Weekend Washout.

Well I had hoped to finish off the build this weekend and then allow a couple of weeks for the fumes of the adhesives to settle. Unfortunately the stupid glazier had not cut my glass, even though he told me it would take 1-2 days to do. It's now been over a week and it's still not ready, if I was not saving over $50 I would take my business else where. I guess you really do get what you pay for..

I stopped by the grocery store and picked up some rubbing alcohol (isocol), borrowed a grout brush from work and attempted to try clean the white from the excess grout sealer off the rock wall. First of all I made a 50/50 mixture of water/alcohol as recommended in the articles I read, this had next to no effect. Next I tried just straight alcohol and it did work (sort of), it removed some of the white and it also removed the shine as well. Unfortunately the effort involved to get such little effect was outweighed by the fact I was happy to just accept the white bits. So I decided to just leave it, the cost of the isocol will not be part of the build (I used only a tiny bit and honestly it's good to have in the medicine cabinet anyway).

I bought a hygrometer off eBay last week, so I can monitor the humidity in the vivarium. It arrived rather quickly and looked good.

I was unsure exactly how they work, like whether they need to be mounted with the back of them in the vivarium or not. My thermometers have a sensor on the back and require channels to allow accurate readings, so I just assumed this was the same (if not, oh well). So I began making a mount that would allow air to get to the back of the hygrometer and also allow me to mount it inside the vivarium. I started by getting a 10mm bit of particle board from work and used a hole saw to cut out 2 circles.

I then used a smaller hole saw to cut out the center of one of the circles, making a ring. It was a little rough but that didn't matter as you will see later on.

With the other circle I marked and cut it into 2 pieces, removing a section from both halves to leave a channel down the center. Then I attached it all together with super glue.

A rear view.

Then I mounted the hygrometer in the ring using liquid nails to hold it in place, covered the face with plenty of masking tape (overlapping them as much as possible) to prevent any render getting on the face. I then made light brown mix of render and gave the whole thing a couple of coats of render.

Between each coat I got a wet rag and wiped around the edge between where the hygrometer meets the wood. This was to create a nice clean look where the outer of the hygrometer meets the render. Overlapping the masking tape was a good call as the water made it come unstuck a little and the amounts of tape used stopped any render getting in even when it did come unstuck a little.

When applying the render I just used my finger, seeing as it was a small piece using my finger made it easier. Also I got quite a nice uneven effect when I used my finger, making it look more rock like. During the coats I used a heat gun on a low setting to help speed up the drying process.

Once I had done 2 coats and was happy with the look and it had all dried I removed the masking tape and gave the face of the hygrometer a little clean as the masking tape left a little bit of sticky residue on it.

You can see it still has the channel, I made sure not to block this off with render.

Then I mounted it to the rock wall using liquid nails, propped a few pieces of wood under it to hold it in place and left it to dry. The hygrometer was a bit of an after thought, so I had not left a ideal spot to place it when designing the rock wall. The only (flat) spot on the rock wall where it would be visible enough was just left of the fogger rock, a bit low for my liking but it'd have to do. Without either cutting into the rock wall or creating a mount to fit in between the extrusions of the rock wall, this was the only spot left to mount it.

All of that was done Friday afternoon after work, I honestly have nothing else I can do to the build without the glass. So when I woke this morning, I had my coffee and decided to work on the planter box my partner asked for. I made it out of old pallets and some stain I had in the shed, was going for an old rustic look and I think it turned out rather well.

Hopefully I'll get my glass before next weekend so I can have a better update.

Oh and I bought a ceramic heat globe off eBay today, I read more on the better types of globes for the thermostat I am using and they say the incandescent infrared globe I have will probably only last a few weeks. So I figured I better order one now so I have back up, bought it from Hong Kong so it'll probably take a few weeks to arrive, but hey, it was cheap heh!

Weekend work!

Better late than never, been a bit of a busy weekend with the build, car hunting, kids and movies to watch, so I kind of didn't have time to update the blog till now (well, I started on the weekend but I only wrote a little bit and have been doing a little bit each night. So I finally finished it off today).

I woke fairly early Saturday morning (as usual), made a strong coffee and headed outside to check on the rock wall. I was hoping the sealer had cured enough to wash down the wall and fogger rock and give it time to dry while I made breakfast. To my surprise the sealer had not fully cured, it was still slightly wet in a few places where it had pooled a little.

Being impatient and just plain fed up with all the fuss the wall and sealing process had caused me I just hosed it down anyway. In the end this turned out to be a good thing (though I didn't know it at the time) as the sealer was to turn a milky colour where it had pooled or was too thick and not soaked into the render. So it ended up washing off some of the excess and reducing milky effect I was to discover later.

