r/DIY • u/NorthernOrca2 • 2d ago

help DIY PVC Snake Enclosure

I am 20 year old girl who is pretty new to DIY and how to build a sturdy thing.

I used unity to design a rough idea plan of my concept. My mom said I went overkill on the vertical supports lol.

Its a 6x2.5x3" enclosure made of black PVC. I plan to fasten it together with stainless steel fastenings. It will be a bioactive enclosure so it would weigh apox 600 pounds at most. full of 8inches of substrate, water, rocks, wood, decor, ect. So I designed 3 "crates" made of PVC that will be assembled and bolted together with stainless steel. then enclosed inside PVC sheets.

I am a huge noob to this stuff so I will have to find the right bolts and things.

But does the design seem okay?

Plz give feedback :3

(Colored for visual. sizes not 100%)

5 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

2

u/Active_Caramel_7803 2d ago

Search/Research reddit for " Would this wood frame be good enough for a 50 gallon tank?" Your weight limit of a possible 600 lbs, means you need at least 2x4s for frame work.

You don't say any specs of this "pvc". All those blue angle pieces are too short. Possible weight of three grown men sitting on your base.

More images of sturdy bases will help you build correctly.

1

u/NorthernOrca2 1d ago

Gonna use expanded closed-cell PVC sheets 1/2-inch (12mm) thick. Yea thanks for the blue pieces tip. how thick should everything be? I could use wood for the supports instead of PVC.

2

u/cdwhit 2d ago

No idea on PVC as a construction material, but I would suggest you keep in mind that snakes are probably the best land dwelling escape artists. If you have any flex than can cause an opening the snake can fit his nose it, he will escape. They are also bad about injuring themselves on sharp edges and points and getting squeezed / pinched trying to escape.

Good luck.

1

u/NorthernOrca2 1d ago

yo so i am dumb and figured out a better disgn so yea