Building a topper (topper diary)

[nauticalamity]

i'm currently building a topper for sadie & sybil & figured i'd post pictures and all here in case anyone wants any ideas!

i decided to build one because i could not find any full-front opening toppers, which is what i wanted.

i'm following the basis of egerbil's topper, but modifying it for a beginner level.
the base is made of 20x20mm dowels; 10x10mm dowels are for the frame and doors. in the future, i may just use 20x20 for the whole thing, because it isn't too much more expensive at home depot.



i was going to bevel the corners of the base and fit them together but they're getting L-brackets anyway, so i just stuck the pieces in the tank lip and wood glued them together. right now, the stilts are clamped to the tank to keep them straight while their glue dries.

the plan is to use the heavy duty stapler and, once the frame is assembled, staple hardware mesh to the inside on 3 sides, the top, and the bottom, then build the front doors (2 front opening doors). it's going to have a few platforms around when all's through.

[nauticalamity]

i spent all my free time over the weekend working on this thing so!



i ended gluing a bar where the opening is going to go. (i'm using gorilla wood glue, which is 100% nontoxic when dried, and as you'll see in a second, covered completely anyway.) i seem to be lacking a picture, but there are also wood bars glued on top, running from front to back.




i set the doors inside the side they're going to go while they dried. i figured this way, if there are any issues, at least they'll fit perfectly in that exact position inside that side, lmao.

[nauticalamity]

i wish i could say i worked on this while the glue was drying, but i never expected working with the mesh to take half as long as it did. after cutting out and filing the edges of the mesh, i cut out a corner of the floor + each sides' piece, then, for the sides, folded a couple rows over to make a little pan.

which, when it went in, looked like:



this way, even though the edges are filed, sadie n sybil won't be exposed to any of them.

and here's a picture of the outside, with the stapled down edges:



for my 20 gal topper, i'm definitely going to be using all 20x20mm dowels. the screws that came with the L-brackets were just long enough to make me nervous.

and here's where i left off for the night:



it's a bit hard to see here, so i will take a better picture in the morning, but the mesh is bent over the interior bar so the twins can't get to it.

and all that's left is to attach the doors and latches. : )

[nauticalamity]

the doors and latches are attached. the wood split a couple of times but it shouldn't be a big deal. i hope. this whole thing also reaffirmed that i will definitely not get the 10x10mm dowels again; we had to use spare screws we found around the house because the ones that came with the hinges/latches were too long.





as you can see... i forgot that the topper would be sitting on the inner lip of the tank -_- not sure how we're going to fix this, because i sure as sugar am not rearranging the latches to find a completely different secure arrangement again.

but. there's the completed topper. i'll post again when we figure out how to fix the latches-in-the-way problem, and get the twins in it finally!

[nauticalamity]

and here we go.... i ended up just making a second base and affixing the topper to that so it could rest on the lip like i planned!





i put some cardboard on the ground for until they're used to jumping up and down from the ladder... which i honestly need something better for @_@ i thought the bendy would work but i'm not loving it. even though they don't appear to have any trouble.

definitely learned a lot for the future 20 gal one...

[jackturbo]

Topper looks great! I'm currently working on one and went with 20mm batens after reading this, so thanks for the tip.

[nauticalamity]

jackturbo thanks!! i'm glad something helped!

[robotmoth]

That looks great! Well done