Marks Cages

[Nanshe]

First of all - sorry for not posting here lately - been going through a LOT of stuff lately and my attention has been focused - well, not on the internet.

You guys - the cages Mark builds are absolutely INCREDIBLE!!!! I had him build me a 6 x 6 x 3 cage, which included the lighting board, shelves, and ALL pieces/parts so I didn't have to go to the store to buy ANYTHING at all. It arrived here via DHL about 3 weeks after I ordered it. Within 3 hours of it hitting my doorstep, it was up and ready to use! . It is the MOST BEAUTIFUL CAGE I could EVER Imagine having!!! I can honestly say they could give a CBD cage a run for it's money. The quality, ease of use, ease of cleaning, usability, and attractiveness are definately in the top 10!!

These cages are 100% washable, have everything you could need for your Ig, and look BEAUTIFUL no matter what room you put them in.

I just can't say enough about these cages - I hope to have pics soon to share with you, but I am so pleased, that I am planning to order at LEAST one more cage - if not 2 for my other 2 Ig's here. I'm also considering ordering a smaller one for travelling.

Trust me when I say that Marks cages are truly the best value out there - they're incredible. The design he's come up with is ingenious - absolutely 100% ingeniious.

If anyone has any questions or doubts, do NOT hesitate to drop me a line.

I hope everyone and everyones Ig's are doing good!

Will talk to you all again soon!

Take care,

~Nan

[WillemsMom]

Hi Nanshe,

I've missed you. I am SO GLAD to read your rave review of Marks Cages. I'm not surprised. My CBD cage cost an arm and a leg and it continues to be a problem. It is just not stable. We have Velcro trying to keep it tight in several places. Good luck with Marks cage!

Congratulations Mark!

[SurvivorSteph]

Way to go Mark!

[ericj]

WillemsMom said:

Hi Nanshe,

I've missed you. I am SO GLAD to read your rave review of Marks Cages. I'm not surprised. My CBD cage cost an arm and a leg and it continues to be a problem. It is just not stable. We have Velcro trying to keep it tight in several places. Good luck with Marks cage!

Congratulations Mark!

I'm not surprised, either. I've seen quite a few pictures of his cages, and they look dramatically superior to every other pipe framework cage design I've ever seen. (I've said it before.)
From the pictures, it looks like Mark knows the structural capabilities of PVC pipe, unlike the outrageously complex PVC-based corner cage designs I've seen on the internet.

Your comment is interesting - I haven't seen any bad reviews of the CBD cages. What, specifically, is structurally unstable about them? When I considered them, I had a sinking feeling about nylon connectors and their interest in the locking mechanism...

[mar]

ericj said:

I'm not surprised, either. I've seen quite a few pictures of his cages, and they look dramatically superior to every other pipe framework cage design I've ever seen. (I've said it before.)
From the pictures, it looks like Mark knows the structural capabilities of PVC pipe, unlike the outrageously complex PVC-based corner cage designs I've seen on the internet.

Thanks -- its all in the fittings, I sware. Correct fittings are not the easiest things to find. And I have been designing this generation for three years now.

Now how about some pics, all the ones I have are drak and poor.

[ericj]

MAR said:

Thanks -- its all in the fittings, I sware. Correct fittings are not the easiest things to find. And I have been designing this generation for three years now.

3-way corner fittings? Everyone else seems to be fighting the material and fittings, while yours have that svelte look of efficient material use.

Being a bit of a shade-tree engineer, I love efficiency.

Outside of yours, the only ones that impressed me were made of wood and were clearly made by people with woodworking skills. Most of the remaining cages are either professional made - too small for an iguana or they seem to have gone overboard on cutting costs. Most of the remaining home-made ones were particle board, 2x4s, and acrylic sheet remnants, which never struck me as terribly impressive.

Oh, pics of the first pieces of Fredricks new home are coming very soon!

[mar]

ericj said:

Being a bit of a shade-tree engineer, I love efficiency.

Shade tree engineer? Contradiction in terms there buddy, I just spent three hours working on e-mag and still have digital signal processing to do for tomorrow, and its only the first week.

I am rather close to having my BS in Electrical Engineering and have background in theater design. I know exactly what you mean with efficiency.

I use three way orthogonal corner fittings and some four way edge-corner T fittings. Have to order these from a specialty store.