I later learnt that the extra coats of grout sealer was not a good idea, all it needs is one single coat unless the render soaks up too much of the sealer. All that the extra coats of sealer did was produce a milky/white look where there was no porous render for it to soak into. I read up on this to see what the cause was and if it can be fixed. The cause is too much grout sealer and it doesn't soak into the render causing it to pool, drip or stay on the surface and this leaves a milky/white look to those parts. If it is minimal the fix is brushing it down with water and a grout brush or if it rather bad (as in my case) then rubbing alcohol diluted down with water is applied, then brushed over with a grout brush and then remove any excess liquid with a absorbent paper towel.

Lesson learnt, if I can be bothered I might try removing some of the white/milky look next weekend although honestly at this stage I am just happy to leave it as it is. It still looks good enough, it's practical and I've just kind of had enough of the rock wall.

Once it had dried, I generously applied liquid nails all around the right side, rear cut-outs, and edges of the rock wall. Then with some help (the rock wall is now rather heavy and is rather awkward to carry alone due to size and shape) the wall was gently slid into place, firmly pressed against the back and side of the vivarium. I found that the front of the right side kept springing out from the vivarium wall (I'm guessing I didn't quite make it square) so with the help of a couple of clamps, I persuaded it to stay put and then left it all to dry while I went car hunting.

Once I returned I began fitting the electrical parts, starting with the heat cord. I thread it through the channel I made when constructing the rock wall, this made things very easy and will keep a nice clean look to the vivarium.

Personally I chose to use a heat cord over a heat mat for one very simple reason; heat cords do not get all that hot, 15°C is the max temp (if I remember correctly), where as heat mats tend to get hotter and have been known to cause burns and injuries to reptiles. I don't know how much of this is true as I am only going on the word I have heard from numerous reptile enthusiasts but either way, the heat cord provides a nice warm spot in the substrate where my snakes large hide will be placed over. With the heat lamp above this should create a nice warm hiding place should she chose to use it. As well as the alcove and ledge for basking under the heat lamp.

After threading the cord through I plugged it into the adaptor, fitted it into the crevice I made during construction of the rock wall and fed the adaptor plug out the back of the vivarium. As said in a previous blog entry, I am using this adaptor as I will be running both the heat lamp and heat cord off the one thermostat, this will keep a simple heating system while providing the best comfort for my snake.

I used silicone to secure the piece of board that has the recess for the heat cord. The reason I used silicone instead of liquid nails is in case for some reason I may want to move or remove the heat cord I will be able to do so with relative ease. If I used liquid nails, moving or removing could prove much for difficult and could result in possible damage and/or ruining the vivarium. Silicone is still a rather good adhesive but it's flexible nature make it easy to remove the item fixed into place.

For the same reasons said above, I only ran a small bead of silicone around the edges of the board. Enough to hold it in place.

I fed the heat cord through the recess and then used the silicone in a few strategic points to keep the cord in place.

Next I used the silicone again to fix the fogger rock into position, poked the cord out the back and plugged up the hole with a blob of silicone.

Then I disconnected the wires of the cords from the base of the heat lamp and lighting base. I thread the cords through the back and into the vivarium, pulled them as far through as I could to make reconnecting them as easier.

First I reconnected the heat lamp base, once that was done I thread the lighting cord through the grove in the heat lamp base and attached the heat lamp base loosely. Then I reconnected up the lighting base, attached it to the vivarium and pulled the cord tight and through the heat lamp base, tightened the heat lamp base right up and made sure both cords had been fed completely out the back of the vivarium.

Using the cord holders and some zip ties I had floating about (a good workshop always has zip ties, they have 101 uses) I attached the cord to the roof and secured them neatly into place.

Now that all the holes for the cords where used and I still had the silicone out. I ran it around the edges (top, bottom and sides), into the holes for the cords and also around all the cutouts of the rock wall. This seals off the rock wall and will stop any moisture, dirt, dust and most of all, my snake from getting behind the rock wall.

Then I switched out the silicone for some gap filler, I used that to fill up the channel where the cord for the lighting comes out the base. I used this because it is white and just gives a cleaner look. It looks a little uneven and messy in this picture but that was because it had just been applied, later one once it had set a little I cleaned it up and smoothed it out.

I used a spade bit and drilled a hole to feed the cords of the thermostat out, I made it a fair bit bigger than it needed to be. Seeing as there will be a backing board for the thermostat, I was not worried about the size of the hole and this just made getting the cords through much easier.

I chiseled out a section of the backing board for the thermostat, this is for the actual wires to sit in where they run into the thermostat housing.

Before disconnecting the wires I drew a diagram of where all of them connected up to in the thermostat. That was so there would be no mistakes or chance of wiring it up wrong.

Easily done, all re-wired back up, I stuck the backing board on with liquid nails, popped in a couple of small screws through the housing of the thermostat to attach it to the backing board.

Popped the front cover back on and it all sits nicely with no visible signs of wiring or any holes. I was quite happy with the way this looked.

The 2 cords from the thermostat now dangled out the back with the other electrical cords.

