September DIY Projects

[Daisy]

Now that the summer and a few big events are out of the way, I'm trying to spend September (and maybe part of October if it takes that long) getting various DIY/craft projects which I've meaning to do for ages, actually done. Since many of them are hamster/pet related, I thought I might as well make this thread, and it will also help keep me motivated!

This week I've been painting some shelves. I have some metal and MDF shelving units that I use for cages and other supplies for my pets and boarding animals. The shelves themselves are unpainted MDF and I've been meaning to paint them for ages because they get marked and stained, and ideally they need to be wipe clean so I can sanitise them anyway. When I realised it was going to be warm this week I thought I'd better actually get this done before autumn.

Two coats of primer and one coat of magnolia eggshell later, I have 15 painted shelves:





I also had a patio spattered with paint, which I spent a large part of today scrubbing with a wire brush.

Various other jobs include:
- Rearranging the gerbils' cage, including making them new platforms.
- Setting up the Savic Plaza for Leo, which will hopefully include making him new hammocks with fabric I bought months ago
- Doing some maintenance on my Ferplast Sin house collection. I have several of these painted in different designs and some are looking a bit shabby and in need of a repaint.
- Various other things, some of which have slipped my mind right now.

 

[RainbowBrite]

This is a great thread and I am looking forward to reading and seeing all the DIY projects you are doing. I do not envy you scrubbing the patio in this heat! I hope you are okay after that.

 

[elusive]

Sounds like a busy time! The shelves look really good & very smart! I can’t imagine scrubbing anything in this heat but the patio sounds like hard work & a job well done.
Looking forward to seeing what you do with the gerbils cage & the Plaza for Leo. Home made hammocks sound lovely.

 

[Frida]

This is a great idea for a thread. I hope you're putting your feet up after all that hard work.

 

[Maz]

I'm very impressed The shelves look really nice back in place. The weather has been good for drying them - I hope you didn't get bugs stuck to the paint! That's the kind of thing that would happen to me! Patio cleaning not so creative as painting perhaps

A few diy organising things going on here too but not for the hamsters.

 

[Daisy]

I'm very impressed The shelves look really nice back in place. The weather has been good for drying them - I hope you didn't get bugs stuck to the paint! That's the kind of thing that would happen to me! Patio cleaning not so creative as painting perhaps

A few diy organising things going on here too but not for the hamsters.

I did get several little flying things stuck to the paint which I kept having to remove!

This is a great idea for a thread. I hope you're putting your feet up after all that hard work.

Not for very long!

 

[Member ID2]

The shelves look good. So glad you started this thread. Looking forward to follow the rest of your projects.

 

[Daisy]

Today I painted one of my split tank dividers so that it's washable. Split tank dividers are used to split a tank for introducing gerbils. This is the divider for my smallest split tank, the one I use for introductions I hope are going to be fairly short. Sometimes for longer introductions I use a bigger tank (at least initially). I made this divider in a hurry as I needed it urgently so I didn't have time to paint it at the time.

I have to prise away the staples to remove the mesh, before painting the frame and then restapling the mesh.

I do gerbil bonding for other people and a pair left on Wednesday so it was a good time to get this done before another pair arrive for bonding.

The strips of wood are to hold the divider in place and I also painted those as gerbils like to pee on them.

This is what the split tank looks like set up:





Today I also ordered a few things for Leo's new Plaza. I'm planning to keep the setup essentially the same since it works well for him, but with some new additions.

I also made a start on the gerbils' new platforms. I've cut the wood for them and now I need to drill some holes for the dowel legs to slot into.

 

[Maz]

I’m very impressed - particularly at the organisation and the fact you do gerbil bonding

 

[RainbowBrite]

You really are so knowledgeable and creative.

 

[Member ID2]

I am also very impressed by your knowledge and DIY skills.

 

[Daisy]

Today I made more progress on the new platforms. I'm using strips of timber cladding which slot into each other to create platforms of different depths. Yesterday I had cut the strips down to the lengths I wanted and today I drilled the holes for the dowels to sit in. My dad has a fully equipped workshop so I used his drill press with a 15mm diameter drill bit to drill a hole at each end of every piece of wood. I hope these will be deep enough to keep the legs steady. If not, I might have to glue the legs in, but I'd rather not as this would make the platforms difficult to store in the future.

Then I glued the strips of cladding together to make the platforms - 3 pieces for the larger platforms and 2 pieces for the smaller one.

I cut some of the legs but had to stop as the workshop was so hot and I was getting a headache. I also gave the platforms a few coats of wood oil to waterproof them because gerbils love to pee on raised, flat surfaces. On Monday hopefully I will finish the legs and give the platforms another couple of coats of oil to finish them off.

I've made only 4 legs for the larger platforms although they have 6 holes and depending on how sturdy (or not) they turn out, I may have to order some more dowels to make some extra legs. The platforms will be sitting in deep bedding anyway which will help.

 

[Frida]

The platforms look great

 

[Maz]

Great idea to use cladding - that's clever. As is make holes for the legs Hope the headache has got better now.

 

[Daisy]

Great idea to use cladding - that's clever. As is make holes for the legs Hope the headache has got better now.

It has, thank you. I think I was just a bit dehydrated.

 

[Maz]

That's a good point. I was busy today and forgot to drink. Important to drink plenty on these hot days.

 

[elusive]

Those platforms look really good, using the cladding is such a great idea!
I expect four legs will be fine, I only put three legs on some of mine to fit them into the Plaza better & the substrate keeps them plenty stable enough.

 

[Daisy]

The platforms are finished.

The gerbils can't actually go into their newly refurbished tank yet because they're currently in a small quarantine tank due to mites. They've had a first dose of ivermectin and will need another couple more, spaced a week apart, before I risk putting them back in the main tank with lots of bedding. I had to throw away all their bedding and I'd rather not do that again!

The tank will also have cork logs, grapevines etc in it once the bedding is added. Most of their things are still outside after being washed. I don't want to bring them back into the house until I'm certain they're free of mites.

The next project to focus on will be moving Leo to the Savic Plaza. I'm hoping he hasn't caught the mites. I haven't seen any in his cage, and he lives on the opposite side of the room to the gerbils. I'll do a thorough check before moving him to the Plaza and if he does have mites, he'll need to go into a quarantine cage for a while too.

 

[RainbowBrite]

That looks fantastic!

Sorry to hear the girls have mites. I hope they go soon and Leo does not get them.

 

[Daisy]

That looks fantastic!

Sorry to hear the girls have mites. I hope they go soon and Leo does not get them.

I haven't seen any mites on the gerbils since the day after they were treated. I think ivermectin works very quickly on hatched mites, it's just a case of whether there are any unhatched eggs remaining.

Leo may never forgive me if I have to throw away all his bedding and wash all of his things!