As for your question regarding Mass Moments of Inertia with the PVC vs using tent poles. The tent poles are too weak to support the hanging design I have though they were my original intention, also they’re cost prohibitive, hard to alter lengths, and not easy to find. PVC is cheap, easy to work with, and readily available. The PVC offers the higher moments as there is simply more mass there (same shape thus the moments are governed by the same equations as I understand it but I never took statics or much mechanically, I am just an electronics guy and carpenter). Being that these are static and all pipes are supported on both ends I don't have a problem. Rigidity is an issue and anything requiring over a 4' pipe should be done in 1" or larger pipe. This design gave me a cage 4x8x6 for under $150 and about a week of work while the cage is able to fit in a single duffle bag and leave room for other stuff in my small Saturn. Smaller cages are fine standing alone (under 6 foot) but my first and largest cage (4x8x6) requires internal guy lines along the walls to constrain the diagonals.

The corner cages you reference are my uncle's design and what caused me to design this type. I knew a better option was out there and it was just a matter of tracking it down and making it. You should see what a mess the first PVC corner cage is to build (its still in my basement, ended up using some of the pipes as a squash trellis last summer though).

[ericj]

MAR said:

Shade tree engineer? Contradiction in terms there buddy, I just spent three hours working on e-mag and still have digital signal processing to do for tomorrow, and its only the first week.

It's a family joke. The line was first uttered by my uncle in response to a guy that said that our family seemed to have uncanny mechanical skills, referring to us as shade tree mechanics. We don't accept things as they are, we make them conform to how they should be.

Ever since, we've semi-jokingly used the title "shade tree engineer".

Unlike people that just "fix" things, we come up with ways to make them better, more durable, and/or more efficient. We are known for commenting that something wasn't designed right, then re-building.

I have basic engineering skills, but no formal training. It's more than enough for most of my tasks, and I know my limits...

I am rather close to having my BS in Electrical Engineering and have background in theater design. I know exactly what you mean with efficiency.

I love efficiency. Cruft in software is somewhat hidden from view, while cruft in the physical world is obvious and painful to see. I love beautiful code, too, but I seldom see others produce it. I see mine as mundane...

It's true - Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I use three way orthogonal corner fittings and some four way edge-corner T fittings. Have to order these from a specialty store.

I wondered how you were able to make the corners so clean. Although I can see the right fittings in my head, I have never seen them for sale in a bin.

As for your question regarding Mass Moments of Inertia with the PVC vs using tent poles. The tent poles are too weak to support the hanging design I have though they were my original intention, also they’re cost prohibitive, hard to alter lengths, and not easy to find. PVC is cheap, easy to work with, and readily available. The PVC offers the higher moments as there is simply more mass there (same shape thus the moments are governed by the same equations as I understand it but I never took statics or much mechanically, I am just an electronics guy and carpenter). Being that these are static and all pipes are supported on both ends I don't have a problem.

I wasn't thinking average tent poles, I thought of ones similar in size to PVC pipe, but that would make sourcing the materials even more difficult. The material I used requires proper machinery to cut accurately, therefore I paid for machining services (I hate not having a shop at my disposal like I used to)...

The reason I ask is because an adult iguana could exert a considerable amount of force on a structure in relatively difficult to predict ways.

Rigidity is an issue and anything requiring over a 4' pipe should be done in 1" or larger pipe. This design gave me a cage 4x8x6 for under $150 and about a week of work while the cage is able to fit in a single duffle bag and leave room for other stuff in my small Saturn. Smaller cages are fine standing alone (under 6 foot) but my first and largest cage (4x8x6) requires internal guy lines along the walls to constrain the diagonals.

The main upshot to round material is that your load bearing capability is evenly distributed and usable in all directions, while the downside is lower rigidity along lengths and lower moments.

I'm not sure about the exact amounts in PVC pipe, but all PVC-based materials have different levels of rigidity and flexibility based on the plasticizers and softeners used. There might be a higher-ridigity PVC pipe available, and I'm sure it could be produced. What you're up against is that PVC pipe is not designed for structural use, rather it is designed to contain pressure and endure cycling, which means higher percentages of plasticizers. (PVC itself is brittle and completely worthless without the use of plasticizers and softeners.)

Guys seem like a reasonable price to pay for the ability to easily disassemble and transport the cage. If you want it to be permanent, you might as well use something heavier than PVC for the frame - it affords more options.

The corner cages you reference are my uncle's design and what caused me to design this type. I knew a better option was out there and it was just a matter of tracking it down and making it. You should see what a mess the first PVC corner cage is to build (its still in my basement, ended up using some of the pipes as a squash trellis last summer though).

I could imagine...a couple wrong steps probably makes it difficult (if not impossible) to complete. The excessive number of vertical members to compensate for the fittings seems excessively inefficient. I'd rather have corners machined and fasten the pipes with pins than make 12 verticals. Plus, I'm sure it's dependent on glue to keep it's integrity.

Did he update his design with those svelte 3- and 4-way fittings?

Also, outside of Florida, you really need solid sides to maintain an environment inside the enclosure...