Baby Tort Duplex! Part 1

[magoo]

Well, Sheldon and Nugget have been patient in waiting for their new home, and I've been busy building it! They have been kept in a not-really-ideal home for the past couple of months - it was basically a box a little bigger than a shoebox, and although we took the little torts out for a run around whenever we could, I still felt that they needed something  a little bigger, so... I decided to build them a duplex!

I wanted it to be fairly modular, so it would be easier to take apart and clean when necessary.
My idea was to have 2 levels, connected by legs on the corners that rest in "pockets" on both the bottom and top levels - that way, it could be separated when required. The alternative was just to screw it all together, but that seemed a bit of a nasty way of doing it (and besides, the endless sawing kept me busy!)

[magoo]

The basic structure involves 2 pieces of 4 feet by 2 feet plywood - it has to be pretty substantial - the soil and sand that go in the top weigh a considerable amount, and I didn't want it breaking or bowing.

So i purchased these 2 thick sheets (I think they were 3/4 of an inch thick, about 19mm, in real money)
I also needed more wood for the "pods" on the corners of the top and bottom - I think I used about 2 planks of 4inch wide, 1.5inch thick wood for those.

And of course, 2 sheets (I ended up needing 2 more) of thin plywood "handy panels" for the sides.

The first step was determining the gap between the levels, because my intention was to make a ramp between them, and obviously, the larger the gap, the steeper the ramp. We estimated that about 18 inches would be pretty good, so the first step was to cut 4 pieces of wood for the legs, each 18 inches long (as can be seen in the pictures above)

[magoo]

The next thing was to cut out the hole for the ramp. This clearly needed to extend a decent way back to allow for "headroom" when the little torts toddle up and down it.

[magoo]

I actually ended up making this hole a little too small on my first attempt (by that, I mean, it wasn't "long" enough - the width is easy - that's just the width of the wood that I intended to use for the ramp.

Anyway, cutting the hole was a bit of a pain without a jigsaw - I ended up drilling holes as close together as possible around the edge, then dremelling/filing the edges flat (ish)!

The next images show the ramp.
Now, I didn't want to screw the ramp to either the top or the bottom (Again, to facilitate taking the thing apart), so a friend of mine had a good suggestion, which was to screw a "lip" to the underside of the top board, and rest the end of the ramp on it.
I had to saw one end of the lip twice as thin (so the ramp's top would be flush to the top of the floor)

You can see how this lip works by looking at the third picture below.

[magoo]

The pictures above also show the pods on the corners (I spared you the boring details of me spending 3 or 4 hours cutting each corner by hand and screwing them all together, then fixing them to the top and bottom with angle backets!

[magoo]

Some more pictures of the corner pods, angle brackets and ramp  :-)

[magoo]

The bottom lip of the ramp is chamfered to make it easier for them to climb up it.

[magoo]

The final episode is coming soon (when I can be bothered to upload the photos!)

[bc1940]

Hi,
Very interesting, will be very nice to see your tortoises in their new home,  I expect they are still growing, what is their difference in size now to when you bought them.

Look forward to seeing new pictures and more details.
bc1940. Shrek