My goal was a bottomless hardware-cloth cage that sat in (and could be lifted out of and underbed storage box, using the box for the 'pan' at the bottom, making it something that could be leaned up against the side of a shower stall, tub surround, or outside by the hose for quick, seamless cleaning.
The cage doesn't really get dirty, as it is just 'sides and top.'
After I bought the underbed storage box, I was going to buy another and cut the bottom off it, and use the top of the box (fastened to the top of the wire cage) so that the lid would snap on as it did to the box. Then I realized that I could cut the box in two, giving me a top part and a bottom part, by cutting all the way around the perimeter.
I tried about ten different ways to cut, including a hot knife (kept cooling down too soon) a serrated edged bread knife (no good) a japanese woodworkers fine-toothed pull-saw (don't even bother) and a sawzall blade in a manual handle, back and forth, back and forth. Would have taken a day.
I eventually used the Sawzall, which is a huge, heavy version of a jigsaw, which used to be called a saber or sabre-saw, but today's jigsaw is now a safe, small, one-handed power saw with a reciprocating blade, and you can buy a cheap, adequate one for about $19US.
I bought a 10' length of plastic conduit (grey) for 85cUS in the electrical department at Home Depot (if Home Depot doesn't have it, I can do without it). That made the four posts which you see at the corners. I drilled about 8 holes in each one, so that my cable tie fasteners wouldn't slide up and down while holding the hardware cloth. This proved to be not only un-necessary, but a big waste of time, and made the fastening of the hardware cloth to the four posts MUCH harder than it needed to be. Don't drill holes in the grey plastic pipe.
My tub dimensions called for almost 10 feet of hardware cloth. Running out of money, I didn't buy the nice green vinyl coated stuff, but got the ugly galvanized stuff instead. I got two 2'x5' rolls, for about $5 each. That was just enough for this particular tub.
In my design,the bottom is a plastic 'dish' on wheels. At first I thought the wheels would be a good thing, and indeed they might, however they are not nearly important enough to make up for the miserable time you have fitting the walls of the cage around the wheel-wells, so I advise you to get an underbed storage box WITHOUT wheels.
BTW you don't need to buy a SHALLOW tub like I did. You can still get the same lift-off lid and dish-shaped bottom with a 2-foot deep tub, but you'd have to make TWO cuts around the perimiter, and discard the midsection (or use it as a playground fence in the livingroom). The thing you want to look for in a tub is the floor (surface) area that it has.
I KNEW going into this project that the top of the underbed box was a little larger (had a greater perimeter) than the bottom. I had foolishly hoped that this would not matter much, but it did.
If you put too much length of hardware cloth between the posts (remember, the cloth is fastened to the posts, as it must be for rigidity) it will buckle and not make contact with the edges of the bottom, leaving escape routes and sharp edge problems. When you measure, and fasten the corner supports to the top part, that same measurement that you used is too long for the bottom part--the four corner supports have to taper slightly inward. I found this to be a trial an error fitting, and wished the hardware cloth came with velcro, but it did not.
Hardware cloth (in the us) has 1/2" squares, making it easy to measure.
Here's how I would fit the corner supports to the hardware cloth NOW, after all the pain I went through doing it over and over and over last night:
After cutting your bottom section from the tub or storage box, hold the two end supports in one of the ends of the tub/box. Draw a circle around them on the floor of the tub. Measure between the inside edges of the two circles.
Because I used a 2' tall roll of hardware cloth, my supports were just over 2' long. They did not have to be over 2', but I thought there might be an advantage to that; there wasn't. Yours can be 2' if you're using a 2' roll, or 3' if using a 3' roll, or whatever length your roll requires.
Flatten one of your rolls of hardware cloth (I'm going to call it HC from now on) and lay it on the floor. don't let it scratch your good floor, or your ankles, or get cought on your socks, or shirt, or the tablecloth, or the rug. Yes, all these things happend to me, and I look as if I spent the night in a cactus patch.
Start at an end, and lay the pipe along the end of the roll, about 3 squares in from the end. Fasten one end of it with a cable-tie, so that the tie goes 'round the pipe and covers two vertical wires as it wraps around the HC.
Measure the distance between pipes (which you measured in the tub) on the HC, and lay the second pipe so that it will give you that distance between pipes after it's fastened in place. Now fasten only the one end (the same end as you fastened on the first pipe) to the HC in the same way, using a cable tie.
Pull the ties very tight so that you can lift the HC without them falling off. Use two ties, about an inch apart, if neccesary to achieve a tight enough hold to do this.
Now measure the distance between the inside edges of two MORE pipes, this time along the LONG SIDE of the inside of the bottom of the tub. Transfer that measurement to the same edge of the HC that you have fastened the two pipes to, and now attach a third pipe at the appropriate point, attached to the bottom edge of the HC only, just as you did with the other two. You now have a 5' roll of HC with 3 pipes attached at only the bottom edge.
