick up from the reptile store. I will get them closer to the completion date as I am unsure if I need bedding or not, anyway, that won't be for another couple of weeks as the vivarium will need to sit and air out for a while after it is completed so the adhesives can cure properly and the smells can fade.