Next I fitted the 2 backing boards for the thermometers, attached them with liquid nails (I had to sand them a little to get them to fit into the cut outs due to the render making the holes slightly smaller). I didn't bother taking pictures of both as they look the same, they are just in different locations. I have one down the hot end of the vivarium and one down the cold end so I can monitor the temperatures of both ends easily.

The thermometers came with sticky double sided rings, making attaching them into place very simple. I quite like the look of these thermometers, honestly I had 2 already but they where odd and totally different types. I bought these to add some symmetry and keep the neatness to the build.

Next I installed one of the branches out of my old vivarium that was attached to the smaller brackets I had bought earlier in the build for the table but never used. I just used some small screws to hold this one in place.

Next I drilled out some holes to attach the other branch, this one used larger brackets so it protruded further from the rock wall. Due to this the screw heads would be too small to hold it in place, so I used some bolts I had lying about. Popped them through to the back, put on a washer and nut, did it up and all was looking good.

Then I screwed in the bulbs and attached the cages around the lights. I already had one cage made of small snake mesh, I used that around the heat lamp. I read that any light 25 watts or under does not require a cage but after testing the moon light globe I went to remove it and discovered it actually does get rather hot. So just to be safe I decided to make a cage for that.

I wasn't going to pay $30-$40 for a cage and I had some chook (Aussie slang for chicken) mesh lying about in my shed (as you probably noticed I have lots of junk lying about my shed, I tend to horde things heh!). I know the holes are slightly on the large side and not 100% suitable but my snake is too big to fit through it and honestly I don't think she could quite reach the light anyway, so this should be more than enough to avoid any burns from her stretching out and touching the globe. I may consider buying one at a later stage, but for now this is will do the job needed.

With very little left I could do to the vivarium without the glass, I moved onto the back and started hooking it all together and neatening it up. I first attached the double adaptor to run both the heat lamp and heat cord off the thermostat, this had a triangle shaped junction that had a hole to put a screw through to affix it.

I bundled up the excess cord from the adaptor and zip tied it together, hung it up using the cord holders and then proceeded to run the rest of the cords. Using zip ties and the cord holders I made it all neat (well neat-ish) and ran it down to the back of the cupboard.

Using my hole saw I cut an opening through the back of the cupboard and poked all the cords through to the inside.

I attached the power board to the top shelf and plugged everything in. The moonlight globe runs off a timer that is set to come on between the hours of 7pm to 7am. The fogger runs off a timer that is set to go on twice a day for 30 minutes each time, once at 6am and again at 6pm, I may adjust this depending on how the humidity level is and how much the fogger effects that level. The thermostat just plugs straight into the power board of course.

Seeing as at this stage I was pretty much at a stand still due to not having the glass doors and it was also getting late in the afternoon (plus it was beer time), I decided I'd just place and attach the other branches I had out of the old vivarium, using zip ties to hold them in place once I worked out good placing for them. The vivarium is really looking fantastic now, once the fake plants, hides, water bowl and substrate goes it then it will look pretty awesome (if I do say so myself).

That was it for Saturday, without an angle grinder, the glass or a panel saw (to cut down the left side as I made it 1mm to big) I was at a standstill. So I called it a day, had a beer (or 4) and went and watched a movie. Figured I'd head to Bunnings in the morning to buy a cheap grinder and deal with the bolts then.

A strong cup of coffee and off to Bunnings I go, bought a real cheap angle grinder that came with discs. I filled the cheap spray bottle I bought last weekend with water so I could spray down the bolts during the grinding process. The reason I did this was because the vents are made of plastic and I didn't want the heat to melt the bolts into them.

I ground down all the bolts right down to the nuts, I didn't want them protruding any further out than that. This way they won't scratch or damage the wall inside the house as the cords protruded slightly further than them. I used a fine hand file to smooth the bolts off and make sure they had no sharp edges.

I had been thinking about the cabinet since I built it, with the push to open latches I was always slightly worried about the kids getting into the cabinet. Seeing as this will house all the plugs for the electrics I really do not want them getting inside (more worried about my 1 year old son than my daughter). So I took one of the slide latches off my old vivarium and attached it to the cabinet door, it's not much but it should be more than enough to keep little hands out. If not; I will attach the padlock latch onto the door and then they definitely won't be getting in.

Seeing as pretty much everything was done that could be done at this point, I marked out, drilled and countersunk the holes ready to attach the left side. This way once I get the glass doors it will be quicker and easier to finish it off.

I'm hoping that my doors are made this week and I can finish the build off this weekend. All that is left to buy is a lock for the glass doors and some reptile cage cleaner, both of which I will pick up from the reptile store hopefully this weekend.

I think the hardest part is going to be waiting for all the glues and products to cure and the smells to neutralise so I can put the substrate, hides, water bowl and plants in ready for my snakes relocation. Though the day it all comes together will be a good day.