Now, make the same measurements between where the two pipes would fit, on the short end of the TOP PIECE OF YOUR BOX. That dimension is likely an inch or so LONGER than the same measurement across the short end of the BOTTOM OF THE BOX.
Spread the top ends of the two end pieces which you attached to the HC, so that each is slightly diagonal with respect to the vertical wires of the HC - splitting the difference, so that if the top is an inch greater than the bottom measurement, each pipe will splay outward by one square or one half inch. Fasten the two pipes as you did at the bottom of the HC.
Now make the same measurements between where the two pipes would fit, on the LONG SIDE of the TOP PIECE OF YOUR BOX. That dimension is likely an inch or so LONGER than the same measurement across the long end of the BOTTOM OF THE BOX.
Since your first two pipes are fastened, this measurement won't yield geometric perfection, but now fasten the third pipe to the HC after measuring THAT SAME DISTANCE between the second (already fastened at the top) and the third (not yet fastened at the top) and fasten the third pipe at the top.
You should now have about 2-3" left over on the beginning end of the HC, and a bit more left over on the final end. Don't cut it off yet!
Stand those 3 legs in the bottom of the tub and tape the legs into place temporarily, using duct tape or anything available. Form the wire roughly into the two sides of the cage. Using an ice pick heated on a stove (or any means of making a small hole in plastic that you care to use) make two holes near each corner of the top of the box (not the lid) so that you can insert and tighten a cable tie around the top of each leg, and hold it in place in the top of the box. Do that on 3 corners.
If your measurements are correct, the HC will be relatively straight and flat (or will be once the wrinkles are out of it). If it is too long or too short on either the end or the side, at the top or at the bottom, or both, NOW is the time to correct that by roughly starting over BEFORE you have put 10,000 cable ties into your masterpiece.
Once the measurements are OK, count the squares along the bottom of the long side (between the pipes) and after flattening out the second roll of HC, fasten the bottom of a pipe at a point that will leave you at least that much on your second long side.
Insert the bottom of that pipe into the empty corner of the bottom of the box, (easier said than done--hope you have a helper) and duplicate the top measurements (so long as they were correct) along the short end, then fasten the top of the 4th pipe to the wire. Now you can make 2 more holes in the top part, and fasten that pipe at the top by wrapping a cable tie around it and slipping the tie through the two holes in the top part.
Hey, you're getting there.
Without cutting any wire yet, stretch the long part along the unfinished long side, count the squares, measure, etc., to get the length right, and fasten the top of that side of the HC to the top of the pipe that was your first pipe.
At this point, you can cut the HC. Leave enough to go at least halfway around the pipe that was your first pipe (it will likely be longer at the top, so the cut may not be along a vertical wire). Now put a few cable ties around the pipe, holding that end of the HC in place.
Do the same (cut and fasten) at the other end of the 2nd piece of HC, and then cut off the extra from the first piece of HC (at both ends) so that you have seams ONLY on the outside edges of the pipes, and none inside for the ratties to get hurt on.
Now put lots of CTs around the 4 pipes and go take a nap.
Heat up your ice pick again, and make lots of holes along the lower edge of the top part (not the lid) so that you can fasten it nicely along the top edge of the HC using CTs. I wish I'd have abbreviated cable ties earlier - I'd be finished typing by now.
Once that's done, remove the tape from the bottom of the pipes.
If you're lucky and skillful, the wire fence with top lip in place fits nicely inside the bottom box. I had planned to leave it this way, but couldn't because of the wiggly wire sides and jagged edges and those #$%@*! wheel wells. I can't emphasise strongly enough - use something WITHOUT WHEELS!
I slit some PVC pipe and slipped it over the bottom edges of the wire, but between the wheel wells, and it was a pain. If you have no wheel wells, you can do that also, however, slipping a slit piece of pvc tubing over an edge of HC is NOT EASY. And if you think THAT'S hard, wait 'til you try to slit it!
Instead, get a pack or pieces of foam pipe insulation (flexible closed cell foam [i'd say foam rubber, but it's not rubber] tubing made to slip over your hot water pipes to keep the heat in). It's cheap, and already slit. Cut four pieces to proper length and slip that over the bottom edge of your HC, fasten it with a few CTs and drop the top piece (walls and top lip) into the bottom piece and you're done!
Fasten the lid to the top lip, just as you would have before you cut the box. My lid opens on each end and is hinged in the middle.
The shelves in mine were a 3 tiered cheap plastic table from walmart. The black pipe is flexible corregated drain pipe, for less than $3US per 10' section.
Copy this, pass it on, improve upon it and if you do, let me know. No, let EVERYBODY know.
Enjoy, -bp
Last modified: Tuesday, 23-Dec-2003 09:25:44 GMT
